Your two cents worth now rounded up to a nickel
Administrator | Feb 04, 2013 | Comments 3
As of today, a penny for your thoughts will be rounded up to the nearest nickel as Feb. 4, 2013 marks the day the Royal Canadian Mint will no longer ship pennies to businesses or banks.
The decision to phase out the penny was due to its excessive and rising cost of production relative to face value, the increased accumulation of pennies by Canadians in their households, environmental considerations, and the significant handling costs the penny imposes on retailers, financial institutions and the economy in general.
The Royal Canadian Mint states the estimated savings for taxpayers from phasing out the penny is $11 million a year.
The cent will remain Canada’s smallest unit for pricing goods and services. This will have no impact on payments made by cheque or electronic transactions—only cash transactions will be affected. Moreover, pennies can still be used in cash transactions indefinitely with businesses that choose to accept them.
As of Feb. 4, 2013 the Royal Canadian Mint will no longer distribute pennies. Businesses will be encouraged to begin rounding cash transactions.
As pennies exit circulation, cash payments or transactions only will need to be rounded, either up or down, to the nearest five-cent increment.
The federal government will be adopting a rounding guideline that has been used successfully by other countries for its cash transactions with the public.
Under this guideline, when pennies are not available, cash transactions will be rounded in a fair and transparent manner, as illustrated below:
When to round
Only cash transactions require rounding. Cheques and transactions using electronic payments—debit, credit and payments cards—do not need to be rounded, because they can be settled electronically to the exact amount.
For any cash payment, only the final amount (or equivalently, the change owed) should be subject to rounding. Individual items, as well as any duties, fees or taxes, should be tabulated in their exact amount prior to rounding, as illustrated:
More at www.mint.ca
Filed Under: Local News
Just don’t casually throw out a 1936 Canadian penny with a dot under the date. It is worth from $100,000 to $400,000. You probably don’t have one but what if you did in one of those old jar full of pennies in the house.
Live dangerously. Eat an organic turnip.
nickel.