A penny for your thoughts . . .

[lookin]

It's been a while since someone offered me a penny for my thoughts and, now that the U. S. mints are going to stop making them, I wonder if I'll ever get another offer. 🤔

Don't get me wrong.  My thoughts have never been a major source of revenue.  For starters, there aren't that many of them and the ones that do come along never seem to generate a whole lot of interest.  If I get a penny twice a year I'd consider it a pretty good year.

Now soon even that little trickle will be gone.  Worthless thoughts will slowly pile up, one on top of another, until a random breeze blows through and scatters them to the wind. 💨

And what about you folks?  Will there still be a reason to be thoughtful in a country that no longer makes cents?  What do you think?

 

[bkkmfj2648]

Perhaps this idiom needs to be updated due to inflation?

[vinapu]

about time, Australia and Canada stopped  making cents while ago and it went without glitch for all I know.

Even nickel ( for those not in the know it's 5 cents coin, 10 cents is called dime ) should be on it's way out . When was last time somebody saw 25 or 50 satang coin ? Even Cambodian guys in Space bar last August were surprised when I pulled few 200 riels banknotes claiming they never saw those.

[ToTheCore]

3 hours ago, vinapu said:

Even nickel ( for those not in the know it's 5 cents coin, 10 cents is called dime ) should be on it's way out.

Agreed.  Dimes (10 cents) as well !!  Only the quarter should logically be in circulation these days and eventually that too can be phased out. 

Only around 15% of all monetary transactions are in cash anyway and as that decreases, the need for expensive, heavy hardware should be eliminated.  

The glacial pace of change in the US, however, likely means that's a pipe dream.  

[vinapu]

2 hours ago, ToTheCore said:

 

Only around 15% of all monetary transactions are in cash anyway 

 

it depends how they are measured, by  money volume volume  or number of transactions. Buying chewing gum for 1.25  or phone for 500 is still one transaction each but volume is different. As for hardware keep in mind that coins have  very long life span so cost spreads over number of years. 

[lookin]

3 hours ago, ToTheCore said:

Only around 15% of all monetary transactions are in cash anyway and as that decreases, the need for expensive, heavy hardware should be eliminated.

 Sorry, kids, we only do Venmo

[PeterRS]

What about the pesky quarter and half satang coins that still turn up occasionally in change in Thailand. I have a drawer full of them!

Mind you, when I was a kid I started collecting what used to be called "bun pennies" in the UK - the oldest penny coins issued with Queen Victoria's likeness on them still in circulation. I assumed that over time they would be worth something. Then, of course, I had no idea that coin collectors only want mint condition coins. So I now have 100 or so of those worthless well-used coins!

[thaiophilus]

11 hours ago, ToTheCore said:

 Only the quarter should logically be in circulation these days

Or maybe you could go back to using pieces of eight aka the bit (as in "two bits".) 

Oh, wait, there isn't a one-bit coin. 😕

[Keithambrose]

4 hours ago, thaiophilus said:

Or maybe you could go back to using pieces of eight aka the bit (as in "two bits".) 

Oh, wait, there isn't a one-bit coin. 😕

I hardly ever use coins these days, so I'm not even sure if we still have a 1p or 2p  coin in the UK any more. I do know we don't have a threepenny bit or a sixpence!

[unicorn]

6 hours ago, Keithambrose said:

I hardly ever use coins these days, so I'm not even sure if we still have a 1p or 2p  coin in the UK any more. I do know we don't have a threepenny bit or a sixpence!

 

 

 

[vinapu]

18 hours ago, PeterRS said:

I had no idea that coin collectors only want mint condition coins. 

right but take my word for it, paper money collectors are not that discerning, logic being that some pieces hare hard to come by in ANY conditions