Dan's Diatribe

While in New York City, I miss the Canadian Federal 2012 Budget wherein one of the items put forward is to eliminate the Canadian Penny from our coinage system. In laymen’s terms, the Royal Canadian Mint will no longer produce the penny this fall.
The penny can still be used and accepted as currency for all those penny-pinchers out there, but the Government has gone as far to suggest that we give them to charities. My guess would be because they are trying to save the banks from a wave of penny rolls being deposited.
There is a glitch with what the Government is proposing, which as I see it, could be a bit of a money grab for unscrupulous merchants:
According to the budget, if one is paying by cash, then the consumer is to pay either the closer amount to a nickel through rounding up or down, after tax has been added. However, if the customer is paying by cheque or credit card or debit, then the exact total stays the same. Merchants pay for the terminals that they use to process a credit card or debit payment, meaning that merchants could alter pricing to lean in their favour for a higher consumer payment (if in cash), while eliminating the use of debit or credit card machines.
My guess is that we are going to be seeing more of those “Cash Only” signs…especially at smaller businesses.
Someone once said “A penny saved, is a penny earned”; now we’ll be hearing “A penny gained, is a penny earned”