End of the penny....

[kdonnel]

Maybe I am missing something. If they just made the last batch of pennies, why is there already a shortage?

The US coin distribution system never really recovered after Covid.

https://www.cato.org/cato-journal/f...-shortage-causes-responses-lessons#references

 

[Kennywood]

Another reason the dollar coin failed was because of vending machines. Very few, if any, were set up to take a dollar coin. It would have cost the vending machine businesses millions of dollars to adjust machines or make new ones.

 

[hardcorestitch]

Noooo not pennies!

 

[citruscurtis]

Watching late night TV..... for $10.00 you can buy 50 cents worth of pennies

 

[goofyernmost]

So that must mean that the last 48% of consumers must now be forced, kicking and screaming, into the 21st century. I live in an over 55 apartment building and am amazed at how many of the residents are afraid of technology. Something that would help ease their existence is shied away from in favor of that germ infested paper and metal stuff or tediously trying to keep up with a manual check register, buying stamps to pay bills, etc., just because initially technology seems far more confusing than it really is.

It is also the reason that so many elderly are targeted because it is likely that they have a hefty stash of cash floating around. My grandfather hid is money in a chest freezer between food items. Talk about your cold cash.

 

[goofyernmost]

Watching late night TV..... for $10.00 you can buy 50 cents worth of pennies

I'm saving up for the 24 carat gold plated, Indian Head, Buffalo Engraving on the back, $50. coin that is .9999%, (that's four 9's)! It can be mine for only $19.99 (yes, that's 3 more 9's) with a limit of 5 coins per purchase. By the way, .9999% of pure gold would mean that there are a lot of people with more than that in their mouth as fillings or caps. It also means that you need to find a really safe place to store it because that amount of 24 carat gold plate has a real possibility of coming off if a kitten rubs against it.

 

[georgina]

So that must mean that the last 48% of consumers must now be forced, kicking and screaming, into the 21st century. I live in an over 55 apartment building and am amazed at how many of the residents are afraid of technology. Something that would help ease their existence is shied away from in favor of that germ infested paper and metal stuff or tediously trying to keep up with a manual check register, buying stamps to pay bills, etc., just because initially technology seems far more confusing than it really is.

Hey! I am a tech savvy older adult, rarely use cash, and I still keep a manual check register. I have always been a visual, paper record person. I like to look at all of my monthly payments - utilities, credit cards, deposits, etc all on a page. I have multiple credit cards for the rewards and sign-up bonuses, need to make sure I have enough in the account to cover. All of them are auto payed from the account.

I do my federal taxes online using Free Fillable Forms, but for Virginia there is no free electronic filing, so yep, I send a paper return by mail.

 

[goofyernmost]

Hey! I am a tech savvy older adult, rarely use cash, and I still keep a manual check register. I have always been a visual, paper record person. I like to look at all of my monthly payments - utilities, credit cards, deposits, etc all on a page. I have multiple credit cards for the rewards and sign-up bonuses, need to make sure I have enough in the account to cover. All of them are auto payed from the account.

I do my federal taxes online using Free Fillable Forms, but for Virginia there is no free electronic filing, so yep, I send a paper return by mail.

I didn't mean to imply that I don't keep track of every nickel (and penny) I spend. I use an old version of Quicken, always get a receipt and record the transaction on my Quicken. Since I am retired I have plenty of time to do this. I keep track of checking, savings, money market, Ira and every other account the involves income or expense. I know where every dime went that I spent in the last 15+ years and can retrieve that information in seconds. Reconciliation is so simple to do and it is actually fun. If you like to look at all your daily, weekly, monthly, yearly and decade of payments or compare current expenses with any time frame from the past try the base quicken program.

This is just a personal suggestion, I don't have any investment in Quicken in any form. I just find it easy to use and is capable of tracking a whole lot more than I use it for, but I have no need for much of the more intense parts.

 

[_19disnA]

I do my federal taxes online using Free Fillable Forms, but for Virginia there is no free electronic filing, so yep, I send a paper return by mail.

Same here. I use H&R block's tax software to electronically file the Federal form which is free, but there is a charge of something like $20 to file your State forms electronically. Ummm OK got it, I will continue to send my paper State tax form through the mail and save the $20................LOL.

I am fine with using technology where it makes sense, but don't think everything is in that category. I still pay for minor purchases using cash and don't see a reason to change. Companies that make/peddle cell phones try to convince us our lives aren't complete if you don't use their wonderful/amazing device to run our lives and/or have the latest version. Many would call that a clever attempt by their marketing people to sell more of their product !!!

 

[focusondisney]

Of course with Christmas shopping, we’ve been in & out of several stores & restaurants the last 2 weeks. Two places had signs on the doors about the penny no longer being produced. Neither place indicated they were rounding yet. They asked customers to have exact change if paying in cash. I don’t pay for much in cash anymore so I’ll just use a credit or bank card if rounding up starts happening. My husband still prefers cash. He has been collecting pennies in a container since I met him in the mid 70s. I think in all that time he’s only taken some to the bank twice. I don’t even remember the last time he took any out. So he’ll be set with pennies & correct change for a very long time. Heck, if he brings them all in, we can probably stall a shortage for a long time .

 

[mrsstats79]

I pay in cash at the grocery store and restaurants. It is how my budget works best for me. If the want to round down in my favor, fine. But why should I pay more if I pay in cash. And what happens to that extra money they collect.

 

[tvguy]

Another reason the dollar coin failed was because of vending machines. Very few, if any, were set up to take a dollar coin. It would have cost the vending machine businesses millions of dollars to adjust machines or make new ones.

Not my experience. Several years before the pandemic both my employer and my wife's employer vending contractor switch to machines that took Sacagawea dollar coins. You would have to put paper currency in the change machine as the individual machines no longer took paper money. The guy who served our machines said they were saving a lot of money not having to repair multiple paper currency readers, and continuously upgrade them as people found new ways to trick the currency readers. Someone discovered the machines would accept a photocopy of a dollar bill!

 

[fla4fun]

Whenever this topic comes up I think of the people who don’t have bank accounts, who can’t get credit cards, who use cash because it’s the only option they have. You can’t drag someone “kicking and screaming “ into a cashless environment if they have no access to the cashless means of making payments. I think more effort needs to go into the infrastructure so that everyone has the ability to go cashless before we force cashless payments on society as a whole.

I use a mix of cash and cards. I prefer cash for small transactions so I am not reconciling dozens of transactions in my bank accounts. I do try to use exact change whenever possible. If I went completely cashless, I would probably buy less than I do now to avoid the reconciliation nightmare.