Are you ready for February 4th.

That's when retailers will no longer accept pennies in cash transactions.

The penny officially goes out of circulation.

(Jan,13th, story below -- End of the Penny)

Your cash purchase will be rounded up or down to the nearest five cents.

For example:
If your purchase totals $1.03 or $1.04, you will pay $1.05 --- you loose !
If your purchase totals $1.01 or $1.02, you will pay $1.00 --- you win !

However, I have learned that some businesses will still accept the penny.

The Penny will still be legal tender and can be exchanged at banks

for other coinage or banknotes.

I am upset with the Government's decision to stop making the penny
and being forced to use the 'rounding' system.

1) Pennies are important. When saved over time, they do add up handsomely.
2) Mark my words... the consumer.....me and you will end up getting ripped-off.
We will end up having to 'round-up' more often than being 'rounded down'
3) We are already losing. The banks are asking that you 'donate' your pennies.
In turn they will hand in all pennies collected to the Mint and receive a fee

for helping out the Government. (one bank teller told me they will not

separate the U.S. pennies from the Canadian pennies - they will all go to the

Royal Canadian Mint for melt down)
I think any one handing in pennies to the bank, should also collect a
fee along with receiving the face value for their load of pennies of course.
When the pennies are melted down and sold as scrap metal, the Government
will make millions.

It costs the Government 1.6 cents to produce the Canadian penny coin. Why couldn't the
Royal Canadian Mint re-jig their tooling to change the penny coin to a 2 cent coin and use
a 'cheaper' type of metal.
The Government would make a profit of 0.04 per coin or more and the 'rounding-off '
system would not be as painful to the consumer.

End of the Penny.

A cabinet order has given Finance Minister Jim Flaherty the authority to pay financial institutions for the mountains of pennies they'll begin to return to the Royal Canadian Mint early next year.
A new analysis of costs shows that redeeming the mountain of circulating pennies beginning Feb. 4 will cost taxpayers about $7.3 million a year.

 

Thanks Joe Y