While riding the Metro last week during a sleep-deprived daze, just wondering, why is it they don't take pennies. I had tons of pennies that I wanted to get rid of. The US Mint Office HQ is in DC, and there is a US Mint facility not too far away in Philly where they melt down old/unusable coins.

Anyone know?

The fare machines are not setup to accept pennies just like any other vending type machine. Seriously, why would you think they should? Fares are based to the nickel so there is no reason to deal with pennies. Frankly, if you had that many pennies, you are the one that should be making the trip to the bank.

The metro isn't alone. What fare machines take pennies? Just use those pennies when you buy coffee and newspapers.

Seriously, why would you think they should? Fares are based to the nickel so there is no reason to deal with pennies.

Umm...maybe because pennies are legal tender and thus should be allowed to pay for any item? So what is so wrong with wanting to use 5 pennies instead of just one nickel?

I mean, its not like the OP is wanting pay for the fare with stones or grams of salt...

I think there comes a time in every currency units life when the cost of handling that unit is far more than the value of that amount of money. Such I guess is the case of the penny.

To have systems to handle pennies - the incremental cost of them transporting these pennies, counting etc - is probably far more than say losing a customer who wont use the service because it doesn't accept pennies - which in itself is very unlikely.

I am guessing that just because it is legal tender it does not mean that someone providing a service has to take that legal tender. I perhaps could setup a shop providing a service AND ONLY accept UA SWUs in exchange for said service - unless I guess I am a government service and they probably are obligated to take their own legal tender.

We used to have 1, 2, 5, 10 and 25 paise (the cents equivalent) coins in India - but I don't see them much anymore. Simply because they are worth almost nothing now.


On the other hand I figured I would Google a bit and came up with this interesting website..
http://www.pennies.org/MNTFACT2.html

Summary:

The penny produces a profit for government of over $40 million each year, even factoring in Federal Reserve handling costs not recognized by the Mint. The GAO analysis incorrectly adds almost $10 million to Mint overhead and general and administrative costs. The GAO also inflates by 160% Federal Reserve costs in handling the penny. Finally, the GAO artificially reduced the penny's profitability by basing its analysis on the interest saved from the penny's production rather than the seigniorage itself.


PS (Shameless Insert) - Reminder Check the DC Happy Hour Thread (link below) for this Sunday's get together.

Maybe with Metro's new efforts to establish new commercial opportunities - ATMs in stations, in-tunnel ads, wrapped trains - a partnership with Coinstar or the like might be in order.

When I was back in school, I always saved my pennies for the Indiana Toll Road - the exact-change booths around Gary on the way to Chicago would take them (even if they didn't explicitly say so)

Maybe with Metro's new efforts to establish new commercial opportunities - ATMs in stations, in-tunnel ads, wrapped trains - a partnership with Coinstar or the like might be in order.



I really don't think counting the coins is the biggest problem. I am sure they don't count the silver manually. Every one of their fare card machines would (if even possible) have to be reconfigured to accept pennies.

Thread closed temporarily for housekeeping.

cblaisd
Senior Moderator

Re-opened for business with the following notes:

1. Posts that were off-topic (please note again the very specific question the op has asked) have been deleted.

2. Posts that were personal attacks have been deleted.

If you wish to have a general discussion of coinage and currency, please do so in OMNI. If you wish to attack another poster, please don't -- or take it to PM.

Does someone have something civil and thoughtful and on-topic to add to the orignal poster's very specific question?

cblaisd
Senior Moderator

Metro busses used to take pennies before they upgraded the fareboxes to accept SmarTrip cards. I recall reading a Washington Post article a year or two ago that mentioned that it cost Metro more to process the pennies than their face value brought in.

I don't think the farecard machines for the trains have ever accepted pennies.

Why should pennies exist? When I was young, 1/2 cents were around, and some state governments made mills($0.001). The mills I saw were wood. I have not seen any since WW II, as they were of too small a value.

before shifting to the euro, Italy had coins that were of just a few lira in value. Got them as change at the supermarket. everybody else just forgot about anything less than 10 or 20 lira, as it was too small.

Pennies are of too small a value. They should be eliminated.

What is needed is a replacement of the $1 and $5 paper note with a coin. They are not replaced because the Crane Paper company pays congress(called Lobbying) to keep the $1.00 paper bill, and to produce a minimum number of dollar coins, and withhold distribution of them.

DC had(maybe still does) meters that require $2 for an hour. People carry coffee cans full of quarters to fill the machine.

Metro busses used to take pennies before they upgraded the fareboxes to accept SmarTrip cards. I recall reading a Washington Post article a year or two ago that mentioned that it cost Metro more to process the pennies than their face value brought in.

I don't think the farecard machines for the trains have ever accepted pennies.

They haven't. So they would have to be reprogrammed.

I would think for the farecard machines, an even weightier (excuse the pun) issue than counting/processing the pennies would be storing them. I mean, those machines don't get emptied all that often (weekly, I think) and I doubt they would give pennies in change, unlike all the other coins they can accept, as no one would want them and the fares are all in 5-cent increments. If someone came and bought a farecard with 100's of pennies, the machine could fill up.

When sales taxes are 8.375%, you can expect that pennies will be always needed. I can't understand the hostility toward a penny. Just use them to pay for goods like you would a nickel, dime or a quarter.

When sales taxes are 8.375%, you can expect that pennies will be always needed. I can't understand the hostility toward a penny. Just use them to pay for goods like you would a nickel, dime or a quarter.


I do not understand why. The real tax on a $0.99 purchase is $0829125 at your 8.375%. why not issue a credit of some kind of correct to 10 to the -7?

Carried to absurd, yes, but before processing, sales tax was computed and posted on tables. In Ohio, on larger purchases, that tax was rounded to increments larger than pennies.

In Ohio, on larger purchases, that tax was rounded to increments larger than pennies.

In the Czech Republic (where I was recently), the smallest coin in circulation is 50 haleru (the main unit of currency is the crown, and a haler is 1/100 of a crown. So the direct equivalent in the U.S. would be a 50-cent piece). However, the country used to have 10 and 20 haleru pieces which have been removed from circulation, and prices are still quoted at, for example, Kc 3.90 or 4.20 or whatever, even though it is logically impossible to pay that exact amount with the currency that exists.

What is done instead is, once you get to the final total of your sale, it is rounded to the nearest 50h amount, and you pay that. Sometimes you round up, sometimes down. It works for me. Then again since 50h has a value of about US $0.03 it might work for me better than it does for Czechs!

There's apparently a technical problem with accepting pennies. The "silver" coins have an electronic signature that can be detected easily, so slugs can be rejected. Copper pennies are harder to validate. It's possible that the current copper-clad zinc pennies can be handled, but any older pennies would be rejected.

Rounding to the nearest 5c today causes the same rounding error as rounding to 1c in 1971. Prior to that, the rounding error was greater than rounding to a nickel would be today.