I lost what little remaining faith I had in the youth of America this morning. I went to the coffee shop and my total was $4.08. Gave the kid a ten, then fished around in my pocket for change. Found ยข6. "Is six cents ok?" I inquired. As any reasonable person would, kid says, "Sure, no problem." He then proceeded to studiously count out $5.98 in change. I was speechless, so I simply took the money and walked away, dazed and confused.
We got rid of the penny here in Canada a few years back. All prices are still marked to the 100th, but then the cashier either rounds up or down to the nearest five cents. You still end up with coins in your pocket but I've found that people will often round to the more convenient number as opposed to the correct one. I think the U.S. needs to finally get on board with this. My girlfriend suggested that we should just start copper plating nickels instead, that way the impact of the transition becomes easier on the American psyche. :P
This happens to me so often I don't even notice anymore, but your post was in my head so I took especial offense when, on a $7.04 charge at Chipotle, I handed the cashier a ten, rooted around for four cents, failed, found a nickel, gave him $10.05, said "don't bother with the penny," was given a confused look, and then handed three dollars and one cent. Anyway, I was just on the phone asked to give my credit info for something. When we got to the expiration, I said, "March 2017." The response, was, inevitably: "Soooo... five 2017?" I said, "Well, no, actually." And that's just today.