Happy Birthday, President Lincoln. To celebrate, stores have decided to stop accepting the penny.
That’s right, in West Concord, Massachusetts, a number of stores are refusing to accept pennies as of today, calling pennies “wasteful and time consuming.” Instead, they will round all purchases down to the nearest nickel.
I suppose no one can really complain – after all, they will simply be getting a few cents off of their purchase. Buy a cupcake that costs $2.74? No pennies allowed, so that cupcake now costs $2.70. It just seems a bit harsh to put the new rule into effect on Lincoln’s birthday of all days, especially this year, which seems to be the Year of Lincoln.
I can’t say I spend pennies all that often. They do end up in my wallet, and if I have exact change, I try to use it, but every few days, I dump the majority of my change into my change jar. I like filling up a change jar. Getting rid of the penny would make that a bigger challenge, that’s for sure.
We’ve gotten rid of coins before. Years and years ago, the U.S. minted a half-cent piece. It looks like we might be getting closer to putting the penny out to pasture as well.
I’d like that. No irritating pennies.
Wow, I would guess with the bad retail market stores would be hunting for extra pennies, not giving way up to four cents per purchase.
What if I only have an ashtray of pennies to pay for a candy bar? Would they accept my pennies? It is still legal tender, even if it is annoying.
haha, he stole my 1-year blog anniversary
sucky about the whole penny situation too…i still like them a lot.
I won’t even stop to pick one up off ths street. I’ve got a jar full of them and keep forgetting to bring them into Coinstar to turn htem into real money
Here in Australia, we got rid of 1 cents and 2 cent coins I think back in the early 1980′s. We round up and round down to the nearest dollar as well and the transition wasn’t that hard. You’ll be fine!!!
But make sure you keep a supply of your pennies for nostalgia in the future. I wish I had have kept a jarful somewhere instead of just one or two. We also got rid of $1 and $2 notes. Our lowest denomination are (is?) $5 notes. Should have kept a supply of those too 