5 ms·

The U.S mint made 7.5 billion pennies last year. Each of those pennies cost more than a penny to produce. The people asking for pennies to keep being produced i

The U.S mint made 7.5 billion pennies last year. Each of those pennies cost more than a penny to produce. The people asking for pennies to keep being produced is the Zinc lobby. Over 20% of transactions are still cash and using pennies just adds extra inefficiencies to that process while wasting money just making the things. I don't recall vending machines ever taking pennies in my lifetime to begin with either. They've been that useless and annoying to deal with for that long.

pomian 5y ago
I remember a town, not too long ago (5 years?) Hilo I believe, that had parking meters that stated: "Nickel or penny for convenience" For 10 minutes of parking.
- MR4D 5y ago
  But at least you don’t get your info stolen when you park [0]. It’s a nice side-effect of using physical money. Also nice that it’s cheap. [0] - https://krebsonsecurity.com/2021/04/parkmobile-breach-exposes-license-plate-data-mobile-numbers-of-21m-users/ https://krebsonsecurity.com/2021/04/parkmobile-breach-expose...
toast0 5y ago
> I don't recall vending machines ever taking pennies in my lifetime to begin with either. They've been that useless and annoying to deal with for that long. Bus fare boxes often will, although they don't show it on the sticker. I got rid of a ton of pennies when I was riding a bus regularly.
- coldpie 5y ago
  Hahaha! YOU'RE the guy taking five minutes to pay! Cling cling cling cling cling whrrrrrr cling cling cling cling whrrrrrrr cling cling cling..... :)
  - toast0 5y ago
    In my defense, I would usually only do five or ten pennies in one fare, and not on a busy route where it would back things up. I did use snack machines to turn dimes and nickles into quarters at college though. Insert 25 cents, press coin return, get a quarter. Maybe go to 50 cents, but be sure to not put in enough to buy anything, or you'll have to. Snack machines took all worthwhile coins, but laundry machines were quarters only.
- cletus 5y ago
  I worked with a guy who I distinctly remember saying: > You don't know how happy I was when I discovered the ticket machines in the (NYC) Subway took nickels.

pomian 5y ago

I remember a town, not too long ago (5 years?) Hilo I believe, that had parking meters that stated: "Nickel or penny for convenience" For 10 minutes of parking.

MR4D 5y ago
But at least you don’t get your info stolen when you park [0]. It’s a nice side-effect of using physical money. Also nice that it’s cheap. [0] - https://krebsonsecurity.com/2021/04/parkmobile-breach-exposes-license-plate-data-mobile-numbers-of-21m-users/ https://krebsonsecurity.com/2021/04/parkmobile-breach-expose...

toast0 5y ago

> I don't recall vending machines ever taking pennies in my lifetime to begin with either. They've been that useless and annoying to deal with for that long. Bus fare boxes often will, although they don't show it on the sticker. I got rid of a ton of pennies when I was riding a bus regularly.

coldpie 5y ago
Hahaha! YOU'RE the guy taking five minutes to pay! Cling cling cling cling cling whrrrrrr cling cling cling cling whrrrrrrr cling cling cling..... :)
- toast0 5y ago
  In my defense, I would usually only do five or ten pennies in one fare, and not on a busy route where it would back things up. I did use snack machines to turn dimes and nickles into quarters at college though. Insert 25 cents, press coin return, get a quarter. Maybe go to 50 cents, but be sure to not put in enough to buy anything, or you'll have to. Snack machines took all worthwhile coins, but laundry machines were quarters only.
cletus 5y ago
I worked with a guy who I distinctly remember saying: > You don't know how happy I was when I discovered the ticket machines in the (NYC) Subway took nickels.