If it goes, would anyone miss the penny?

if the penny goes , hmmm another way to up the prices on everything. You have to love our government.

How will I ever be able to tell my kids that I don't have 2 cents to rub together? That will be everyone's problem in the future - no one will have 2 cents to rub together.

A lot of people see fixated on inflation or rounding their dollar store purchases. The reality of the situation is that whenever do we spend a dollar? It is a challenge to visit the typical fast food chain without spending 10 times that; a trip to the grocery store, a 100 times that. Now how bad does it really seem when you are simply rounding $10.98 to 11.00 (or 0.18% increase) add a $100 to the purchase price and now you are paying 0.0018% more. Last time I checked, certainly far less than typical inflationary factors. And as many pointed out – the rounding SHOULD work both ways and nearly balance itself out.

I am a penny hoarder; I can truthfully say I cannot recall the last time I dug for change less than a $2 dollar coin. I live off of unlimited ATM and Debit transactions so would certainly not miss the penny.

The only issue that I did cringe at in the entire article was the reference to Wikipedia as proof.

the penny will still exist on non cash transactions. i dont know about anyone else, but i rarely pay cash for anything and almost always use debit. they will only round up or down when you use cash. besides, with all the pennys sitting in everyones house in jars or bottles, just waiting to be rolled for that perfect vacation. i rolled almost $400 in penny's last year after about 7 years of collection. even after they discontinue the penny, there will still be millions of them in circulation for some time. they just wont vanish.

Hiow will the gas prices go up in the future if the penny goes. Will it be 5 cents a litre every time the gas prices go up? This is going to cost the average person more everytime there is an increase on all products. Pennies make dollars when you add them up over the year. No problem for the oil companies etc getting to 5 dollars a gallon much faster. Bad idea if the savings are not passed on to the public.

just get rid of it! The usefulness of the coin is long past

one disadvantage with doing away with the penny is that everything will be up-priced, which is just another way of saying "let them eat cake" to the poorest among us, and it is another way to tax the middle class....why not just get rid of the Senate?

if you ask me and it seems as if you almost have. I don't think we're going nearly far enough. Lets get rid of the whole shootin match. Just think no mors change given back on top of your bills for you to try to get in your pocket without spilling them across the store.
Who among us isn't sick and tired of being nickel and dimed by polititians. I say no more penny no more nickel no more dime or quarter. AT THE VERY LEAST THERE SHOULD BE A LAW THAT MAKES IT MANDATORY to drop a coin from service every time they change one of our bills into one before we all start having to carry fanny pacs just to deal with the annoying hunks of metal.wow it felt good getting that off my chest has anybody got some change i need a cup of coffee and im a few cents short. my final word on the topic is pennies are non sense so lets make them non cents.

HENRY MAY... which part of this do you NOT understand. This has absolutely no connection to oil companies hikiing gas prices by 5 cents instead of 1 cent. Very easy... you put gas in your vehicle and make sure the final total hits to the nearest 5 cents... like 15.55 or 15.60. And if you pay by credit or debit card... the penny is not an issue.

Scrapping the penny would save 131 million, cash! What the heck are those in Ottawa doing? Dump the penny and save the money!

Experience say first pennies go, and later loonies go as well. It is called inflation.

WOW!! There sure are a lot of morons posting on this article!! For those of you who can't understand..... All CASH ONLY transactions will have to round the FINAL PRICE ONLY either up or down. If you purchase one product for $9.98 it will be rounded to to $10.00. If you purchase one pruduct for $9.97 it will be rounded to $9.95. If you go to the grocery store you will be purchasing MANY products that will add up to a total purchase price. If your groceries cost a total of $214.77 you will actually pay $214.75 if you pay CASH for your purchase. If you used debit or credit card, you pay $214.77 (no rounding required for electronic transactions). If your groceries cost $214.78 you will actually pay $214.80 if you pay CASH for your purchase. If you use debit or credit card, you will pay $214.78 (no rounding required for electronic transactions). Stores will not be allowed to round the price of every product on their shelves up to the nearest 5 cent increment.

I was in Australia and New Zealand in 1999 and they had already eliminated the penny back then to the point that I didn't even see one during a 12 month visit. Their countries seem fine without it. Canada will be better off at this point in time without the penny.

HENRY MAY: "Hiow will the gas prices go up in the future if the penny goes. Will it be 5 cents a litre every time the gas prices go up?" --> your comments show how clueless you really are!!!! Gas prices are currently prices in fractions of a penny - For example: 96.9 cents per litre. WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU HELD 0.9 CENT COINS IN YOUR POCKET??????? Gas prices will change the same way they always have despite the elimination of the penny. I am sure that you fill right up to a level amount anyways ($40 fill), so most people filling their tank will not even need to receive a penny in change. You are probably the guy who will fill up to $40.02 each time so you can receive 2 cents of free gas each time you fill and not need to pay the extra 2 cents.....

Have the penny made in China, that'll make it cheaper to produce !

My 2 cents worth - I think everyone is missing something here. It may be true that eliminating the penny would potentially save the government $131 million per year. The thing that I have a problem with is when has the government EVER taken a savings like that and put it into ANY kind of social program? What you are more likely to see is the government giving themselves a collective pat on the back and putting that money into something they can all agree on - a pay increase for MPs and Senators! After all, they work so hard for us that none of us would ever have a problem with paying them more, would we? Just look at the Senate - they had to sit 5 times to decide that getting rid of the penny was prudent, fiscally. I wonder how much it costs for each sitting of the Senate? How many of the Senators were actually present when this was all decided? How many, of the Senators present, were actually awake when the vote was taken? Perhaps a better way to save even more money would be to get rid of the Senate and Senators!

Save even money money! Get rid of the appointed Senate.

I was taught...look after the pennies and the dollars will look after themselves. How about every penny counts- I guess everyone is much more rich than I am!

Absolutely! Honour tradition. Long live the penny!

I lived in Australia for a while and the scrapped the penny years ago. I found every time I purchased stuff it seemed like the store rounded up. Even when purchasing multiple products the amount always seemed to round up. I don't know how but it seemed to.

I think this is just another way to force us to use debt/credit cards.

Good bye and good riddens to the penny! Other coutnries have been quite successfuk in managing the doolars and nickles without the penny- Image how our language will change- no longer penny for your thoughts, if you find a penny pick it up for good luck, and even dollars and cents will become passe- it is a good move and here's hoping it becomes a legacy of Prime Minister Harper. Merry Chirstmas everyome. Doug

if they are going to scrap the penny they should scrap the 50.00 bill and the 100.00 bill because nobody want's to take them