# I've started throwing pennies away **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [February 3, 2014, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-started-throwing-pennies-away/680393 "2014-02-03T02:55:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Rachellelogram](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rachellelogram/32/8689_2.png) [@Rachellelogram](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rachellelogram)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2014, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-started-throwing-pennies-away/680393/41 "2014-02-03T19:07:28Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > if you’re throwing them away you’re making a point and I’ll bet the OP is telling everyone that he’s doing it. It’s not something you’d do and NOT tell people about. It’s something I’ve been doing for years and didn’t feel the need to talk about. > [@Joey\_P](#): > > There’s so many things you can do with pennies if you really don’t want them Anything that would be worth my time? Because if not, I’m not interested. I’ve paid cash for a vanishingly small number of retail transactions in the last few years. Pennies are trash to me. ---
**Author:** ![chacoguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/50afbb/32.png) [@chacoguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chacoguy)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2014, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-started-throwing-pennies-away/680393/42 "2014-02-03T19:19:40Z")
Throw them on the sidewalk at the entrance to the store; the only people that notice are little kids and folks that survived the depression. ---
**Author:** ![Doug\_K](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b5ac83/32.png) [@Doug\_K](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doug_K)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2014, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-started-throwing-pennies-away/680393/43 "2014-02-03T19:24:44Z")
> [@Rachellelogram](#): > > Anything that would be worth my time? Because if not, I’m not interested. I’ve paid cash for a vanishingly small number of retail transactions in the last few years. Pennies are trash to me. Yes. Spend them. It takes absolutely no extra time and no extra effort, and you’ll never have more than 9 coins total at a time, rarely more than five or six. You’ll even save the time you’d spend finding a trash can. ---
**Author:** ![Rachellelogram](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rachellelogram/32/8689_2.png) [@Rachellelogram](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rachellelogram)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2014, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-started-throwing-pennies-away/680393/44 "2014-02-03T19:27:16Z")
> [@Doug\_K](#): > > Yes. Spend them. It takes absolutely no extra time and no extra effort, and you’ll never have more than 9 coins total at a time, rarely more than five or six. You’ll even save the time you’d spend finding a trash can. So I should tell the cashier that I’m spending 9 cents in pennies and putting the rest on my debit card? That’s ridiculous. I’d pay an extra dollar to not undergo that level of embarrassment, thanks. ---
**Author:** ![Magiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magiver)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2014, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-started-throwing-pennies-away/680393/45 "2014-02-03T19:28:10Z")
> [@Rachellelogram](#): > > It’s something I’ve been doing for years and didn’t feel the need to talk about.Anything that would be worth my time? Because if not, I’m not interested. I’ve paid cash for a vanishingly small number of retail transactions in the last few years. Pennies are trash to me. throw them in a jar and give it to children? Give them to me because I’ll recycle them into [del] beer[/del] food for starving puppies? ---
**Author:** ![Doug\_K](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b5ac83/32.png) [@Doug\_K](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doug_K)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2014, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-started-throwing-pennies-away/680393/46 "2014-02-03T19:45:44Z")
> [@Rachellelogram](#): > > So I should tell the cashier that I’m spending 9 cents in pennies and putting the rest on my debit card? That’s ridiculous. I’d pay an extra dollar to not undergo that level of embarrassment, thanks. Of course not. We’re talking about paying with cash. If you’re using your debit card you won’t be using cash, so there will be no pennies given or taken. And when you do use cash, there’s no need to ever have nine cents worth of pennies. If you spend them as you go at most you’ll have four. And even if you did, why in the world would it be an embarrassment? ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2014, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-started-throwing-pennies-away/680393/47 "2014-02-03T19:49:39Z")
> [@Leaffan](#): > > It is simply marvelous now without the dreaded penny. No one misses them at all. What a waste of time and effort they used to be. I’m hoping the nickle is targeted in the next decade. Hear, hear! Pennies - what a waste of pocket space. Just round everything. We in Canada got used to it pretty fast. Hell, I’d be happy to round everything to the nearest dime. ---
**Author:** ![steronz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steronz/32/11765_2.png) [@steronz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/steronz)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2014, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-started-throwing-pennies-away/680393/48 "2014-02-03T20:01:13Z")
> [@Doug\_K](#): > > Of course not. We’re talking about paying with cash. If you’re using your debit card you won’t be using cash, so there will be no pennies given or taken. And when you do use cash, there’s no need to ever have nine cents worth of pennies. If you spend them as you go at most you’ll have four. > > And even if you did, why in the world would it be an embarrassment? I’m sure your view is sculpted by your habits. My habit is to make a cash transaction maybe once every 2 weeks, and half of only those require bills (ex, I just paid for my son’s haircut with a 20, tip included so I wouldn’t get change). Which means when a cashier hands me a small pile of coins, they’re going to clank around in my pocket for a month and probably fall out. They’re never going to have a chance to be re-spent in a normal retail transaction. So instead, I pull them out and drop them in one a few places - my car, for parking meters, my travel bag, for sodas and parking when I’m travelling, and lastly, some random coin mug that I last emptied 4 years ago and is still less than halfway full. If I drop my coins in one of the first two places, I’m only interested in silver coins that I can re-use in machines. The copper gets chucked because it’s not worth the mental effort to separate it out and bring it to a secondary location. So I throw out maybe 25 cents a year in pennies, and this is what you’re making a big deal out of. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2014, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-started-throwing-pennies-away/680393/49 "2014-02-03T20:56:42Z")
I swear we’ve done exactly this thread before. Could have been this one: > **[Anyone else throw away small change?](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=555915)** > > I estimate that I make a cash transaction about twice a month. A couple years ago I had the epiphany that pennies, nickels, and dimes are pure nuisance, so I did with them what I would do with any other small, practically worthless objects: I tossed... ---
**Author:** ![Doug\_K](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b5ac83/32.png) [@Doug\_K](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doug_K)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2014, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-started-throwing-pennies-away/680393/50 "2014-02-03T21:18:52Z")
> [@steronz](#): > > I’m sure your view is sculpted by your habits. My habit is to make a cash transaction maybe once every 2 weeks, and half of only those require bills (ex, I just paid for my son’s haircut with a 20, tip included so I wouldn’t get change). Which means when a cashier hands me a small pile of coins, they’re going to clank around in my pocket for a month and probably fall out. They’re never going to have a chance to be re-spent in a normal retail transaction. > > So instead, I pull them out and drop them in one a few places - my car, for parking meters, my travel bag, for sodas and parking when I’m travelling, and lastly, some random coin mug that I last emptied 4 years ago and is still less than halfway full. > > If I drop my coins in one of the first two places, I’m only interested in silver coins that I can re-use in machines. The copper gets chucked because it’s not worth the mental effort to separate it out and bring it to a secondary location. So I throw out maybe 25 cents a year in pennies, and this is what you’re making a big deal out of. But I’m not making a big deal out of it. Quite the opposite. I see phrases like “weighing down my pockets”, “not worth the hassle”, “not worth the headache”, “level of embarrassment”, “waste of pocket space”, and I’m wondering why a few people are making such a big deal out of having a few small coins. ---
**Author:** ![kambuckta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/53a042/32.png) [@kambuckta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kambuckta)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2014, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-started-throwing-pennies-away/680393/51 "2014-02-03T21:21:39Z")
> [@Shakester](#): > > It’s hardly a new idea: Australia did it in 1991. New Zealand in 1990. And now I have jars full of 5c pieces. They’re the _new_ junk currency. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2014, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-started-throwing-pennies-away/680393/52 "2014-02-03T21:22:40Z")
Whenever I see a Susan B. Anthony or Sacajawea dollar coin in a till, I ask the cashier if I can buy it. Never had one refuse me yet! You’d see the Sacajawea dollars a lot in the city where I used to live, because there was a company that gave their employees a roll of them every year as part of their Christmas bonus. I heard that most of them were spent by kids at an arcade which had machines that gave extra plays whenever they were used. 😃 When my brother’s kids were babies, he got a $100 bundle of $2 bills, and that’s what he’s always given them as a gift from the Tooth Fairy. ---
**Author:** ![Cinnamon\_Imp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/58956e/32.png) [@Cinnamon\_Imp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cinnamon_Imp)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2014, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-started-throwing-pennies-away/680393/53 "2014-02-03T21:38:06Z")
> [@Randolph](#): > > Like, in the garbage. It wasn’t a conscious decision, but somewhere in the past few weeks a mental threshhold was crossed, and pennies were judged to be no longer worth consideration. They’re just garbage. What - I save a hundred of them and I can get half a candy bar? If they were coupons I’d ignore the shit out of them, like every coupon ever, so. Pennies, you are now trash, and I’ll only ever see you to say goodbye. [I’m going to follow you around.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=679721) ---
**Author:** ![pkbites](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pkbites/32/204_2.png) [@pkbites](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pkbites)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2014, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-started-throwing-pennies-away/680393/54 "2014-02-03T21:39:59Z")
If you have small kids, or nieces/nephews or grandchildren, go to the dollar store or a Walmart and get a cheap piggy bank to give them. Then save those pennies to give them whenever you see them. A 5 year old thinks a piggy that rattles full of bounty is cool. It will teach them a thing or 2 about money and saving, plus they’ll look forward to all the candy he/she will buy with it. It will make you a super hero. They’ll be thrilled whenever you come around. That’s a big payoff for just a few pennies here and there. This works. Trust me, I know. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2014, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-started-throwing-pennies-away/680393/55 "2014-02-03T21:44:38Z")
To eliminate the nickel, we would also have to eliminate one of the quarter or the dime as well. Either the quarter goes, leaving dimes and fifty-cent coins and a minimum value step of 10c, or the dime goes, leaving quarters and fifty-cent pieces and a minimum value step of 25c. ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2014, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-started-throwing-pennies-away/680393/56 "2014-02-03T22:03:49Z")
> [@Sunspace](#): > > To eliminate the nickel, we would also have to eliminate one of the quarter or the dime as well. > > Either the quarter goes, leaving dimes and fifty-cent coins and a minimum value step of 10c, or the dime goes, leaving quarters and fifty-cent pieces and a minimum value step of 25c. In Canada, fifty-cent pieces are as rare as hen’s teeth currently - at least, outside of coin collections. 😉 I remember as a kid my delight when I found two fifty-cent coins on the ground - it was a rare treasure, far beyond the mere financial value! I could live with dimes and fifty cent coins. That would be a major adjustment, though, as people use quarters a lot. Shifting to only quarters is a tad too far, right now. ---
**Author:** ![amorali](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3e96dc/32.png) [@amorali](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amorali)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2014, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-started-throwing-pennies-away/680393/57 "2014-02-03T22:22:33Z")
I glanced at this and thought it said “penises”. Now that would be a topic for discussion. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2014, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-started-throwing-pennies-away/680393/58 "2014-02-03T22:32:19Z")
> [@Malthus](#): > > In Canada, fifty-cent pieces are as rare as hen’s teeth currently - at least, outside of coin collections. 😉 I remember as a kid my delight when I found two fifty-cent coins on the ground - it was a rare treasure, far beyond the mere financial value! > > I could live with dimes and fifty cent coins. That would be a major adjustment, though, as people use quarters a lot. > > Shifting to only quarters is a tad too far, right now. Mind you, if we went with dimes and fifty-cent coins (halves?), we could introduce a twenty-cent coin (a fifth?) to replace the quarter. I’m wondering about he transition period though. ---
**Author:** ![Claverhouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/13edae/32.png) [@Claverhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Claverhouse)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2014, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-started-throwing-pennies-away/680393/59 "2014-02-03T22:58:29Z")
> [@PastTense](#): > > While in recent decades houses come with circuit breakers, older houses were built with fuse boxes–and people would occasionally use a penny as an emergency fuse–and sometimes this penny didn’t get replaced with another fuse. When a small child I read an American short story in a collection for small children whereby a small child evaded kidnappers by unscrewing a light bulb and inserting a cent on the contacts then replacing the bulb; when the villains opened the door they flicked the switch and there was an explosion and the whole house fused and in the dark he jumped past them and escaped beyond. No longer a small child I never tried this; but I like to imagine that more adventurous small children in America made themselves popular thus, with thousands of little popping sounds over the entire continent > [@](#): > > I find it surprising people have large accumulations of pennies since there has been a huge transition to plastic (credit or debit cards). The sorts of things one buys with pennies they don’t accept on cards. Still, erase them all. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ive-started-throwing-pennies-away/680393.md?page=2)