Canada phasing out pennies

[Pete C]

Thank you for visiting. The 62-cent CDN dollar kept me out of New York, though. (Maybe you should be thankful for that! )

I hope you've been making up for lost time.

[Ted O'Reilly]

Thank you for visiting. The 62-cent CDN dollar kept me out of New York, though. (Maybe you should be thankful for that! )

I hope you've been making up for lost time.

The border-crossing into the US has become such a hassle I think twice (or thrice!) before even popping over to Buffalo these days. More pleasing to fly to Zurich or Stockholm or Madrid...

[GregK]

Maybe they could also abolish the Canadian dollar?

Do you mean the coin (aka "Loonie") or the worth-more-than-the-US-currency itself?

I liked the Canadian dollar better when it cost 62 cents. Then I went to Montreal 2-3 times a year.

...and it was allowing me to rapidly pay down my student loans. Of course everything changed about halfway through, and it ended up taking me longer than anticipated!

[ejp626]

It costs 2.4 cents to make every cent today in the U.S. We should stop making them.

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2012/03/u-s-penny-to-be-kept-as-canada-bids-coin-farewell/

Sure we lose on each penny, but we make it up on volume.

One of my favourite jokes (told about the car salesmen). I try to use it with some frequency.

I had a collorary -- sure they're not very talented at their jobs but they make up for it by not working very hard either.

[medjuck]

It costs 2.4 cents to make every cent today in the U.S. We should stop making them.

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2012/03/u-s-penny-to-be-kept-as-canada-bids-coin-farewell/

Yes and we should go metric and stop printing paper dollars too. Fat chance of any of that happening.

[John Tapscott]

Thank you for visiting. The 62-cent CDN dollar kept me out of New York, though. (Maybe you should be thankful for that! )

I hope you've been making up for lost time.

The border-crossing into the US has become such a hassle I think twice (or thrice!) before even popping over to Buffalo these days. More pleasing to fly to Zurich or Stockholm or Madrid...

What kind of hassles are you having, Ted? It's been a few years since I've been stateside, but I'm driving to Princeton U. for a continuing education course the first week of May. My passport is in order so I can't imagine there should be a big problem.

Looking forward to cheap gas(!)- at least cheaper than ours, and and visiting the Princeton Record Exchange.

[sidewinder]

Maybe they could also abolish the Canadian dollar?

Do you mean the coin (aka "Loonie") or the worth-more-than-the-US-currency itself?

I liked the Canadian dollar better when it cost 62 cents. Then I went to Montreal 2-3 times a year.

Thank you for visiting. The 62-cent CDN dollar kept me out of New York, though. (Maybe you should be thankful for that! )

The period I spent in Canada it went down from about $0.9 US to about $0.6 at the worst point (around the time of the Quebec referrendum) and there were very big increases in taxes. Trips to the US and UK became very expensive. Of course, it improved within years of leaving - but I guess it could reverse back when/if the commodities boom subsides.

[Jazzmoose]

It costs 2.4 cents to make every cent today in the U.S. We should stop making them.

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2012/03/u-s-penny-to-be-kept-as-canada-bids-coin-farewell/

Yes and we should go metric and stop printing paper dollars too. Fat chance of any of that happening.

I remember the idea of dropping the cent coming up back in the '80s (during the OMG the Japanese are buying the world! days) when some twit of a politician announced that it would be economic suicide, and that no country had ever dropped the unit the currency was based on and survived (yeah, I know; it's all based on the dollar, but he was an idiot) which, even taking it the way he meant it seemed a little odd when I thought about the Sen...

Edited April 6, 2012 by Jazzmoose

[danasgoodstuff]

For a moment I thought it said 'Canada abolishes the penis'... but seriously, what's up with them not getting how bad having the Loonie at par with the US dollar is for their exports and tourist trade, if I didn't have family there I wouldn't go!

[Ted O'Reilly]

For a moment I thought it said 'Canada abolishes the penis'... but seriously, what's up with them not getting how bad having the Loonie at par with the US dollar is for their exports and tourist trade, if I didn't have family there I wouldn't go!

The C$ hangs around par with the US$ these days, but I'd say it's likely that the US$ is down to the C$, rather than the other way around. Neither is doing well in Switzerland and the UK, where I've just been.

[ejp626]

For a moment I thought it said 'Canada abolishes the penis'... but seriously, what's up with them not getting how bad having the Loonie at par with the US dollar is for their exports and tourist trade, if I didn't have family there I wouldn't go!

The C$ hangs around par with the US$ these days, but I'd say it's likely that the US$ is down to the C$, rather than the other way around. Neither is doing well in Switzerland and the UK, where I've just been.

Well, I think it is hovering around 1.6-1.65 $/GBP, but when I was there in the mid 2000s, it was more like 1.8-1.9 $/GBP. That really made it hard for Americans or Canadians to visit the UK!

[Ted O'Reilly]

It's still pricey to visit the UK. It seems that something that costs a Dollar in Canada costs a Pound in the UK. Makes it 60% more. Or at least it feels that way.

I guess that's why the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall (aka Charles and Camilla) are in Canada this week...having a vacation with valuable Pounds. Oh, wait... No, that's not it. They seem to be travelling on our tab.