On July 30, 2012, the Honourable Jim Flaherty, Minister of Finance, officially announced that the Mint will stop circulating pennies as of February 4, 2013. This transition date will not require new production of pennies, as the existing supply available for circulation is sufficient to cover that period.
More information on the Royal Canadian Mint’s website
What it means for businesses
- Businesses do not need to update cash registers for rounding, since prices and the final total payment will still be set at one-cent increments.
- GST/HST will be calculated on the pre-tax price, and not the rounded price. When customers do not have exact change, it is only the final total for cash payments that must be rounded.
- Electronic payments, such as credit and debit cards, will not be rounded and will still be paid to the nearest cent.
- Consumers can continue to use pennies for cash transactions indefinitely and businesses are encouraged to continue to accept the coin as a means of payment.
- Businesses are expected to round prices in a fair, consistent and transparent manner.
- Rounding guidelines will be adopted by all federal government entities for cash transactions with the Canadian public.
- Experience in other countries that have eliminated low denomination coins has shown that fair rounding practices have been respected.
More information on the Mint’s website.
Fun facts
A 4-litre pickle jar can contain:
- 4,992 pennies = $49.92
- 8,400 dimes = $840.00
- 3,411 quarters = $852.75
A Mint employee brought in a 4-litre pickle jar of small change that had been accumulating over the years. It contained over $1,000!
More than 67% of recycled coins are pennies.