It costs 1.6 cents to make each penny so this will save Ottawa $11 million a year.
Eventually, all the pennies - Canada has produced 35 billion of them since 1908 - will be gathered up and melted down. The Mint stopped making new pennies last year.
The government is encouraging merchants to round off all cash transactions to the nearest nickel from now on. Any price that doesn’t end in a five or a zero will have to be rounded up or down. The Mint has released a set of guidelines for this. If a price is a few cents above a five or zero, you round down; otherwise you round up. So if something costs $1.01 or $1.02, the price becomes $1. If something costs $1.03 or $1.04, it becomes $1.05. But these are guidelines, not the law, and some stores may choose to simply round up for everything. It’s up to the store.
Non-cash transactions, such as on debit and credit cards, will still be calculated to the cent.
I rarely pay with cash or debit. I try to use my VISA (to collect the Aeroplan points) as much as I can.
Will you miss the penny?
Wow. I can't imagine not having the penny.
ReplyDeleteI need to roll all mine up and turn them in though. I hope I still can?!
ReplyDeleteAw, that makes me kind of sad even though I don't live in Canada. I thought the Canadian penny was very pretty, but I can understand why they're doing it.
ReplyDeleteThat just means I'm going to have to start keeping the pennies I come across!
They've talked about doing this in the US for years, but I don't think they'll ever actually do it.
ReplyDeleteI knew that this was coming but didn't remember when. While I love the penny and will be sad to see it go, it makes sense.
ReplyDeleteI mentioned you (and gave credit) in a recent post (http://www.journeysofthezoo.com/2013/02/weekly-drivel-parasites-pigsfeet-giveaways.html). Hope it's okay.
In case you didn't know, you have Captcha turned on :)
Besos, Sarah
Zookeeper at Journeys of The Zoo
journeysofthezoo at hotmail dot com
Poor penny sorry to see it go. "See a penny pick it up and all that day you will have good luck" I need a new ditty! You've a reading machine where do you find the time?
ReplyDelete