Is it penny wise and pound foolish to keep printing and distributing Canadian pennies? The Senate finance committee says so. In giving its two cents worth, the committee last month urged the federal government to do away with the one-cent piece, which costs more than one cent to make.
According to figures from the Royal Canadian Mint, up to one billion pennies are produced each year, many of which are hoarded and never returned to circulation.
We offer a penny for the thoughts of farmers on this topic. What does this diverse group of people, adept at pinching pennies, think of the prospect of not having two cents to rub together?
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Legend has it that copper wire was invented by two poor prairie farmers who were fighting over a penny. Of course, that was back when pennies were actually made from copper, instead of the modern and cheaper copper-covered steel.
Nowadays, everything costs a pretty penny, and once a person commits to farming, they’re in for a penny, in for a pound.
Occasionally, farmers can get pennies from heaven, in the form of needed rain, but they can’t really count on it. Sometimes misfortune turns up again. Just like a bad penny.
Polls show a majority of Canadians wouldn’t mind losing the penny, but opinions are split along gender lines. Women, usually more fiscally cautious, are 45 percent in favour, while 65 percent of men say it should be scrapped, according to Angus Reid.
Perhaps women fear that prices will rise without pennies that keep costs incremental. Instead of paying $19.99, they’ll be paying $20 or $20.05. Proponents of permanently pinching the penny out of existence say a system called Swedish rounding will prevent that. By rounding prices up or down to the nearest five cents, neither the buyer nor the seller benefit over time.
Of course, the Senate finance committee suggests the nickel might be the next victim of monetary murder, so rounding would then involve the nearest 10 cents. In other words, metric. How Canadian.
Is it sentimental to want to keep the penny? Think of it this way: the United States employs “quantitative easing,” a euphemism for printing money, to ease financial worries. Continuation of the penny could serve as our more modest and uniquely Canadian method of quantitative easing. Penny for your thoughts?
