The Penny - 1¢

The Penny - 1¢

The penny or the one cent of the Canadian dollar holds the smallest denomination in the currency. You would think that having the smallest value would make it the smallest coin but it is not. Because of this reason, this particular coin feels rather big and heavy in your wallet or purse.

It has a copper appearance despite not made entirely of copper. The modern penny uses copper is the plating. The latter is not my favourite colour for coins because when copper gets dirt, it looks horrible almost like tar. More on the coin's appearance, on the reverse there are two maple leafs on a twig and on the current obverse is Queen Elizabeth II.

Generally, the penny is not regarded with a favourable eye by the public although it is a fountain's treasure. You could go to every fountain and you would see a large amount of these coins lying at the bottom. It's not surprising due to its almost "worthless" value thus people have no qualms in tossing them but sometimes you could find other coins. Personally I do not like pennies very much because I get too much of it and to make it "useful" I need 100 of these coins to make a dollar. There was a point in time that I had 376 pennies which seems quite a lot but that's only $3.76 just enough for a trip on the TTC bus and 76 cents to spare.

When coming to transactions, you can be either on the winning or the losing side. On one hand when you are a penny short, some sellers are willing to accept this shortcoming and ignore it. And on the other hand, you have those who insist to have the exact amount regardless of one penny less. The same can be said on the buyers point of view as you can tell them to keep the change. I have no problem is saying that when it's a penny to be returned because I use to round to the nearest 5 or 10 cents. Some cashiers can be jerks too. I remembered my bill was $4.81 when buying a sandwich. I handed $5.00 and the change I got back was 19 pennies; which was a lot to carry. I eventually made him taste his own medicine a few days later when I bought a lunch set for $7.75 and I paid the cent part in pennies.

In March 2012, the Canadian Government said that they would stop the minting of the penny as it would help the economy. This action would reach its ultimate fate in May 2013 when the coin will be no more in circulation. I have heard numerous views about this decision. Some said it will be a good idea because it it helps to have  better control on prices but some argued that it would make everything more expensive as everything will be ending with a '0' or '5'.