Tuesday, November 6, 2007

A $5 Coin?

I just heard a discussion on the radio about introducing a new $5 coin. Just yesterday I was talking about coins. Don’t we have enough coins to carry around already? I have to make a conscious effort to spend my change now. I don’t want to weigh my change purse down with $5 coins too.

The economist invited to the discussion said the solution to my ‘too many coins’ problem is to get rid of the 1 cent coin and maybe later on the 5 cents coin. What? Then these prices that have 99 cents on the end will really be a dollar.

I know, I know. If something is $2.99 it’s almost $3 anyways. It’s probably just the retailer’s way of tricking our minds to think it’s closer to $2 than $3. But I make my stand on that by making sure I get that 1 cent back! If they get rid of the 1 cent, I can’t do that anymore. And the 5 cents? That’s even worse.

He says the rounding, which will sometimes be in your favor and sometimes in the retailers’, will even out. Well, I’d rather just get my 1 or 5 cents, thank you.

Another thing. Aren’t metal prices up?

What do you think of the $5 coin? Or getting rid of the 1 cent and/or the 5 cent coin?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I traveled Australia for a year in 2003/2004, and they had already gotten rid of their penny.

If the cash register, after taxes, came to 1.02 it got rounded down. If it came to 1.03 it got rounded up.

I gotta tell you, I loved not having pennies! a penny here, or a penny there... at most I couldn't see it costing you more then $1.00 for a year. It also only applies to cash transactions. When you use credit card or debit, it still charges you to the penny.

Trust me, once you go that way, you'll never go back.

Esme said...

Really? I was in Australia in 2005!

I do remember this round up/down. However, I remember being rounded up most of the time.

It's subjective, I guess :)