
In Canada, find a penny, recycle it - coffeecodecouch
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/penny-wise/
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JacobAldridge
Good luck finding the 31 billion pennies still out there! Here in Australia we
farewelled the 1 and 2 cent coins in the mid 1990s - I've moved house several
times since then, and still find the occasional coin somewhere. And that
doesn't even account for the hoards that have been tossed away as worthless.

My only regret is that future generations won't understand why we ask police
officers "What's the colour of a 2 cent piece?"

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maaku
Why do you ask police officers "What's the colour of a 2 cent piece?"

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mig39
Copper?

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maaku
Ah

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RossM
Forgive my ignorance, but doesn't there need to be a minimum-value coin in
circulation to facilitate transactions? For example, I go to a shop and buy
something for £4.99 and pay with a £5.00 note - do I get any change in return?

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dhughes
If you pay in cash it gets rounded up or down e.g. $1.03 becomes $1.05 if it's
$1.02 it's $1.00 but if you pay via debit card or credit card it doesn't
change.

Here is the government's explanation [http://www.cra-
arc.gc.ca/gncy/lmntnpnny/menu-eng.html](http://www.cra-
arc.gc.ca/gncy/lmntnpnny/menu-eng.html)

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hippich
I am not getting why they are doing it at all? Why not let existing pennies to
exist?

They mentioned it costs 1.6c to create 1p coin, but it costs 0.0c to keep
existing 1p coins...

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sdrothrock
It's right in the title: recycling. They get the materials out of pennies that
nobody can use anymore.

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Naga
They are still legal tender actually, and stores still accept them. They are
just uncommon now.

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rahimnathwani
"estimated 31 billion pennies that are still in circulation"

"The Finance Department of Canada estimates that melting down the metal from
the pennies and reselling it in the industrial sector will bring in $42.5
million in revenue."

So, they're going to buy $310m worth of pennies, melt them down, and sell them
for $42.5m? That doesn't seem like a worthwhile exercise.

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JacobAldridge
I don't think they're buying them back, just re-circulating the currency in
larger denominations.

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rahimnathwani
Re-circulating the currency in larger denominations is the same as buying them
back. In order for them to take 100 pennies out of circulation, they must
compensate the owner with a dollar bill/coin (i.e. a larger denomination) or a
dollar of bank credit.

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eli
It's a funny sort of "buying" when you can print money. Be careful not to
confuse the value of a coin with value of the metal the physical token
contains.

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rahimnathwani
Ah... I think your point is similar to paulgb's: "So if the metal in 100
pennies is worth more than the metal in a loonie they make a profit."

Is that what you mean?

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eli
I think so... but the profit is a lucky bonus that happens because the coins
we decided we don't want any more happen to have some intrinsic value. They
would need to take the pennies back even if it was at a "loss" in terms of
manufacturing cost vs recycled value.

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cjfont
> steel pennies will be drawn to magnets whereas the zinc and copper pennies
> will float.

Float on water?

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city41
It said "and water tables composed of different chemicals" \-- they will
create a density that causes zinc and copper to float but not steel.

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zAy0LfpBZLC8mAC
Which is somewhat nonsensical, of course - they can already separate out the
steel pennies magnetically, and it would be pretty pointless to have all of
the remaining pennies after that separation step float. If anything, they'll
have the less dense non-steel float and the denser non-steel sink.

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Ellipsis753
Interesting. I wonder if anyone will fill empty warehouses with them and just
sit tight and wait until they're no longer considered currency and so can be
melted down (legally)?

