4 ms·

Here in Australia, we got rid of our 1c and 2c coins years ago; the way it works is that if you pay for something with cash, 1 and 2 round to 0; 3, 4, 6 and 7 r

Here in Australia, we got rid of our 1c and 2c coins years ago; the way it works is that if you pay for something with cash, 1 and 2 round to 0; 3, 4, 6 and 7 round to 5; 8 and 9 round to 10. It works out pretty well, but since so many people pay for things with credit/debit cards, it doesn't matter much in practice. Those are the legally suggested rules, but not every company exactly follows them; I recall hearing that one supermarket chain always rounds downward at purchase time, but rounds up if you return the product for some reason - a nice gesture.

spectre 16y ago
New Zealand is much the same, although we eliminated the 5 cent coin as well about 2 years ago (NZ dollars are worth about 9/10ths of Australian dollars, and 7/10ths of US dollars). Stores still do pricing in exact numbers of cents and only round the final result, which means the price you end up paying with plastic is slightly different than what you'd pay with cash.
prawn 16y ago
I remember at the time thinking that chaos would ensue, but can now barely remember all that 'copper' - in fact, they should ditch the 5c and 10c pieces as well. As it is, I only really use $2 and down for the office beer tin. Was in the US last month and the only time I saw a $1 coin was when we used a machine to change a dollar bill into a $1 coin to use in an adjacent ticket machine!
isani 16y ago
The same thing goes for Finland. When we adopted the Euro, it was legislated that cash purchases are rounded to the nearest five cents. Finnish one and two cent coins are minted in small batches which go straight to collectors. You never see them in circulation.
mahmud 16y ago
OT, but on my first week in Oz I had bought a cup of coffee for $4 (I could see them, they're four small copper coins.) then went through my pockets to get rid of small change as tips, much to the waitress' resistance. So I gave her something around 6 - 10 smaller copper coins, much smaller than $1 coin. Turns out, the smaller coins are actually worth $2, and I must have given her $12-$20 worth of tips for a cup of coffee.
- eru 16y ago
  Could have happened in England, too. Just look at how big the 2 pence pieces are. There are almost the same shape as 2 Euro coins.

spectre 16y ago

New Zealand is much the same, although we eliminated the 5 cent coin as well about 2 years ago (NZ dollars are worth about 9/10ths of Australian dollars, and 7/10ths of US dollars). Stores still do pricing in exact numbers of cents and only round the final result, which means the price you end up paying with plastic is slightly different than what you'd pay with cash.

prawn 16y ago

I remember at the time thinking that chaos would ensue, but can now barely remember all that 'copper' - in fact, they should ditch the 5c and 10c pieces as well. As it is, I only really use $2 and down for the office beer tin. Was in the US last month and the only time I saw a $1 coin was when we used a machine to change a dollar bill into a $1 coin to use in an adjacent ticket machine!

isani 16y ago

The same thing goes for Finland. When we adopted the Euro, it was legislated that cash purchases are rounded to the nearest five cents. Finnish one and two cent coins are minted in small batches which go straight to collectors. You never see them in circulation.

mahmud 16y ago

OT, but on my first week in Oz I had bought a cup of coffee for $4 (I could see them, they're four small copper coins.) then went through my pockets to get rid of small change as tips, much to the waitress' resistance. So I gave her something around 6 - 10 smaller copper coins, much smaller than $1 coin. Turns out, the smaller coins are actually worth $2, and I must have given her $12-$20 worth of tips for a cup of coffee.

eru 16y ago
Could have happened in England, too. Just look at how big the 2 pence pieces are. There are almost the same shape as 2 Euro coins.