The main thing I'm wondering about with the impending demise of the Canadian penny

In the Canadian federal government's most recent budget it was announced that the penny would soon be phased out, or at least that in the near future they would no longer be in production.  It was suggested that instead of using pennies transactions could be rounded to the nearest five cents when one needs to give change or pay.

My main question is who gets to decide when when the rounding rules are used and when exact change is given?  For instance, can a store opt not to give a customer a penny if they have one in the till and instead round down to the nearest nickel?  Can the customer pay only $0.40 even if the cashier can see that they have the two pennies that would be required to pay the $0.42 bill in full?

Presumably there isn't much that can be done about a customer deciding to pay with cash or electronic means of payment if one means of payment is more advantageous than the other.  But still, shouldn't we at least think about this issue?

I guess the point of all of this is that if hacking/digital heist movies (cf. Office Space) have taught us anything it's that if you skim pennies from millions of transactions you may eventually end up with millions of dollars.  Unfortunately I haven't yet heard how this problem will be resolved, or if it will be resolved, and which protections, if any, will be put in place for consumers and retailers (though I suspect that retailers are in a better position to make better use of these schemes than individual consumers).

Update:  The following quote from a Globe and Mail story doesn't give me much hope that the aforementioned problems will be adequately addressed prior to the demise of the penny.

Ottawa says it won’t be policing consumer-business transactions, but added that “businesses are expected to round prices in a fair, consistent and transparent manner.”

Really, this exists?

Recently I was going through my change looking for loonies and quarters to add to the laundry money pile when I noticed that one of my loonies looked particularly new, and a little different. Upon closer inspection I learned that I was in possession of a loonie commemorating the 100 year anniversary of the Montreal Canadians, an NHL hockey team.



I am really not sure exactly how I feel about this development. In many ways I understand that the Habs and hockey hold a special place in the hearts of many Canadians. I understand that people might want to celebrate a 100th anniversary with commemorative coins and stamps. In this case the Metro chain of grocery stores also seems to be involved as the sole distributor of the coins, presumably to encourage Habs fans to go to a Metro if they want to get copies of the coin. I guess I just find interesting that official currency is being used to promote the business interests of private companies.

On the other hand, if such ventures are cost-shared between the Mint and the Habs (and Metro) this may be a way of reducing the costs of currency production for tax-payers in a rather innovative and positive way. I guess I wonder how expandable such a program is. While I, and other Canadians, might be willing to see team logos of the Habs or the Leafs on coins on important anniversaries, would I feel comfortable allowing any company or group with sufficient funds to advertise by way of buying the tails side of a coin? If you allowed such a coin for They Bay would there be much public outcry? Now that such a precedent has been set will it be harder for the Mint to turn down such offers from other enterprises, and should I worry about this possible commercialization of the currency system.

Interestingly, it seems that this is by no means the first Canadian coin with a NHL team logo to exist (though I get the sense it is the first in regular circulation). When I checked out some of the Mint's sports related collectibles I found that most Canadian NHL teams already have collector's sets. At the moment I can find no evidence of the Mint selling coins with the logos of more traditional businesses, but it just doesn't seem to be that much of a stretch to think that they could exist in the not too distant future and that it might be nice to have some public discussion of such a change before it is implemented (I don't mean to suggest that such a plan is in the works, just that it seems plausible given the current practice of putting sports logos on coins).

A Few Quick Notes 186

-For a change, the sun was actually visible and the skies blue when I arose this morning. My memory is that this is about the first time that I have had this experience in about a month. To go along with this visibly nice weather the temperatures have actually risen and are now year room temperature. Unfortunately, cloud cover has threatened, but been defeated, at several points today.

-As part of the seemingly never ending room clean-up that I have been working on for weeks I managed to do some coin rolling today. While it took me a while to get through the few pounds of coins that I had, it didn't take as long as I originally imagined that it would.

When everything was sorted and wrapped I ended up with:
-19 rolls of pennies for a total of $9.50
-6 rolls of nickels for a total of $12.00
-5 rolls of dimes for a total of $25.00.

With a few quarters and loonies tossed into the mix the total of sorted coinage was approaching $55.00.

-After an abortive trip to Plaza Bowl for some Saturday night bowling I ended up going for a beer at Big Ben's Pub. As Greg, Nikita, and I walked in it was immediately clear that this wasn't all that happening a night at this local pub. Aside from the three of us, everyone in the bar was playing or watching the VLTs.

Though some might not be so keen on such a bar experience, I was actually pretty pleased. We didn't have to wait in line at the bar. Prices were pretty standard, and would have been great if we had noticed the specials sign when we walked in. Possibly most importantly, the place wasn't too loud. We were able to carry on a conversation without yelling or trying to be heard above the noise of the other clients.

-Yesterday we received a call from some friends. They were calling to tell us that they were in Witless Bay and wondering if we would be interested in having them for dinner if they could get some fresh snow crab. Not surprisingly my parents quickly agreed.

Though I am not an eater of crab (or any invertebrates) I did enjoy watch the process of consumption, particularly as it involved covering the table with newspaper and then piling exoskeleton on the table. Also, like fondue, the meal tends to be longer and more drawn out than usual as the cooking is done during the meal rather than before (making it a very social food).

-Great to see that Neil has finally posted again. It is somewhat impressive that only when he is getting ready to move can he find the time to post.

A Few Quick Notes 159

-Today, or at least for this afternoon and evening, Montreal has been riding out a storm. For maybe the first or second time since I have been in Montreal we actually have a combination of precipitation and snow. Though I should be clear, while it is some of the worst weather I have experienced while in Montreal, it is no where near the worst winter storm I have experienced. It seems as though it may keep snowing well into the night, which would mean more than 24 hours of continuous snowfall.

-I think that I must be 5/22 on Roll up the Rim. Unfortunately, as I have not been posting as frequently as I would like, I have begun to lose track of things.

-It seems that in the past few months, or the era during which the American and Canadian dollars have been almost even, or the American dollar worth less than the Canadian dollar, that I have been getting more American money as change. This is frustrating, not because it is worth less than the coinage I should be receiving, but because I don't like using foreign currency.

I became particularly sensitive to this practice while working in New York. Customers would frequently become quite upset if they received a Canadian nickel instead of an American nickel. Now I can't bring myself to pay with foreign currency, so I end up basically losing the value of the foreign coin as I just set them aside until I visit the other country, which in the case of the United States isn't all that frequently.

-Today, two group-mates and I spent a good number of hours working on a project. Fortunately the time commitment paid off, as we now have completed a fair portion of the work. This is particularly good for me as I have a number of other pieces of work to deal with this week.

-Pineapples have been on sale at Provigo this week. I purchased and consumed two a few days ago. This evening I purchased another two, which I plan on consuming in the coming days.

-Last night was a very busy night at work. From time I started at 6:00, until I clocked about over eight and a half hours later, I didn't stop hustling. Not only was there plenty of busing to do, we also had a fair number of keg changes, but plenty of furniture to move, as well as some shoveling and salting to attend to. Fortunately our hard work was rewarded with it being a very good night for tips.c