Pennies.....

[Big Muddy]

Why do we even have pennies???....in large quantities, they are heavy, essentially worthless, and just take up a lot of space....I read the other day that it costs the govt. more to produce pennies than they are actually worth....the govt. wastes $105 million each year on pennies....so, let's just quit making the day'um things.

That's more than enough to finish the 12 miles of interstate near me....all the bypasses, exit ramps, etc. have been complete for five years, but they ran outta money to complete the last 12 miles....cutting my driving time to the lake, in half, has absolutely nothing to do with my interstate rant.

[Thumper]

So, do you think retailers would round their odd prices up or down? Wonder how many bazillions that would equal if they rounded them UP?

[jb]

Round down if it's under 5, up if it's 5 or over.
The thousands of pennies I have in my stash would become collector items in 100 years.

[johnboy]

Canada got rid of the penny a couple of years ago and we do what jb says - round up or down accordingly. Works just fine and I sure don't miss them. We also changed the $1 and $2 bills into coins but I'm not sure I like that so much (heavy).

[Thumper]

Yeah, our Susan B. Anthony was a flop also.

If we're talking about getting rid of something, how 'bout that stupid 9/10-cent on a gallon of gas? WHY is it always $X.XX 9/10 for a gallon of gas?

[Buckrub]

Good idea.

Here's a better one.........stop advertising impossible-to-pay prices at gasoline pumps. There is NO tenths of a cent currency. You can NOT go into a service station and buy ONE gallon of gas at exactly the advertised price. At best, false advertising.

I hear all my life that service station owners are independent and set their own pricing. Well geez! If so, out of 50,000 American service stations, don't you think ONE SMART guy would not charge tenths????

I'd make a law. What does Trump think of this one?

OOPS, sorry Thump!!!

[Big Muddy]

Here's what I found on that subject:

Why do gas prices always end in 9/10 of a cent?

"To answer the most wondered-about question in the history of "I've Always Wondered" (seriously, at least 15 people wanted to know), we headed to Three Lakes, Wisconsin, and meet up with Ed Jacobsen (otherwise known as "Jake the Oil Guy").

Jacobsen worked for Esso and then bought a half-dozen gas stations he ran for decades. Now, he runs the Northwoods Petroleum Museum -- a collection of at least 4,000 items, from drill bits to vintage gas pumps to antique oil company freebies (in Jacobsen's words, "I can’t really put a value on that because then I’d have to tell my wife and then we’d really have a problem. 'You spent how much on what?'").

"We have to go way back to when the oil companies were selling gas for, let’s say, 15 cents, and then the state and federal boards decided they wanted a piece of that to keep the roads going, so they added 3/10 of a cent. And the oil companies said, ‘Well, we’re not going to eat that,’ so they passed that on to the public."

Raising prices a penny would have been disastrous when gas only cost 15 cents. But why did it stick around?

"They found out that if you priced your gas 1/10 of a cent below a break point, let’s say 40 cents a gallon, '.399' just looked to the public like 39 cents…"

You won't find tenths of a cent on your credit card bill. Or even on the pump. But if you buy 15 gallons of gas at $3.299, you’re paying 13 cents more than at just $3.29. Since Americans buy 178 million gallons of gas a day, that’s a half-billion dollars more per year.

Jacobsen says the price of gas is the hottest topic in his museum. But there's a big misconception out there.

"People come in here and they say, 'Oh, $0.185, oh, that’s tremendous. I wish it were that way today.' Well, it is. In fact it might be a little cheaper. If you take just inflation alone, gas at 30 cents then would be about $2.20 a gallon now, but you used to get 10 miles to the gallon. Now, we're averaging over 20 miles to the gallon."

Adjusted that way, gas cost $4.50 a gallon back in the day."

[Buckrub]

So............they're all liars????

Good stuff. But that doesn't answer why JUST ONE of them doesn't buck the trend!!!??????????

[Big Muddy]

What service station guy is gonna pay the exorbitant cost of buying 4 new non-9/10 cent pumps for his station, just to be different???

Or you could just do this, before you start pumping your gas:

gas.jpg

[Buckrub]

Um...........OR.............they could roll the .9 to zero...........

[Nandy]

Nice piece of history. to me that 9/10 looks normal as in when you go to the store and everything is $X.99. I always understood it like muddy explained. People just pay attention the to the number to the left of the dot.

[Thumper]

Same with cars. I love that old used Phord truck listed for $9999.99! Hey! It's UNDER $10,000!