5 ms·

Along these line why is the US still minting pennies? At some point we could just start rounding to the nearest nickel (or dime). Also, why is gas always ab ex

Along these line why is the US still minting pennies? At some point we could just start rounding to the nearest nickel (or dime). Also, why is gas always ab extra 9/10 of a penny? Reminds me of paying 3123 RON for a Big Mac in Romania -- that last digit is just noise at the consumer level.

luke2m 5y ago
https://gizmodo.com/why-gas-is-priced-in-tenths-of-cents-1697431140 https://gizmodo.com/why-gas-is-priced-in-tenths-of-cents-169... > that last digit is just noise at the consumer level. That’s exactly the point.
janitor61 5y ago
If they were going to change anything, it would be likely to get rid of both the penny and nickel and use 1 decimal place for prices; the current US nickel already has a melt price/ face value of 124% currently (https://www.coinflation.com/ https://www.coinflation.com/), which is never a good thing
4monthsaway 5y ago
That's worth at least a penny for your thoughts
- waynecochran 5y ago
  My thoughts are worth only a monatary rounding error I guess...
MattRix 5y ago
We stopped minting pennies here in Canada in 2012. Pennies are still legal tender, but cash purchases are rounded to the nearest 5 cents. I don’t think anyone here misses the pennies.
- asdff 5y ago
  See that's the thing. If we didn't have pennies, companies couldn't ask their customers to fund as much of their tax writeoff every year when they ask them to round up for some random cause.
tenebrisalietum 5y ago
> why is gas always ab extra 9/10 of a penny Same reason things are $.99, $19.95, $299.99 instead of $1.00, $20.00, $300.00. In the US, there's many places that have 2 or 3 gas stations in near vicinity and price competition is fierce. So the $0.01 matters, people will drive to the gas station down the block to save that penny per gallon.
- JumpCrisscross 5y ago
  Gas prices are quoted to fractions of a penny and then rounded to the nearest cent when a card is swiped. For people paying with cash, rounding to the nearest ten cents isn't that much of a leap.
  - kevin_thibedeau 5y ago
    It's a problem if it's always rounding up. Throwing away the penny also requires legislation enforcing round to nearest.
- yks 5y ago
  I dunno, usually it's 2 "upscale chain brand" gas stations with identical high prices and 1 "local brand" gas station nearby with significantly cheaper gas. I don't understand how competition works in the gas station business but $0.01 difference clearly does not matter.
- lotsofpulp 5y ago
  If it is 9/10 of a penny, then it is $0.001 per gallon. Fueling a 20 gallon tank is $0.02.
  - csa 5y ago
    > If it is 9/10 of a penny, then it is $0.001 per gallon. Fueling a 20 gallon tank is $0.02. … and some people will drive down the block for those 2 cents, even though they may not realize that it’s only 2 cents. It’s just “cheaper” to them.
- 5y ago
jaspax 5y ago
Buddy, there's no way you paid 3123 RON for a Big Mac, since that's approximately 750 dollars. You probably paid 3123 ROL (the old currency before it was redenominated circa 2005). (You are correct that amounts below 100 ROL were totally meaningless.)
- kingcharles 5y ago
  [flagged]
JumpCrisscross 5y ago
> why is the US still minting pennies? A lobbying group funded by the producer of the blanks used to make pennies opposes penny abolition [1]. There is no similarly-motivated group promoting it. (Citizens to Retire the Penny exists, but their last news item is from 2019 [2].) When the U.S. eliminated the half cent it was worth 14 cents [3], so there is a good case of nixing the nickel alongside the penny, whenever we get around to it. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Americans_for_Common_Cents https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Americans_for_Common_Cents [2] http://www.retirethepenny.org http://www.retirethepenny.org [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penny_debate_in_the_United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penny_debate_in_the_United_Sta...
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- spicybright 5y ago
  Not to mention other countries have done this with little issue.
- jyounker 5y ago
  This is a good long-term argument for nationalizing money production.
- thomascgalvin 5y ago
  > why is the US still minting pennies? > > A lobbying group... It is astonishing how many problems in this country start with those three words.
Mountain_Skies 5y ago
The optics of eliminating the penny during inflation are really bad. The optics would be honest but politically bad. Maybe the next time we have a booming economy and high consumer confidence, we can make pennies seem tacky and get rid of them that way.
quickthrower2 5y ago
They should abolish coins. There is probably less need for them (who wants to carry them!) now the technology to accept notes in machines. Maybe the people who make the note readers can lobby to abolish coins.
- kingcharles 5y ago
  I have to wash my clothes at the laundromat. Get annoyed every time I have to shovel $6 of quarters into the machine, one-at-a-time.
  - jyounker 5y ago
    The simple solution is minting larger value coins.
  - asdff 5y ago
    I've asked my landlord if they would let me buy back the quarters from them since it's such a pain getting them in a coin shortage. They didn't respond. Rent is already in the thousands, really my landlord should just stomach the $8 they get off me from the laundry room a month and just make it free. I'd honestly pay my landlord even higher rent if I didn't have to deal with getting rolls of quarters.
    - bruceb 5y ago
      The thinking might be that when word gets out, people let their friends come do their laundry for free.
      - deleted 5y ago
        [deleted]
    - nopassrecover 5y ago
      Tangential but I find it interesting that as a general rule US apartment tenants don’t have a washer/dryer eg as a front-loader combo. I gather from research online it comes back to the practice of generally renting furnished apartments, a preference for wood building construction, a practice of having non-water-proofed wet areas, historical custom (perhaps coinciding with apartments being constructed post-war when these appliances were large and highly expensive?), and the chicken-and-egg problem of there not being a market for smaller appliances and therefore there not being great supply of smaller appliances.
jdofaz 5y ago
>Also, why is gas always ab extra 9/10 of a penny Others have replied to the why, but it is technically 9 Mills. The thousandths unit was established in the Coinage Act of 1792 as the smallest unit of the dollar. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mill_(currency)#United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mill_(currency)#United_States This is some useless trivia that I know for some reason :)

luke2m 5y ago

https://gizmodo.com/why-gas-is-priced-in-tenths-of-cents-1697431140 https://gizmodo.com/why-gas-is-priced-in-tenths-of-cents-169... > that last digit is just noise at the consumer level. That’s exactly the point.

janitor61 5y ago

If they were going to change anything, it would be likely to get rid of both the penny and nickel and use 1 decimal place for prices; the current US nickel already has a melt price/ face value of 124% currently (https://www.coinflation.com/ https://www.coinflation.com/), which is never a good thing

4monthsaway 5y ago

That's worth at least a penny for your thoughts

waynecochran 5y ago
My thoughts are worth only a monatary rounding error I guess...

MattRix 5y ago

We stopped minting pennies here in Canada in 2012. Pennies are still legal tender, but cash purchases are rounded to the nearest 5 cents. I don’t think anyone here misses the pennies.

asdff 5y ago
See that's the thing. If we didn't have pennies, companies couldn't ask their customers to fund as much of their tax writeoff every year when they ask them to round up for some random cause.

tenebrisalietum 5y ago

> why is gas always ab extra 9/10 of a penny Same reason things are $.99, $19.95, $299.99 instead of $1.00, $20.00, $300.00. In the US, there's many places that have 2 or 3 gas stations in near vicinity and price competition is fierce. So the $0.01 matters, people will drive to the gas station down the block to save that penny per gallon.

JumpCrisscross 5y ago
Gas prices are quoted to fractions of a penny and then rounded to the nearest cent when a card is swiped. For people paying with cash, rounding to the nearest ten cents isn't that much of a leap.
- kevin_thibedeau 5y ago
  It's a problem if it's always rounding up. Throwing away the penny also requires legislation enforcing round to nearest.
yks 5y ago
I dunno, usually it's 2 "upscale chain brand" gas stations with identical high prices and 1 "local brand" gas station nearby with significantly cheaper gas. I don't understand how competition works in the gas station business but $0.01 difference clearly does not matter.
lotsofpulp 5y ago
If it is 9/10 of a penny, then it is $0.001 per gallon. Fueling a 20 gallon tank is $0.02.
- csa 5y ago
  > If it is 9/10 of a penny, then it is $0.001 per gallon. Fueling a 20 gallon tank is $0.02. … and some people will drive down the block for those 2 cents, even though they may not realize that it’s only 2 cents. It’s just “cheaper” to them.
5y ago

jaspax 5y ago

Buddy, there's no way you paid 3123 RON for a Big Mac, since that's approximately 750 dollars. You probably paid 3123 ROL (the old currency before it was redenominated circa 2005). (You are correct that amounts below 100 ROL were totally meaningless.)

kingcharles 5y ago
[flagged]

JumpCrisscross 5y ago

> why is the US still minting pennies? A lobbying group funded by the producer of the blanks used to make pennies opposes penny abolition [1]. There is no similarly-motivated group promoting it. (Citizens to Retire the Penny exists, but their last news item is from 2019 [2].) When the U.S. eliminated the half cent it was worth 14 cents [3], so there is a good case of nixing the nickel alongside the penny, whenever we get around to it. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Americans_for_Common_Cents https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Americans_for_Common_Cents [2] http://www.retirethepenny.org http://www.retirethepenny.org [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penny_debate_in_the_United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penny_debate_in_the_United_Sta...

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
spicybright 5y ago
Not to mention other countries have done this with little issue.
jyounker 5y ago
This is a good long-term argument for nationalizing money production.
thomascgalvin 5y ago
> why is the US still minting pennies? > > A lobbying group... It is astonishing how many problems in this country start with those three words.

Mountain_Skies 5y ago

The optics of eliminating the penny during inflation are really bad. The optics would be honest but politically bad. Maybe the next time we have a booming economy and high consumer confidence, we can make pennies seem tacky and get rid of them that way.

quickthrower2 5y ago

They should abolish coins. There is probably less need for them (who wants to carry them!) now the technology to accept notes in machines. Maybe the people who make the note readers can lobby to abolish coins.

kingcharles 5y ago
I have to wash my clothes at the laundromat. Get annoyed every time I have to shovel $6 of quarters into the machine, one-at-a-time.
- jyounker 5y ago
  The simple solution is minting larger value coins.
- asdff 5y ago
  I've asked my landlord if they would let me buy back the quarters from them since it's such a pain getting them in a coin shortage. They didn't respond. Rent is already in the thousands, really my landlord should just stomach the $8 they get off me from the laundry room a month and just make it free. I'd honestly pay my landlord even higher rent if I didn't have to deal with getting rolls of quarters.
  - bruceb 5y ago
    The thinking might be that when word gets out, people let their friends come do their laundry for free.
    - deleted 5y ago
      [deleted]
  - nopassrecover 5y ago
    Tangential but I find it interesting that as a general rule US apartment tenants don’t have a washer/dryer eg as a front-loader combo. I gather from research online it comes back to the practice of generally renting furnished apartments, a preference for wood building construction, a practice of having non-water-proofed wet areas, historical custom (perhaps coinciding with apartments being constructed post-war when these appliances were large and highly expensive?), and the chicken-and-egg problem of there not being a market for smaller appliances and therefore there not being great supply of smaller appliances.

jdofaz 5y ago

>Also, why is gas always ab extra 9/10 of a penny Others have replied to the why, but it is technically 9 Mills. The thousandths unit was established in the Coinage Act of 1792 as the smallest unit of the dollar. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mill_(currency)#United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mill_(currency)#United_States This is some useless trivia that I know for some reason :)