# Why not phase out Nickels & Pennies?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-not-phase-out-nickels-pennies/1018684
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [May 22, 2025, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-not-phase-out-nickels-pennies/1018684 "2025-05-22T22:08:10Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@stui\_magpie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stui_magpie)
#### Post date: [May 23, 2025, 9:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-not-phase-out-nickels-pennies/1018684/21 "2025-05-23T09:01:40Z")
Spot on. In Aus we haven’t had 1c or 2c coins in decades, just round the total up or down at the register. We also dispensed with $1 and $2 notes and made them coins which last much longer.
If it costs more than the face value of the coin to produce it, stop doing it.
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### Author:  [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)
#### Post date: [May 23, 2025, 11:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-not-phase-out-nickels-pennies/1018684/22 "2025-05-23T11:16:16Z")
What’s the case in the EU? Can you have a similar situation, with something being forbidden by
Brussels but allowed by one of the member states? I know they’re independent countries, but they do share certain monetary policies.
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### Author:  [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)
#### Post date: [May 23, 2025, 11:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-not-phase-out-nickels-pennies/1018684/23 "2025-05-23T11:33:50Z")
It’s kind of a hybrid. Every country has its own banking regulator, but there are certain generic rules everyone must follow (like limits on how much can be charged for credit card transactions, I think).
Which reminds me of another reason cash is necessary, at least in certain contexts. When we visited Albania a few weeks ago, there were many, many businesses that dealt only in cash and wouldn’t process cards. This is because Albanian banking is pretty corrupt, tightly aligned with the equally corrupt ruling class; it’s a closed and highly collusive market with exorbitant banking fees and no meaningful competition to bring them down. If you want cash out of an ATM, there’s a big service fee plus a conversion commission if you’re using a foreign card. For merchants, processing fees make card acceptance prohibitively expensive under a pretty high purchase level. Even where the merchant did accept a card, the minimum purchase was generally quite high, the equivalent of ten or sometimes twenty euros. Under that? Cash only.
(Rooting out this corruption is probably Albania’s biggest barrier to entering the EU. Neither the bankers nor the politicians truly want transparency and competition in the financial sector, and they’ll drag their heels forever.)
But this makes cash essential for them: not just because life would be unaffordable otherwise, but because it allows people to avoid further enriching and entrenching the oligarchs who already have their hand on the country’s financial throat.
But of course, one can dismiss that argument with respect to the US, because their banking system is entirely fair and transparent without a whiff of corruption, monopolization, or unethical behavior, totally unlike Albania’s.
Edit to add: I realize “cash and banking in general” might be getting far afield of the original topic, so perhaps further discussion on these points should be split off.
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### Author:  [@zimaane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zimaane)
#### Post date: [May 23, 2025, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-not-phase-out-nickels-pennies/1018684/24 "2025-05-23T13:31:39Z")
Back to the OP, the Treasury is apparently looking into altering the composition of the nickel to being its cost of production down to around a nickel.
I might be a little old-fashioned, but I still buy things with cash a few times a week, so I’d like to keep it. And a lot of less fortunate people in our society don’t have access to banks, and would have a difficult time in a cashless society. That’s my two cents, anyway.
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### Author:  [@Spiderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spiderman)
#### Post date: [May 23, 2025, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-not-phase-out-nickels-pennies/1018684/25 "2025-05-23T14:16:32Z")
> [@zimaane](#):
>
> That’s my two cents, anyway.
but w/o pennies, you still owe me another 1½ of your opinions for my nickel!
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### Author:  [@FinsToTheLeft](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FinsToTheLeft)
#### Post date: [May 23, 2025, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-not-phase-out-nickels-pennies/1018684/26 "2025-05-23T15:58:33Z")
> [@Dr.Strangelove](#):
>
> If you want “change,” throw in a pack of gum or something to your purchase.
I don’t think you can buy a pack of gum for under $1 any more, so I’m not sure if that will help.
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### Author:  [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)
#### Post date: [May 23, 2025, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-not-phase-out-nickels-pennies/1018684/27 "2025-05-23T16:40:57Z")
> [@Dr.Strangelove](#):
>
> You’d think, but the last coin to be phased out was the half-penny…
Not quite. The half-cent was phased out in 1856, but the US still minted gold coins in dollar denominations through 1933. Below the dollar, 3-cent nickels were in circulation until 1889, and they replaced tiny, silver 3-cent pieces, smaller than the silver half-dimes minted until 1873. Also, 20-cent pieces were struck for circulation in 1875 & 1876. I also think the half dollar is officially gone, even though proofs are still struck for collectors.
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### Author:  [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)
#### Post date: [May 23, 2025, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-not-phase-out-nickels-pennies/1018684/28 "2025-05-23T16:41:54Z")
> [@Cervaise](#):
>
> I strongly disagree with the premise that cash, in its entirely, should be phased out and replaced with direct bank-to-bank digital transactions.
The problem runs very deep. Without cash you won’t be able to spend any money without some private enterprise taking a cut. If you think you’re ok with that because you use credit and debit cards already then it means you can afford to pay that cost for convenience and you don’t need every last cent you can find to pay for food and rent and cloth your children.
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### Author:  [@pkbites](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pkbites)
#### Post date: [May 23, 2025, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-not-phase-out-nickels-pennies/1018684/29 "2025-05-23T16:41:56Z")
For non-business purposes I use cash most of the time, even for some larger purchases. I like the privacy and ease that comes with it.
There wouldn’t be a need for so much coinage if businesses got away from oddball pricing like things ending in 99 cents.
> [@dolphinboy](#):
>
> I guess they can price things so there are no odd cents transactions.That would work in a state like mine because we have to sales tax, but for states that do have sales tax?
I’d also prefer sales tax be incorporated into the price of things like they do in other countries. If something costs 1 Euro it costs 1 Euro, not 1 Euro and 6 cents.
I’ve noticed some bars in the U.S. doing this nonsense where they are adding sales tax instead of incorporating like they used to. Paying $5.41 for a tall draft is just weird.
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### Author:  [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)
#### Post date: [May 23, 2025, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-not-phase-out-nickels-pennies/1018684/30 "2025-05-23T16:42:37Z")
I did find that my gas station has some Laffy Taffy type of taffy stick for under a dollar! Something like 70 cents. So if you’re at that gas station, you can get that under a buck! 🙂
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### Author:  [@Lord\_Feldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Feldon)
#### Post date: [May 23, 2025, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-not-phase-out-nickels-pennies/1018684/31 "2025-05-23T16:44:13Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#):
>
> I also think the half dollar is officially gone, even though proofs are still struck for collectors.
They still put some out occasionally when the stockpile runs out. I think there were some minted for circulation sometime in the last three or four years.
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### Author:  [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)
#### Post date: [May 23, 2025, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-not-phase-out-nickels-pennies/1018684/32 "2025-05-23T19:11:26Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#):
>
> I also think the half dollar is officially gone, even though proofs are still struck for collectors.
They mint about 30+ million of them a year in the USA.
> **[Kennedy half dollar mintage figures](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kennedy_half_dollar_mintage_figures)**
>
> The Kennedy half dollar is a United States coin that has been minted since 1964. In the first year of production the coins were minted in 90% silver and 10% copper (90% silver). From 1965 through 1970, the coins were minted in a clad composition of mostly silver outer layers and a mostly copper inner layer (40% silver). After 1970, the coins are minted in a copper–nickel clad composition. From 1992 to 2018, 90% silver coins were made for inclusion in special "Limited Edition" silver proof s...
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### Author:  [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)
#### Post date: [May 24, 2025, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-not-phase-out-nickels-pennies/1018684/33 "2025-05-24T00:53:44Z")
I still use cash a lot. I pay our house cleaners in cash. (Do they report it as income? Not my business.) I pay the podiatric nurse who trims my nails every two weeks in cash. I tip the guy who delivers produce from roof-top gardens in cash.
Canada gave up the cent years ago and I don’t think anyone misses it. I would be perfectly happy to drop the nickel and quarter and resuscitate the half dollar. I rarely use coins any more until I have accumulated enough to make up a $5 tip. My main source of nickels is Red Cross solicitations.
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### Author:  [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)
#### Post date: [May 24, 2025, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-not-phase-out-nickels-pennies/1018684/34 "2025-05-24T00:59:36Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#):
>
> Not quite.
Fair. I should have said the last time the lowest denomination was phased out (since that’s what’s important when we’re talking about the granularity of the currency). Also, to correct myself, it was the penny that was worth 36 cents today, not the half-penny. So roughly equivalent to phasing out the penny, nickel, and dime today.
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### Author:  [@Mark\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mark_Finn)
#### Post date: [May 24, 2025, 11:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-not-phase-out-nickels-pennies/1018684/35 "2025-05-24T11:54:42Z")
The UK phased out quarter and half farthings in the 1800s, but it wasn’t until the 1950s that the farthing was gone. (one farthing = 1/4 of a penny).
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### Author:  [@Die\_Capacitrix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Die_Capacitrix)
#### Post date: [May 24, 2025, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-not-phase-out-nickels-pennies/1018684/36 "2025-05-24T13:06:38Z")
Switzerland phased out the 1 cent (December 31, 2006) and 2 cent (December 31, 1977) coins, but still has a 5 cent coin. The only time anybody regularly uses a 5 cent coin is at the grocery store and the post office. They are still legal, but I know people who will just throw them in the trash because they annoying.
Even though the 1 and 2 cent coins exist in the Netherlands, most stores will not accept them, nor will they give them as change.
Is the US the only modern country to have a quarter dollar?
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### Author:  [@Mighty\_Mouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mighty_Mouse)
#### Post date: [May 24, 2025, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-not-phase-out-nickels-pennies/1018684/37 "2025-05-24T13:17:19Z")
I didn’t use Canadian currency the last couple of times I’ve been there, but I’m pretty sure they have a quarter and are a “modern country”.
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### Author:  [@Ellecram](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellecram)
#### Post date: [May 24, 2025, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-not-phase-out-nickels-pennies/1018684/38 "2025-05-24T13:27:07Z")
Aruba has a 25 cent piece. They are quite modern in most aspects.
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### Author:  [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)
#### Post date: [May 24, 2025, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-not-phase-out-nickels-pennies/1018684/39 "2025-05-24T13:36:49Z")
To be fair, in the 1950s, a British penny bought more than a US penny.
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### Author:  [@FinsToTheLeft](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FinsToTheLeft)
#### Post date: [May 24, 2025, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-not-phase-out-nickels-pennies/1018684/40 "2025-05-24T13:40:53Z")
> [@Die\_Capacitrix](#):
>
> Is the US the only modern country to have a quarter dollar?
Canada does
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