The death of the penny

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**Cannerus_The_Unbearable**

So it will cost 5 cents to weight our minis :(

**Polonius**

Eliminating the penny is a classic case of nearly everybody agreeing something is a good idea, but not caring enough to overcome powerful opposition from the handful of people that will be hurt.

**KingCracker**

Happygrunt wrote:
Grakmar wrote:Abraham Lincoln is on the penny. Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves.

Ergo, if you want to get rid of the penny, you are pro-slavery!

Seriously, though, the penny is pretty revered here in Illinois. We're the only state that accepts pennies at toll booths, even though the cost to the state to transport, sort, and deposit it is more than $0.01 per penny. Any proposal to do away with the penny will face significant resistance from Lincoln supporters. I think the only way it will happen is if we make a serious effort to establish a dollar coin with Lincoln on it. But, of course, the coin will only be successful if we do away with the paper dollar. And, that means we need to find a new home for Washington. Perhaps put him on the $10 (because feth Hamilton, no one likes his I-wasn't-even-President-and-no-one-knows ass), or make a new $500 bill with Washington (McKinley won't be missed).

To be fair, Hamilton kinda set up the groundwork for a our financial banking system. Just take Jackson off. He hated banks anyway.

And for good reason. Jackson was a saint.

**The Mad Tanker**

Shadowseer_Kim wrote:As I understand it, the USA is not actually getting rid of the penny, but changing its material again. Rigfht now a penny costs about 2.6 cents to make. Switching to Steel pennies again will bring the cost down to something like .8 cents each.

The return of steel pennies in the United States would be fun.

**Shadowseer_Kim**

I know, I really like the steel pennies and am looking forward to it.

They look really good.

**Shredsmore**

Penny? Pssh! Us Americans would be better off discontinuing the dime, I mean think about it.

**dogma**

Shredsmore wrote:Penny? Pssh! Us Americans would be better off discontinuing the dime, I mean think about it.

But then the children won't know why a dime bag is called a dime bag.

**FabricatorGeneralMike**

chromedog wrote:
Doctadeth wrote:Finally! another nation copies Australia, we phased out the 1c and 2 cent coins AND plasTICized our notes awhile back....something to do with drugs I think

There were a number of reasons. Drugs were a relatively minor one. You only ever snorted coke with a $100 - to do it with a lesser value betrayed your plebian roots. If you could afford the stuff, you could afford to use the largest note we had to use it.
One major reason was to do with counterfeiting. The plastic notes incorporate several distinct and different methods to prevent this. From the hologram window up.

We got rid of 1c and 2c pieces a while ago. This was a shame as the 2c piece was a perfect match for the slotless GW plastic bases (25mm rounds). Everyone did it. It added necessary weighting/counterweighting to the bases. 2mm thick and the diameter was about 0.75mm smaller than the inner diameter of the base. They scrapped them because they cost more to make than their face value and costs to move them around were also making the coins a joke.
The introduced 'rounding' of prices as a result for cash transactions. 1c and 2c amounts rounds down, 3c and 4c rounds up (to the nearest 5c increment). 46c rounds down to 45c, 48c rounds up to 50c. Credit card transactions are NOT rounded - hence the odd amounts on monthly accounts - $541.28 is not something you would see on a cash receipt.

We also got rid of our smaller than the 5$ denomination notes (the $1 and $2 notes, which were brown, and green) and turned them into coins - which since we don't have a strip-club industry where people tuck dollar bills into stripper's g-strings - didn't have that profound an effect on local industries. Unlike the UK, we don't have a nickname for the $1 coin (about the same size as a pound coin). One I heard when I was there during the Thatcher years was "the maggie" - because it was small, brassy and thought itself a sovereign.

Canada has done the same thing our 50's and 100's are just like the aussie money now. We will be switching over our $20 bills next then 10's and 5's. Our dollar coin is called 'The Loonie' (after Brian Mulroney a former PM who brought it in along with the GST, then got busted years latter for taking bribes in big brown paper bags and got a slap on the wrist....not the bird on the back), and out $2 coin is called 'The Toonie'.

Yes us canadians are a odd bunch.

**Chongara**

sirlynchmob wrote:
PhantomViper wrote:Only people who've never played in 20mm or smaller miniatures think like this...

You can always get slugs and washers at the hardware store.

But really, who uses money anymore? all my money goes straight to my bank, and I swipe my atm card to buy everything.

Maybe it's regional or something but I can't count the number of times my girlfriend has rolled her eyes at me when we spot a place we want to eat and inside they have a "Cash Only" sign and I don't have any cash on me.

**chromedog**

purplefood wrote:
chromedog wrote: Unlike the UK, we don't have a nickname for the $1 coin (about the same size as a pound coin). One I heard when I was there during the Thatcher years was "the maggie" - because it was small, brassy and thought itself a sovereign.

Do you mean a quid?

At the time, "quid" was generic slang for pound ( so it would be x quid) from 1 up to whatever number.
I heard the "maggie" nick on the radio while I was there. There was some opposition to the transition from note to coin.

We had nicknames for our coins pre decimal currency - some of which stuck around for a few years afterwards. None are still in general use.
The 'zack' (was a sixpence piece - half a shilling (12p) but with decimalisation became a 5c coin) for example. Only really old people still use them (my granddad did, up until his dying day - 30 years after decimalisation of our currency).

However, our notes DO have nicknames. The $20 is a Lobster (it's red-orange) in common usage - the $100 was called a "Yuppie drinks voucher" for a while but I've not heard it in a few years - it may have dated itself and died out. So named because it was the average price of a cocktail at one of the "exclusive" A-list nightclubs of the time)

**sirlynchmob**

Chongara wrote:
sirlynchmob wrote:
PhantomViper wrote:Only people who've never played in 20mm or smaller miniatures think like this...

You can always get slugs and washers at the hardware store.

But really, who uses money anymore? all my money goes straight to my bank, and I swipe my atm card to buy everything.

Maybe it's regional or something but I can't count the number of times my girlfriend has rolled her eyes at me when we spot a place we want to eat and inside they have a "Cash Only" sign and I don't have any cash on me.

ya that's annoying, the biggest chain in Canada won't take my card. so I don't go to tim hortons. and for the Canadians reading this, tim's coffee sucks, so its no sweat off my back.

**Slarg232**

So do you guys think it would be a good idea to hold unto our pennies until the government comes out and says "Hey, we need Copper, give us all you've got and we will give you cash?"

**Johnny-Crass**

Slarg232 wrote:So do you guys think it would be a good idea to hold unto our pennies until the government comes out and says "Hey, we need Copper, give us all you've got and we will give you cash?"

I put all my pennys in tube socks and mug people for more money... See pennys do turn a profit!

**Perkustin**

generalgrog wrote: "Nobody likes them," Mr Martin added.

I lol'd at this part.

**SlaveToDorkness**

Grakmar wrote:Abraham Lincoln is on the penny. Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves.

.

He did nothing of the sort. The 13th Amendment did though.

**Johnny-Crass**

SlaveToDorkness wrote:
Grakmar wrote:Abraham Lincoln is on the penny. Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves.

.

He did nothing of the sort. The 13th Amendment did though.

There is proof that Abraham Lincoln did go on covert missions to free slaves personally.... But those are sealed documents

**ifStatement**

Yeh I heard he was a vampire hunter too.

**Piston Honda**

Someone of still uses pennies for strippers.

What? They're bargain bin strippers.

**DeathReaper**

hotsauceman1 wrote:
sirlynchmob wrote:
PhantomViper wrote:Only people who've never played in 20mm or smaller miniatures think like this...

You can always get slugs and washers at the hardware store.

But really, who uses money anymore? all my money goes straight to my bank, and I swipe my atm card to buy everything.

In a few select place i do(like school and work because they charge 40cents for each swipe)

If you are using a Visa card, the Visa rules say merchants can not charge for a cards use:

http://usa.visa.com/merchants/operations/checkoutfees.html#10states

Master card has a similar policy.

you can contact the card provider and report the merchants that do this stuff.

For Visa you can report a merchant Violation here: https://usa.visa.com/checkoutfees/contact.jsp