In the USA, the government spends more than the face value of the coin for every penny it mints. Then these coins go out into circulation, where they are distributed to consumers as change in the course of business. At the end of the day, a significant number of people lighten their pockets by dumping their pennies into a jar and the merchants go to their banks to get more new pennies to give away.
Much the same thing happens in Belarus, where people commonly resort to ten- and twenty-ruble notes if there isn't toilet paper on hand. The ten-ruble note, worth two tenths of a cent, probably also costs more than its face value to produce even though it's just nice printed paper.
The Czech Republic seems to have solved this problem. Their unit of money is called the crown, worth six cents. Interestingly, the smallest banknote is 100 crowns and they use a lot of coins. In the big stores prices are quoted in crowns and tenths of crowns (coronets?), but they round off the total bill to the nearest crown and nobody worries about the small change.
The U.S. Treasury has been trying for years to phase out the penny but they have never succeeded. I'd love to see us take a lesson from the Czechs. The merchants can still try to trick is into believing that their product is inexpensive because it's $14.99 and not $15. Then, let's allow them to charge us $15 anyway because we have stopped worrying about pennies. If you really care about the extra penny, pay with a credit card.
Much the same thing happens in Belarus, where people commonly resort to ten- and twenty-ruble notes if there isn't toilet paper on hand. The ten-ruble note, worth two tenths of a cent, probably also costs more than its face value to produce even though it's just nice printed paper.
The Czech Republic seems to have solved this problem. Their unit of money is called the crown, worth six cents. Interestingly, the smallest banknote is 100 crowns and they use a lot of coins. In the big stores prices are quoted in crowns and tenths of crowns (coronets?), but they round off the total bill to the nearest crown and nobody worries about the small change.
The U.S. Treasury has been trying for years to phase out the penny but they have never succeeded. I'd love to see us take a lesson from the Czechs. The merchants can still try to trick is into believing that their product is inexpensive because it's $14.99 and not $15. Then, let's allow them to charge us $15 anyway because we have stopped worrying about pennies. If you really care about the extra penny, pay with a credit card.
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