John Gilmer wrote:
Better yet, let's dump pennies and the dollar bill.


Not so fast there!

The "Penny Dump" is LONG overdue. Because of the extra effort when making
change it $.01 piece is a drag on the economy.

The law should require that transactions be "rounded up" to the nearest $.05
unless the seller decides on a different policy. That way, when you get
change you don't get your cents.

Wouldn't rounding up OR down to the nearest 5 cents be fairer? .03 and
..04 UP, .01 and .02 DOWN.

I haven't heard a valid argument for the US keeping the penny coin for
quite a while. From what I have heard, the mint makes more penny coins
than the total of all the other denominations of coins because so many
pennies go out of circulation for a variety of reasons.

Legislation to eliminate the penny is proposed every few years and
doesn't pass. I'd bet it's because of strong lobbying by the mint
worker's union and the metal suppliers. And maybe by some charitable
organizations too, I've heard they feel many folks will toss all the
pennies they have on them into a collection jar, and they feel they will
get less overall donations if pennies aren't around.

Jeff



--
Jeffry Wisnia
(W1BSV + Brass Rat '57 EE)
The speed of light is 1.8*10^12 furlongs per fortnight.