How fast are pennies becoming obsolete where you live?

Nope, we get our pennies back where I am. I have a whole canister full of ‘em to take to the local TD Bank to put in the change machine.

there are valuable pennies still out there in circulation – 1960 because of the change in design, 1943 because of the metal and a few put out there by collectors with values of $1,000..just for fun.

I tend to keep them in a jar. A couple of years ago, I gave a full piggy bank to my grandson for Christmas.

I pointed out on another thread that my sister tried to pay a $15 parking ticket with pennies and the PD refused to accept the payment in penny form.

Our banks don’t do change through the machines. They must be rolled.

I’d go further and say that all physical currency is becoming increasingly obsolete. I carry on average less than $20 in real cash on an average day, and I rarely have the need to use that cash. I rely on my digital money, and have yet to have that trust broken or damaged.

Here in Canada we have Interac, I’m not sure if you guys in the States have a similar association or not. It seems to have helped to encourage the ease of use and acceptance of banking cards for everyday purchases starting in the mid 80s, so this purchase method is very ingrained in many young Canadians. For example, every single official job I’ve worked, I’ve been paid via direct deposit into my bank account, with a few exceptions for first and last pay in the form of cheques. And since I am with a bank (PC Financial, the owners of our biggest grocery chain Loblaws) that does not charge any monthly fees nor transactional fees for using Interac, I’ve never had to pay any amount to secure and access my money.

As to your actual question about pennies, no I haven’t noticed this happening in prices here in Canada. But this could be because so many of us use Interac that we don’t actually deal with these pennies, so we don’t really care for the few times we get them.

I have to say i am finding them more and more on the ground….. I pick them up and add it to the piggy bank. Hey its money non the less, right?

I wouldn’t know. I don’t use cash unless absolutely necessary.

I could see that happening in a state without sales tax, but with tax they are always adding on those few extra pennies.

Oh, my. I scanned the list of new questions quickly, and I did not read it as “pennies.” I got concerned.

@tonedef – Hahaha, me too.

I save my pennies in on of those big water cooler bottles in the garage. It’s so full I can barely lift it now! Maybe i’ll take it to one of those change machines and see how much I can get.

Pennies? Are they still around? I barely use any type of cash anymore. I zip my card for just about everything.

What’s a penny? :-9

For the English AP exam i took last year the topic for the argument essay was if we should retire the penny.

@aisyna: and?