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5cent coins should go....


jmpearso

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This was an interesting article. But I wonder where does it stop? Soon no one will want the 50 cent pieces then it will be just dollars, and everyones going to round it up I would imagine...

 

Five cent coin "should be scrapped"

One cent and two cent phased out in 1992

New Zealand has dumped its five cent coin

IT'S Australia's most shunned shrapnel, the 5c coin - and if shopkeepers and retailers had their way, the echidna-clad currency would be ditched.

 

They say the coin should go the same way as the near worthless 1c and 2c pieces, phased out in 1992, and the New Zealand 5c coin, dumped in 2006.

 

Supermarket Woolworths now stocks nothing on its shelves worth 5c, while a register search of Big W products found only one item costing that much - a school exercise book on sale once a year, the Sunday Herald Sun reports.

 

Melbourne City parking meters do not accept the coins and even sweet seller The Original Lolly Store has abandoned the 5c price tag, with the cheapest lolly at its Melbourne outlet selling for 15c.

 

Full Story:

http://www.news.com.au/business/story/0,27...376-462,00.html

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But I wonder where does it stop? Soon no one will want the 50 cent pieces then it will be just dollars, and everyones going to round it up I would imagine...

Interesting indeed, thanks for bringing it up here. And I do not think there will actually be a stopping point - if small change is considered annoying rather than useful, it makes sense to stop producing (and ultimately using) it. Provided the 5 cent coin ceases to circulate, then the smallest piece would be the 10c coin, and there are also 20c, 50c, $1 and $2 coins. Would take quite a while until the $1 coin becomes the lowest denomination. :ninja:

 

Let's see - I'm in Euroland, and an Australian 5 cent coin is worth €0.027. Over here the 1 cent coin is the smallest piece, but in some euro countries, cash totals are rounded so that the lowest denomination needed is the 5 cent piece. Now 5 (euro-)cent is about 9.3 Australian cents - pretty close to 10, I'd say. The interests of shopkeepers and customers are not necessarily the same, but if it's not only the former who would like to get rid of the 5c piece, then why not go ahead and do it?

 

By the way, in Sweden the government just decided to phase the 50 öre coin out. This means the lowest denomination will, as from October 2010, be the 1 krona piece. And that has a value of €0.089 ... more than 16 Australian cents.

 

Keep in mind that in most cases where cash totals are rounded this does not affect the prices of single items, nor does it affect "plastic" payments. So if an item costs 1.98, you pay 2.00 when using cash and 1.98 when using a card. If you buy three, the total would be 3x1.98 = 5.94, and the total would be 5.90 (cash) or 5.94 (credit). Sounds fine to me.

 

Christian

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I believe we'll see some serious movement on elimination of the cent and reduction of production for the $1.00 note in the next year. Something like 42% of all grocery store purchases are now debit/credit card. Partly this comes about from the fact that food stamp money is often issued in the form of a debit card and in some areas -- unemployment compensation is being distributed this way. It makes sense. If you get checks from these folks and don't have a "banking relationship" established somewhere you're charged to cash them. With the debit cards you just charge like a Visa or MC.

 

I'd hate to see the cent go but realistically it's close the end.

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As is the dollar bill, Art. I love both (as a collector and for their patriotic symbolism). But I'd like to see the dollar coins circulate more. Why doesn't the Treasury just up and cancel the bill?

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would be interesting to see how the economic cimate actually effects prices..

but yea phasing out lower coins seems to way as prices go up and up, cant see the UK 1p being phased out though, seeing as everything more or less ends in a 9 still lol

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Let's have some perspective, in 1933, the last year the US was on the traditional gold standard, gold was pegged at $20.67 per ounce, and the smallest denomination we had in circulation was 1-cent with the half cent eliminated 75 years earlier. Since that time, the purchasing power of the US dollar has declined roughly 95%, such that things that cost a nickel then (like a bottle of Coke) now cost $1. In terms of purchasing power, the present dime has the purchasing power of 1/2 cent back in 1933, so realistically we could eliminate all coins worth less than a quarter and in terms of purchasing power we'd be about where we were 75 years ago. In another 20 years, maybe longer, the dollar will have the purchasing power of a penny back then, but my guess is that we will still have pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters circulating, as Americans do not like change in their change!

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cant see the UK 1p being phased out though, seeing as everything more or less ends in a 9 still lol

Hmm ... if gas costs, say, 1.239 (whatever currency) per liter, would you insist on having a 0.001 coin to avoid cash totals which are rounded? :ninja:

 

Christian

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well no, but you dont buy in small quantitys anyway so it scales up.

Right, you won't pay 30.975 when you get 25 liters at a price of 1.239 each - it will be rounded. And that is exactly what happens in a, say, Dutch or Swiss supermarket: The single items may cost 1.98 or 3.49; those amounts are added, and at the end the total is rounded. (Or not rounded when you use plastic. :ninja: ) So you may well keep prices ending in 9 without having a 0.01 coin. Not sure how it's done in Australia though.

 

Christian

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