Canadian Government Scraps Pennies

[SilverDragon72]

Now, with each passing day, the Canadians in my hoard will become a little more valuable....

Well, a little less common, anyway. Hopefully they'll eventually become valuable (and by that I mean more than melt/face, whichever's higher). That will probably take at least a couple years, though.

...

It's been going on for a week already... I wonder how many have already been melted

True. I will hold these for a long time. I know the value won't go up right away....but in due time as the ARP continues.

In the end, they will all be mine!

Ok, maybe not ALL of them.....

[henrysmedford]

[uthminsta]

Holy cow. That's a neat graphic, Joe. Thanks for plugging it in here.

[JadeDragon]

London Drugs has signs up they are still giving out pennies until they run out of supply. Actually got a Cdn copper and a US Zinc in change today. Safeway has the till rounding however, and no pennies. Walmart is rounding too i think.

[fb101]

cool graphic HM

[scyther]

So, it's been 2 months now... any news? Are any banks still giving out pennies? Any businesses still giving them out in change? Has the price of copper pennies increased? Has anyone been able to sell non-copper pennies for over face value? Any information about how many pennies have been destroyed?

[MetalJunkie]

I am on a trading system with my bank...i bring them my returns and they will give me whatever they have on hand. Some weeks they have a couple boxes and some weeks 10$. I take what i can get as they are doing me a favor. I still have over 400$ to search threw so hopefully people keep returning there coppers

non copper for over face value i highly doubt it....im just returning mine. However in the years to come who knows. but i cant see any modern day coin becoming nearly impossible to find. i kept a roll or 2 of every year since 1953...thats enough for me as far as numismatics may be conserned.

[SilverDragon72]

I just feel fortunate that I was able to secure a small hoard of the little Canadian coppers! Yes, I know there are potentially billions of them out there in circulation, but they are disappearing by the day, thanks to the ARP!

[mtalbot_ca]

My CU is refusing to give pennies that they receive.

No shop that I know of are returning pennies as change, but they still accept it as payment.

[MikeJ]

I wonder how many pennies have been melted so far?

[scyther]

I wonder how many pennies have been melted so far?

I would really like to know that... how many, and of what composition. The ARP released information on how much nickel and CuNi it had recovered for some years... if it gives amounts for copper, zinc, and steel next year, we can estimate how many pennies have been destroyed. Unfortunately, I doubt they will, especially for steel, which is almost worthless.

[mtalbot_ca]

I asked my CU this week about the rate of return for the pennies. They told me that at the start of the ''return'' process they would get over 40 boxes per week. Now they are down to about 5 boxes per week and still diminishing. I think that unless a new campaign is started, a lot of pennies will remain hoarded in people's home until they die or move to a retirement home....

[scyther]

I asked my CU this week about the rate of return for the pennies. They told me that at the start of the ''return'' process they would get over 40 boxes per week. Now they are down to about 5 boxes per week and still diminishing. I think that unless a new campaign is started, a lot of pennies will remain hoarded in people's home until they die or move to a retirement home....

Doubtless they will. The amount of pennies that survive will depend on how long they keep doing this. If they give up once they stop getting very many, a lot may end up surviving.

[Cytic]

Keep us updated on any changes and availability.

Someday we will probably scrap our pennies down here in the U.S. as well.

[fansubs_ca]

It's been a few weeks since anyone brought any into my credit union to cash in.

As for rounding Superstore is rounding in the customer's favour...
...apparently if you use the self check out you can start your payment with the
exact right number of pennies so they always round 4¢ in your favour. ^_-

The dollar store in one of the malls here is refusing pennies. I bought a bottled
drink that was $1, so with both taxes $1.13, I hand them exactly $1.13 and they
say it's $1.15, apparently their till software won't let them punch in recieving any
amount of cash that does not end with a 0 or 5...
...so I had them hand me my coins back and I used debit (INTERAC) to pay exact...
...too bad they don't accept credit cards or I would have used AMEX because it's
the one that costs them the most to process. ^_-

[scyther]

I bought a bottled
drink that was $1, so with both taxes $1.13, I hand them exactly $1.13

Ugh... the 8% sales tax we have here is bad enough. 13%. That's disgusting... you have my sympathy.

[fansubs_ca]

I bought a bottled
drink that was $1, so with both taxes $1.13, I hand them exactly $1.13

Ugh... the 8% sales tax we have here is bad enough. 13%. That's disgusting... you have my sympathy.

5% Federal GST (Goods and Services Tax) + 8%* PST (Provincial Sales Tax) in Manitoba.
*Recently increased from 7% to 8%

As for penny availability, I got $15 worth from the Credit Union this week.

As for penny acceptance, today I was able to spend 4 steel cents at Wal-Mart as part of
a purchase that was $38.99. Saved 1¢ by avoiding rounding.

[uthminsta]

As for penny acceptance, today I was able to spend 4 steel cents at Wal-Mart as part of a purchase that was $38.99. Saved 1¢ by avoiding rounding.

Good to know. Is that the exception or the rule?

[fansubs_ca]

As for penny acceptance, today I was able to spend 4 steel cents at Wal-Mart as part of a purchase that was $38.99. Saved 1¢ by avoiding rounding.

Good to know. Is that the exception or the rule?

Hard to say at this point, so far the Dollar store, Burger King, and 7-11 seem to be the
only ones turning them down. Though maybe I just have to try a different 7-11 to make
sure it's not just the one location or person. It's really odd for 7-11 to refuse them becuase
they are amoungst the few places that will take 50¢ pieces without blinking. (Most places
you have to make sure you either get an older clerk or there is an older clerk nearby for
the younger clerk to ask, a lot of people under 30 seem to have never seen them before.)
7-11 clerks get used to people "digging deep" to come up with money for what they want.

I'll contuinue to post acceptance/refusal reports here for particular stores.

[John_doe]

are they doing alloy recovery on the nickels as well?

[henrysmedford]

are they doing alloy recovery on the nickels as well?

Yes

[John_doe]

why am I getting the feeling that there will be a pinch on consumer nickel in the next few years?

[henrysmedford]

why am I getting the feeling that there will be a pinch on consumer nickel in the next few years?

The RCM plan can be seen here. http://www.mint.ca/store/dyn/PDFs/CP%202012-16%20-%20Draft%20R%20SUMMARY%20D%20_FIN_%20_Amend_%20B.pdf

[ZenOps]

http://publications.gc.ca/collections/C ... -2004E.pdf

Alloy recovery for nickel began in 2003 and encompassed all nickel coins (including cupronickel)

So that means they started melting 5 cent nickels, dimes, quarters, and also the rarely seen nickel halves and 15.62 gram half ounce nickel dollars, a long time ago.

They have definitely been doing mostly quarters (and not as many dimes or 5 cent nickels) from my observation in 2013, less than 1 out of 10 pure nickel quarters is left in circulation. IE: In a full roll of quarters, you might find three that are year 1999 or earlier.

[mickeyman]

The local comic book store in Streetsville (part of Mississauga) still gives out pennies. And sometimes you can buy a few rolls at local banks if you tell them you want some for old times' sake (or for the kids)