Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Canada is no longer going to mint the penny

As a kid growing up in Maine, I used to see Canadian coins all of the time.  Coins, but not paper money, were always traded at par in commerce throughout the state.  You may have gotten a ten cent candy for 8 cents if you tendered a dime, but since everybody treated the coinage as par currency, the vendor could just pass the coin along for the same value.  When I got older and started to fly to places like Florida, DC etc., I used to get looks like I was a counterfeiter or something if I pulled change out of my pocket that had been there when I boarded and then tried to buy something with Canadian money.  However, the Maine youth of today will no longer have to endure the curse of Canadian coinage, at least as far as the penny is concerned.  Since it costs 1.6 cents to make a one cent penny, they are going to stop producing and circulating them.


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