Today, who wants to keep the penny, and why? The pro-penny group Americans for Common Cents is reportedly funded by the zinc lobby. That stands to reason, since the penny has been 95 percent zinc since 1983. Coinstar, Inc., is another avid backer of the penny. They make the automatic coin counting machines you sometimes see in supermarkets. The two sometimes have a hard time presenting a common front. Americans for Common Cents claims that 66 percent of Americans favor keeping the penny. However, Coinstar’s polling shows that 31 percent of those polled want to keep the penny only if it can be made of something cheaper than zinc, which now pushes the cost per coin well over one cent. According to their numbers, only a minority want to leave the penny as it is.
In NZ, all cash purchases are now rounded to the nearest 10 cents - we have no smaller coins. Nobody cares as far as I know. Just do it and get on with your life. Or not. We also have no dollar bill - smallest paper (plastic really) is a fiver. We have 1 and 2 dollar coins, though.
I find it odd that this makes no mention of the Half Cent though perhaps that is too old for comparison.
Awkward. I skipped the third bullet point when I was reading as I got what they were trying to say from the first two.... I expected them to elaborate in the part after that talking about how "discontinuing" coins has a history in the US. Oh well, thanks for correcting me.
They only minted around 1000 in 1796 which led me here Wouldn't mind having one of those turn up in my change jar.