Many countries have already removed some of their lowest denominations from circulation and in the fall, the Canadian Government will follow suit and stop producing the penny. It will then gradually begin to remove them from circulation. It cost more to produce the penny than its face value. This will save $11 million dollars. What does this mean to consumers? If you pay by plastic (interac or credit), you will still pay to the penny. If you pay by cash, the transaction will be rounded to the nearest denomination. If you work in retail like I do, you know that over 80% of all transactions are now completed using plastic, so how much will this really affect us? Probably not much and if it saves us money than I am for it. There are certainly a lot of other programs funded by the government that could use it. If you are a coin collector, start hoarding your pennies because once they are all gone I am sure their value will go up. Ironic isn't it?
Update: Circulation of the penny has been extended to February 4, 2013.
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