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Where I'm from, shops started using .95 pricing _long_ before the idea of scrapping 1c and 2c coins was raised, purely because handling those coins wasn't worth
by talideon 6y ago
Where I'm from, shops started using .95 pricing _long_ before the idea of scrapping 1c and 2c coins was raised, purely because handling those coins wasn't worth it.
A key difference is that we have VAT, which is built into the price, rather than a US-style sales tax, which is not. In the US, if you're handling cash you still have to deal with 1c and 2c coins because of that. That made it easier for us to scrap 1c and 2c coins, but creates resistance for any US attempts to do the same.
One other thing we did was introduce symmetrical rounding rules on the final price of cash transactions: https://www.centralbank.ie/consumer-hub/rounding https://www.centralbank.ie/consumer-hub/rounding
Applying rounding was entirely voluntary, and all the Government did was gradually take the 1c and 2c coins out of circulation. After that, it was a matter of time for the problem to go away.
- einpoklum 6y ago> if you're handling cash you still have to deal with 1c and 2c coins because of that. I don't think so. The same way you don't have to handle sub-1-penny tax amounts, you won't have to handle sub-nickle tax amounts later. There'll be some sort of rounding mechanism just like you described.
- talideon 6y agoWell, yes. That's why I mentioned the rounding mechanism later. However, US-style sales taxes make the process of applying that more difficult because you can end up with weird numbers, whereas with VAT, you can pre-round things to minimise the disruption.