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The penny—that humble round piece of copper and zinc—has the last laugh. It’s been less than a month since The last one was minted On November 12, there is a growing coin shortage across the United States. Stores are literally paying people to bring them in, and companies fear losing millions of dollars.
What is this old saying? Don’t you miss something until it’s gone? Maybe the penny was more important than we thought. But that old one-cent coin has been fighting a losing battle for respectability for years. You can’t buy anything with them anymore, not even chewing gum. Most of us throw them in a junk drawer or a glass jar. A sad shark could lie on the sidewalk all day and not be collected.
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The U.S. Mint printed the last pennies on November 12, ending a 230-year period. According to the Mint, the cost of making the coin was 3.69 cents for every 1 dime This is not a smart return on investment for taxpayers.
However, with the production of the coins halted, some brick-and-mortar businesses around the country have been unable to return the exact amount because they lack enough pennies, if any at all.
Retail Industry Leaders Association reconnaissance She revealed that thousands of stores do not have a penny, and they are calling on the federal government to take the necessary measures.
Grocery chain Price Chopper and Market 32 recently held a Double exchange daywhere people brought their pennies and received double the value in the form of a shopping voucher. Likewise, grocery chain Offer Giant Eagle Gift Cards It’s worth double the amount of pennies customers brought in during the one-day event on Nov. 1.
Millions are at stake
CBS News I asked several large companies How will they handle cash transactions if there are a shortage of pennies on the counter. McDonald’s said the company’s restaurants will round up or down to the nearest nickel, meaning an order that costs $12.43 will be rounded up to $12.45, but an order that costs $12.42 will be rounded down to $12.40.
Wendy’s, Kwik Trip and GoTo Foods — the parent company of Auntie Anne’s, Cinnabon, Jamba and Carvel — said they will round up to the nearest nickel for the benefit of the customer. Kroger will encourage customers to use exact change, but will still accept pennies as payment.
Rounding is helpful for consumers, but the National Association of Convenience Stores estimates there are thousands of convenience stores across the United States Collectively, they could lose more than a million dollars a day By rounding down. NACS wants US lawmakers to do just that Create a law It would allow companies to round transactions to the nearest nickel.
Until the federal government sets guidelines or regulations on how to deal with the disappearance of the currency, things will remain messy for a while.
Others have given up a penny
mark stiving, The CEO of pricing strategy firm Impact Pricing said demonetisation would have “almost zero impact” on consumers and businesses in the long term. And he has receipts from New Zealand to prove it.
“What I think is about to happen is that companies will continue to set prices in the 90s (like $49.99),” Steffing told CNET. According to Striving, New Zealand used the rounding method after demonetisation and phasing out its penny. “You were still pricing something at $9.99, but you rounded it up to the nearest nickel. So whenever a transaction happened, it was always the nearest nickel.”
Be wise and take action
You won’t be able to find a fortune by looking for all the pennies in your house, unless you have very rare pennies. But if you dig around your bedroom, garage, kitchen, and even your car, you might collect a few bucks’ worth. This is nothing. Would you let a five-dollar bill gather dust in a drawer? Of course not.
Search for Coinstar booth. You’ve probably walked past one of the company’s 17,000 machines without even noticing, but this is a super easy way to turn those pennies and other coins into cash. the The process is simple: Locate a kiosk (usually located inside a grocery store) and deposit your coins for a cash voucher, which you can redeem at checkout or at customer service. There is a service fee of about 13%, so if you redeem $100 worth of coins, you will get $87.
Roll the coins and find a bank: Many banks and credit unions will accept your coins. They may have a coin counting machine, or they may ask you to organize the coins into wrappers, which is time consuming but will also give you an idea of how many coins you have stored. There may or may not be a fee, depending on whether you are the account holder. (Note: Some banks will not accept wrapped coins; they must be counted or checked automatically to ensure legality.) Yes, people hide coins of the same weight inside coin rolls.)
Just spend them: Gone are the days when you could ride your horse to the general store and buy something for a penny, but there are still a few abstainers. Dollar General Offers a weekly penny menu featuring out-of-season or discontinued items that are marked down to just one cent. Websites like Lady Crazy Coupon and Freebie guy Provide weekly updates on what you can get for a penny at Dollar General — if those items haven’t already been removed from shelves. Even Krazy Coupon Lady has it Home Depot hack Where you can get items for a penny.
Find a collector’s item: It’s highly unlikely, but you never know. The most expensive penny is a 1943-D Lincoln Wheat PennyWhich could fetch approximately $2.5 million. Or maybe you have 1880 Indian head centwhich can cost approximately $150. List of pennies of value in the United States Coin Book here.
Fun and skills for kids: These pennies can help you upgrade your arts and crafts tool box. Help your kids figure out a budget, create some artwork, do a science experiment – you have options! Payment Green light ideas.
Is nickel next?
The penny is just the latest US coin to be discontinued. Half dime, half dime, large dime, double eagle and Several others Everything has come and gone.
Nickel could be next. It costs approx 14 cents to makeThat’s nearly three times the face value of the five-cent coin. The basic problem is that nickel is made up of 75% copper and 25% nickel, metals whose prices have doubled over the past decade.
But getting rid of a nickel will be more difficult than getting rid of a penny. Rounding up or down to the nearest cent could cost American taxpayers $56 million a year. According to a study By the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond. This is much more than the approximate $6 million per year generated by penny retirement.
A penny for your trivia
The penny may be on its way out, but its history is full of fun facts.
President Lincoln was not always on hand. Honest Abe only became the star attraction in 1909, in honor of the centenary of his birth. Lady Liberty was the first to appear on a coin, in 1793.
Newer pennies contain a little copper: Pennies minted after 1982 are made of copper-plated zinc, which is composed of 97.5% zinc and 2.5% copper.
You can clean it: Vinegar, vegetable oil and water It can help with washing Decades of soot and dirt from those pennies. but “No, no, no, don’t“Think about it even if you were to dig for any collectibles in your coin stash — it could significantly damage their value,” says one coin shop owner.
Only Lincoln faces right: Our 13th president is the only person depicted on coins facing right. Everyone faces left. Pull some change and check for yourself.
50-50 coin toss? Try 80-20: Stanford University mathematics professor and former magician Percy Diaconis says that a penny Tails will land 80% of the time Because the side with Lincoln’s head weighs much more than the tail side.
What do D, S and P mean: The letters on the front of the coin indicate where it was minted: D for Denver, S for San Francisco, and P for Philadelphia. But you’ll only see the P on pennies minted in 2017, which was made to commemorate the 225th anniversary of the founding of the U.S. Mint. In all other years, pennies minted in Philadelphia were not marked P.
Fivepence Special: The last five pennies ever minted feature a special omega symbol, It was chosen because omega is the last letter in the Greek alphabet. You are unlikely to see one in real life. These five pennies will not be in circulation, according to the Treasury Department. Instead, the government plans to auction them off. Details about the auction are not yet available.