# Should the US adopt Canada's pennies? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 15, 2014, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-the-us-adopt-canadas-pennies/686207 "2014-04-15T21:17:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![MetroGnome](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8e7dd6/32.png) [@MetroGnome](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MetroGnome)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2014, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-the-us-adopt-canadas-pennies/686207/1 "2014-04-15T21:17:21Z")
In 2012, Canada told its pennies it was going out for a pack of smokes and never came back. Since it cost the US 1.83 cents to make 1 cent due to the Treasury’s flawed understanding of fusion, should it just adopt Canada’s orphaned pennies as its own? Isn’t it a win-win situation? Canadian’s get to unload their forsaken coins for a penny’s worth of American goods and services, and America gets to earn both the fiat and intrinsic value of the coin. ---
**Author:** ![dolphinboy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dolphinboy/32/330_2.png) [@dolphinboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dolphinboy)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2014, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-the-us-adopt-canadas-pennies/686207/2 "2014-04-15T21:24:48Z")
I can’t imagine that the US government would ever accept a foreign currency as its own. We could buy the Canadian pennies, melt them down and then re-strike them… but how is that different than what we are doing now? ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2014, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-the-us-adopt-canadas-pennies/686207/3 "2014-04-15T21:27:07Z")
Sounds good to me. I can imagine some people having a problem with the foreign-ness, though. Especially since the only reason for retaining the US penny is a fear of change and possibly some mathphobia. ---
**Author:** ![dolphinboy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dolphinboy/32/330_2.png) [@dolphinboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dolphinboy)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2014, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-the-us-adopt-canadas-pennies/686207/4 "2014-04-15T21:39:08Z")
Don’t get me wrong, I think we should be doing the same thing that Canada is doing. I see no reason to keep the penny around any longer. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2014, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-the-us-adopt-canadas-pennies/686207/5 "2014-04-15T21:54:05Z")
> [@Dr.Drake](#): > > Especially since the only reason for retaining the US penny is a fear of change A “fear of change” sounds like a good reason to get rid of the penny! ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2014, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-the-us-adopt-canadas-pennies/686207/6 "2014-04-15T22:10:48Z")
> [@Dr.Drake](#): > > the only reason for retaining the US penny is a fear of change Assuming that currencies will inflate at a compound rate indefinitely, shifting the decimal to the right periodically is a given, since adding zeroes to the end of prices is a waste. Unless we’re trying to deprecate cents, it makes more sense to multiply the value of the penny by 10 (or some other factor) than to remove a coin. ---
**Author:** ![MetroGnome](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8e7dd6/32.png) [@MetroGnome](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MetroGnome)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2014, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-the-us-adopt-canadas-pennies/686207/7 "2014-04-15T22:36:53Z")
> [@dolphinboy](#): > > I can’t imagine that the US government would ever accept a foreign currency as its own. The point of the question in this case is “why not?” > [@](#): > > We could buy the Canadian pennies, melt them down and then re-strike them… but how is that different than what we are doing now? It’s not, which is why I didn’t suggest it. I’m not advocating for keeping the penny either, but if grandma insists on getting around in a buggy because horsepowers not derived from horses are wicked, maybe we should get her a used one instead of building one from scratch. Besides, what better way to communicate the pennies fall from fashion than second hand money? ---
**Author:** ![wolfstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/d6d6ee/32.png) [@wolfstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfstu)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2014, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-the-us-adopt-canadas-pennies/686207/8 "2014-04-15T23:16:47Z")
Canada has directed banks to return pennies to the mint to be melted down. Just over a year after the penny was retired, they’re vanishingly rare in the wild. So the answer to ‘why not’ might be ‘because there aren’t many to be found’. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [April 15, 2014, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-the-us-adopt-canadas-pennies/686207/9 "2014-04-15T23:21:55Z")
> [@Sage\_Rat](#): > > Assuming that currencies will inflate at a compound rate indefinitely, shifting the decimal to the right periodically is a given, since adding zeroes to the end of prices is a waste. Unless we’re trying to deprecate cents, it makes more sense to multiply the value of the penny by 10 (or some other factor) than to remove a coin. A very sensible idea which will never happen, but how could you do this logistically without issuing a new series of currency anyway? ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2014, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-the-us-adopt-canadas-pennies/686207/10 "2014-04-16T03:31:22Z")
I approve of the idea that coins bearing Her Majesty’s image would be legal tender in the U.S. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2014, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-the-us-adopt-canadas-pennies/686207/11 "2014-04-16T03:53:27Z")
Since the OP is asking for opinions, let’s move this to IMHO. Colibri General Questions Moderator ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2014, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-the-us-adopt-canadas-pennies/686207/12 "2014-04-16T03:58:03Z")
The US has never used “pennies”, that is just a weird linguistic hold-over from jolly olde. The US copper coin is a “cent”. ---
**Author:** ![TimeWinder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bcef8e/32.png) [@TimeWinder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TimeWinder)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2014, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-the-us-adopt-canadas-pennies/686207/13 "2014-04-16T04:02:48Z")
> [@For You](#): > > The US has never used “pennies”, that is just a weird linguistic hold-over from jolly olde. The US copper coin is a “cent”. While I hear this claim fairly often, there’s no basis to it. Every dictionary I can find disagrees with the notion that “cent” != “penny” for US currency, as does common usage, and the coin’s been called a penny for the duration of its existence. There can be more than one word for something. ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2014, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-the-us-adopt-canadas-pennies/686207/14 "2014-04-16T04:15:28Z")
> [@wolfstu](#): > > Canada has directed banks to return pennies to the mint to be melted down. Just over a year after the penny was retired, they’re vanishingly rare in the wild. So the answer to ‘why not’ might be ‘because there aren’t many to be found’. There are plenty to be found, just not “in the wild,” to use your phrase. I’ve got jars full of them, and I don’t think that I’m the only one. But since Canada stopped minting pennies and we went to rounding to the nickel, there isn’t much you can do with them. Oh, pennies are still legal tender, but with rounding to the nickel, I have no reason to carry pennies any more. So I don’t, though I still have plenty. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2014, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-the-us-adopt-canadas-pennies/686207/15 "2014-04-16T04:44:07Z")
> [@Dr.Drake](#): > > Sounds good to me. I can imagine some people having a problem with the foreign-ness, though. Especially since the only reason for retaining the US penny is a fear of change… Funny, I think it shows America’s love for change. I can’t see the U.S. every adopting a foreign currency an official way but it might as well be already. I live in Massachusetts and stores both give and take Canadian pennies, dimes and quarters just like they were our own even though it isn’t even a border state. They look almost identical at first glance. I usually don’t even know I have them until I try to cash them in at a Coinstar machine and it starts spitting them out like I just tried to feed it toxic waste. That brings up the question, why are they virtually identical in the first place? It is like the Canadian mint just grabs the same basic design as the American coins and then just goes through a 30 minute exercise of stamping a maple leaf or some other bizarre thing on top of the real deal. Isn’t there more than one basic way of making coins worth those values? ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2014, 12:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-the-us-adopt-canadas-pennies/686207/16 "2014-04-16T12:28:15Z")
The penny as a coin is gone, but the cent as a denomination is not. If you use a credit (or debit) card, the charge will be to the actual amount. Also you can still use pennies if you want to, you just don’t have to. I have no Canadian pennies any more, although I have a tin on US ones. When I was a kid you could still buy something for a few pennies, a gum ball or other candy. A comic cost a dime. Nowadays, the penny is useless. I can’t imagine why it is kept. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2014, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-the-us-adopt-canadas-pennies/686207/17 "2014-04-16T12:58:42Z")
> [@Dr.Strangelove](#): > > A “fear of change” sounds like a good reason to get rid of the penny! But the Canadian penny is change you can be-leaf in! ---
**Author:** ![dolphinboy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dolphinboy/32/330_2.png) [@dolphinboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dolphinboy)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2014, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-the-us-adopt-canadas-pennies/686207/18 "2014-04-16T14:18:57Z")
> [@MetroGnome](#): > > The point of the question in this case is “why not?” > It’s not, which is why I didn’t suggest it. I’m not advocating for keeping the penny either, but if grandma insists on getting around in a buggy because horsepowers not derived from horses are wicked, maybe we should get her a used one instead of building one from scratch. > > Besides, what better way to communicate the pennies fall from fashion than second hand money? Because the US is a sovereign nation and we don’t need to use another country’s currency. Just like our flag, our currency is what represents us in the world. We don’t want to adopt Canada’s currency anymore than Canada wants to adopt our currency. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2014, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-the-us-adopt-canadas-pennies/686207/19 "2014-04-16T14:25:44Z")
Apparently, I was the only one who saw the thread title and read it… differently. ---
**Author:** ![Inna\_Minnit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Inna\_Minnit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inna_Minnit)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2014, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-the-us-adopt-canadas-pennies/686207/20 "2014-04-16T14:35:20Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > Apparently, I was the only one who saw the thread title and read it… differently. No. I came in to make a not-so-clever joke about adopting a cute little boy or girl penny. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-the-us-adopt-canadas-pennies/686207.md?page=2)