The death of the Canadian Penny

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Lauren Miller
Number 1520
Conspirator for: 9 years 27 weeks
Posted on: September 19, 2014 - 12:14am

The Canadian cent has officially stopped circulating in the country to the north. That move has rekindled a discussion locally that has been going on for many years. Article resource:

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Cent no longer around

Getting Canadian pennies is already really annoying when you are getting your change back. Now, they will not be worth anything either since the Royal Canadian Mint formally took the coins out of distribution on February 5.

 

Now, you may not even see Canadian pennies anymore. The Canadian cent was used for a year and a half. Now, it is going to disappear. All cash dealings will be rounded to the nearest five pennies to stay away from pennies.

 

Causes of change The cause of that is because the increasing cost of metals has made pennies more expensive to produce than their one cent face value.

A press release Tuesday states, "The decision to phase out the penny was due to its excessive and rising cost of production relative to face value, the increased accumulation of pennies by Canadians in their households, environmental considerations, and the significant handling costs the penny imposes on retailers, financial institutions and the economy in general."

 

A Canadian coin costs 1.6 cents to make. By eliminating the coin, Canada can save $11 million per year, according to The Royal Canadian Mint. Other nations have also been eliminating their smallest coins. This includes Norway, Netherlands, Sweden, Australia, Finland and Brand new Zealand.

 

United States debaters throw in their two pennies

 

There has been a lot of controversy here about the cent as well. In 2011, working class individuals lost $70 million to the coin production, according to RetireThePenny.org. In fact, it costs 2.41 cents to make every cent, making we are losing a lot more on production than Canada was.

 

Many people argue that a price increase would happen if every little thing was rounded to the closest 5 cents. Still, others suggest it would virtually terminate itself out since some things would go up and others would go down. Many people believe that penny drives are significant, and definitely pennies have a vital use for them.

 

People are less likely to contribute more than that. However, a recent poll found that two-thirds of Americans prefer keeping the cent.

 

Trying to work on it legislatively

Congress has considered eliminating the United States cent in 1990, 2001 and 2006. None of the bills gained enough approval to pass. The House Financial Services Subcommittee on Domestic Monetary Policy and Technology is supposed to be figuring out what type of impact getting rid of the cent would really have though.

 

Sources

Chicago Tribune

Medill Reports

Foxborough Patch