Worthless, useless coppers

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Drone

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An article debating the long-overdue abolition of the Penny and hopefully along with it the Tuppenny too

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-36226813

The decimal Halfpenny was abolished in 1984 when its purchasing power was approximately 2p today
The pre-decimal Penny (1d ~ 0.4p) was abolished in 1971 when its purchasing power was approximately 5p today
The Farthing (1/4d ~ 0.1p) was abolished in 1960 when its purchasing power was approximately 2p today
The Half-Farthing (1/8d ~ 0.05p) was abolished in 1870 when its purchasing power was approximately 4p today

As far as I'm aware the world didn't stop and inflation didn't run riot when the above disappeared, though I do fear for the future of seamstresses who specialise in repairing trouser pockets

Yep, the 5p coin today (the Shilling of blessed memory) is worth about the same as the old 1d when decimalisation took place in 1971, so start with that

It's a 'no brainer' surely, isn't it?

Get rid of the pointless, worthless and annoying things. Furthermore, they're butt-ugly and have been plated steel since 1992, unlike the gorgeous bronze-earlier-copper 1d and Farthing which were design icons throughout their long history
 
UK no where near to abolishing the penny it would cause a riot for the very reason Simmo suggests.

Where I am we still use Satang which is 100th of 1 baht. They did away with 1 Satang years ago but retain 25 and 50 satang despite the banks refusing to take them Supermarkets still use them as do 7/11 .

As 1 Baht = 0.020P then 50 Satang is totally useless but for some reason still in circulation. People can be seen often arriving with with jars full of the things and 7/11spending an hour counting them with a smile on their faces.

Sugar for some reason is priced ip something like 18.25 Baht but not many things carry a satang price...My theory is someone is pulling cash out the equivalent of how many satang are out there in circulation every time the print money someone nicks some lol


Footnote: The satang has been almost completely phased out due its having almost no value and its association with the devil and the seventh letter of the alphabet. The word 'satang' is part of an Illuminati secret code relating to qualities of letters in the alphabet which Nicolas Cage goes to great pains to stress in the movie, 'Bad Lieutenant' In the Thai language, 'g' signifies 'water' as in Ban -a town with no water and Bang, a town with water. Another clue to this code is that you often receive satang in your change at Big C supermarkets.
 
Strangely enough, in the nearest town to me there is a Thai takeaway foodjoint called ................. Satang! Seriously.
The word "Satang" might have some lucky connotation in Thai culture, I dunno. But I'm certain that irrespective of the takeaway's "Satang" name, it's highly unlikely that you'll get a curry for 1/100th of 20P. in there. :)
(Or maybe the Youghal branch of the Illuminati have their monthly meeting there). Must investigate further.
 
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If 1 and 2p coins are annoying anyone they can take them along to their local bank and stick them in my account where I will gladly make use of them.
 
Ireland rounds cash transactions to the nearest 5c doesn't it? Though I believe 1c and 2c coins are still legal tender

Yes Simmo, I am advocating prices being a multiple of 5p with the 5p coin being the smallest denomination. Bloody stupid, quite possibly, but I'd be interested to know why you think so. Presumably you would have regarded the abolition of the Farthing in 1960 as daft too

Apparently 52-58% of those polled in the Eurozone favour abolition of the 1c and 2c coins. Good for them
 
Drone said:
Ireland rounds cash transactions to the nearest 5c doesn't it? Though I believe 1c and 2c coins are still legal tender

Yes Simmo, I am advocating prices being a multiple of 5p with the 5p coin being the smallest denomination. Bloody stupid, quite possibly, but I'd be interested to know why you think so. Presumably you would have regarded the abolition of the Farthing in 1960 as daft too

Apparently 52-58% of those polled in the Eurozone favour abolition of the 1c and 2c coins. Good for them
Click to expand...

Don't recall the abolition of the farthing, but I do recall halfpenny's going - think I was 7 or somesuch. I would not have regarded those as being particularly daft - but I do think that the idea that something can't be valued to the nearest pence is. Possibly quite irrationally, but I care not a jot, as I suspect that it's no more irrational than selecting any multiple as the arbitrary point of valuation, be it 1p, 5p, 10p or £1 for that matter.

Aside from any other considerations, it would preclude the joy of purchasing 2p sweets.
 
It's almost inevitable that at least the 1p coin will be phased out in the next 10 or 20 years. If people are seen not to value it it might happen more quickly.

I remember being stunned about 6 years ago when I asked a class for loose coins for a charity thing. "Oh we don't have small coins," said one 12yo. "We just throw them in the river when we're crossing the bridge. You can't buy anything with them."

It didn't seem to dawn on them that they could save a few 5p coins and buy something with them.

Anyway, I put a jar on my desk and told them if they had any coins they didn't want just to put them in the jar and I'd see that Macmillans got them.
 
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