First, it may be worthwhile looking through pennies for collector’s items, like wheat pennies, or other rare versions. Then also keep all pennies from before 1982 - the worth of the copper in those pennies is more than the face value of the pennies themselves. One pennies are no longer currency, you can sell them for their worth in copper.
I remember traveling in Italy in the 1970’s after a currency revaluation of some sort. Most small stores and street vendors had a dish near the cash register filled with postage stamps and candy. There was a country-wide shortage of small coins, so after you got your bills in change, you’d take stamps and candy to make up the difference.
Buying an espresso and then getting chocolate for change- I really thought the Italians had life figured out!
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When I use the self-checkout machine at the supermarket, I usually pay in cash. Today I noticed the machine is now rounding to the nearest nickel.
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The signs at the grocery stores about no pennies went up practically the day after they stopped making them (and I live in Denver, so this is where they made them). Since then the stores make change when they can, but they always round UP, to their advantage. I often pay for things like fast food in cash. I’m not a debit card person as I don’t like the little transactions hitting my bank account. When I was in Spain I had to use a credit card or debit card for everything, including subways and vending machines. My card was hacked.
My Credit Union has a coin machine and no charge if you deposit into your account. In fact, it automatically goes in, as you have to use your debit card to use the machine. They will not take change at the teller counter, even if it was bank rolled. My mother always bought rolls of the State (and now national parks, territory) quarters, and I found a few rolls of them when sorting through her stuff. They made me rip all the rolls open and put them in the counting machine.
Well that’s not cool! Is that a widespread practice? I’d think they’d round to the nearest 5 cents, and everything would come out even in the long run. I think I would avoid those stores, or if I couldn’t, I’d use a credit or debit card.
I’ve not found any stores rounding down, always up. I do usually use a credit card at grocery stores and for larger purchases, but sometimes at McDonalds I just want to pay in cash.
The greek place we do takeout at has rounded down since way before covid. They only accepted cash too.
I’ve taken to telling cashiers not to worry about the pennies when I (rarely) pay in cash. But one town bought a grandmother’s penny jar to give correct change to anyone who pays their tax bill in cash.
While I don’t care for the rounding up - it doesn’t really make sense to round down. I mean, I can’t expect that of a business I guess unless they already are inflating their prices! But I do understand how the rounding up feels a bit like taking advantage of an opportunity before them.
I guess I don’t worry about it too much. I really rarely pay cash for anything. I can carry the same $20 bill in my wallet for weeks if not longer!
I’m glad I carry some cash—some merchants don’t charge our nearly 5% tax if you pay with cash. I generally try to have cash in hand for them. Yesterday I was at a community event and all the vendors preferred cash and several only accepted cash. I spent nearly all the cash I had and needed to replenish when I got home.
Sorry to be dense, wouldn’t true rounding to the nearest 5 cents - not always rounding up or always rounding down - come out as basically a wash? I know, businesses could play games with prices (like, all item prices end in .x3 or .x8), so the rounding is always in their favor, but between taxes and multiple item purchases, that seems hard for them to do overall.
My local grocery store just put up a sign asking for correct change if paying in cash because they can’t get pennies any longer. They say they’ll soon start rounding to the nearest nickel.
I know in Canada they rounded up or down when they eliminated their penny; hope that happens here.
Considering that no one seems to be able to count out change properly, I’m (not) looking forward to a lot of confusion.
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I noticed a sign at the grocery store that they were running low on pennies. I rarely pay in cash and most of the time now pay with Apple Pay.
Last week a woman came up to me as I was getting out of my car at the grocery store. She told me she was homeless and did I have any spare change. I didn’t even have my wallet on me. I had my phone and had just put my license in the car as I was going to the gym. I thought panhandling must be much harder in a society that has become cashless.