Every time a story about pennies comes up, I have to post it and ask mk how close he is to collecting a penny from every year of the past century. So, how about it mk?
I don't know how valid this is, and hopefully someone from someplace without pennies can weigh in, but what about how everything is priced at $_.99? There's psychological reasons for this, and I don't see companies changing prices down to $_.95 to use nickels. Maybe they would have too, and as cash becomes less used, it would be less of an issue. But I'd bet most pennies in circulation come from change for cash payments.
Up here in Canada, all prices are still in penny denominations but when you get to the register, and pay in cash, it is the cashiers job to round things up or down to the nearest nickel. If you pay electronically, you would still pay the sticker price down to the penny - therefore making the psychological aspect of pricing still valid since most people pay this way. If one were to be obsessive about it, you could use debit for all transactions where the price would be rounded up otherwise, and cash for those that are rounded down. Thus saving a few dollars a year. That would be some kind of sick individual though, I imagine.
Likewise in NZ, except that now, we don't even have 5-cent pieces any more - cash transactions are paid in 10-cent increments. Nobody cares. Plenty of tedious detail can be found here : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cash_roundingUp here in Canada, all prices are still in penny denominations but when you get to the register, and pay in cash, it is the cashiers job to round things up or down to the nearest nickel. If you pay electronically, you would still pay the sticker price down to the penny
Seriously. That's one of the things I love about living up here. It's obviously better to not have to deal with the penny at this point. So people say, well that makes sense, let's get rid of it. And it happens quickly without a big show.Nobody cares