Goodbye, Penny! (1858-2013)
Penny Lane is in my ears and in my eyes
There beneath the blue suburban skies
I sit, and meanwhile back
In Penny Lane
Penny, Canadian — Passed away peacefully on Feb. 4, 2013, when the Royal Canadian Mint stopped distributing the copper-coloured coin.
The penny's demise had been anticipated since March 29, 2012, when federal Finance Minister James Flaherty announced in the budget that his government had decided to phase out the smallest denomination of Canada's currency.
The Canadian penny traces its origins to 1858, when the then-province of Canada adopted the decimal system for its currency. Initially, it was struck at the Royal Mint in Great Britain. The 1858 penny had Queen Victoria on the obverse (or "heads") side and a vine of maple leaves on the reverse (or "tails") side.
Dominion of Canada coins were first issued in 1870, but the penny, then made from bronze, didn't join the family until 1876.
The Penny's mournful, self-pitying twitter account.
And a Google doodle
In the pouring rain...
So, how come no one suggested, say, life imprisonment for the penny with no chance of parole for, say, 25 years? The death pennylty seems excessive.
You know what's excessive? Charging 5¢ for three penny candies.
Make merchants round to the nearest multiple of 5. Then two penny candies will cost 0¢. Buy two twice, and laugh all the way to the piggy bank.
Obviously, the right play is to pay for anything that rounds down with cash, and anything that rounds up with debit/credit. Up yours, system! I'll game you yet. (Once I've got rich off my penny candy empire, of course.)
You
stoleborrowed that idea!!!Jim Stanford @JimboStanford
Arbitrage opp'ty: pay cash when bill is rounded down, credit when it would be rounded up. Boost yr disposable inc by 0.001%, lose yr friends
Jim Stanford @JimboStanford
Mind you, that 0.001% income gain from arbitraging the penny is more than real hourly wages in Cda grew over the last quarter century!
Stanford wishes I stole that idea from him, that cad. I stole it from someone else (who may well have stolen it from Jimbo [that cad]).
(Nice point about the income gain/wage increase! My
sourcemuse was not so forthcoming with context!)