Abolition of the Penny Act [At Final Vote]

[Verily]

Abolition of the Penny Act

Section 1: Findings
1. That the penny currently costs the government of Atlasia more money to produce than each penny is worth.
2. That transactions for which single pennies are necessary do not reflect increased precision in pricing.

Section 2: Minting
1. The Atlasian Mint shall no longer produce the Atlasian penny.
2. All materials used to produce pennies shall be redirected to the production of other denominations of currency or else sold as raw material.
3. This section shall take effect immediately upon the passage of this legislation.

Section 3: Exchange
1. The government of Atlasia shall offer to exchange with any and all banks pennies for higher coin denominations.
2. These pennies shall be melted down and either used to produce new coinage or sold as raw material as appropriate.
3. This section shall take effect immediately upon the passage of this legislation.

Section 4: Abolition
1. The penny shall no longer be legal tender within Atlasia.
2. All transactions currently involving denominations less than $0.05 shall be rounded upwards such that they may be completed using denominations of $0.05 and greater.
3. This section shall take effect on January 1, 2010.


(Sponsor: Verily)

[Verily]

Wouldn't it be better if amounts were rounded to the nearest multiple of the half-dime than to all be rounded up?

I would imagine that would make calculations significantly more complicated than they need to be, but I'd be fine with rounding down instead of up.

Most rounding would be upwards anyway, with the huge number of prices ending in $0.09 to subconsciously lower the perceived price.

[Verily]

I'm a bit torn, actually.  The main reason for the penny would seem to be us bastards in the government who want to take out a number of cents from each dollar spent.  And investment accounts.

I think we could still do that, just with the understanding that values not ending in 5 or 0 would get rounded off. After all, though it may be $0.03 for every dollar spent, it's not calculated separately for each dollar but rather in bulk so that if $200 are spent, $6.00 are taken out.

[Verily]

Section 4: Abolition
1. The penny shall no longer be legal tender within Atlasia.
2. All transactions currently involving denominations less than $0.05 shall be rounded upwards such that they may be completed using denominations of $0.05 and greater.
3. This section shall take effect on January 1, 2010.

Okay, after further thought:

I motion to amend Section 4 part 2 as follows:

2. All government transactions currently involving denominations less than $0.05 shall be rounded upwards such that they may be completed using denominations of $0.05 and greater.

I'm not sure the government has the authority to legislate how private commercial entities do business and price their wares.  If stock exchanges wish to continue transactions to the penny (which makes for a more efficient market), I say let them.

I'll accept that as friendly. I assume most retailers will go along with the shift anyway (or else keep non-rounded amounts as a discount for buying a lot, as with gasoline right now).

[Verily]

Section 4: Abolition
1. The penny shall no longer be legal tender within Atlasia.
2. All transactions currently involving denominations less than $0.05 shall be rounded upwards such that they may be completed using denominations of $0.05 and greater.
3. This section shall take effect on January 1, 2010.

Okay, after further thought:

I motion to amend Section 4 part 2 as follows:

2. All government transactions currently involving denominations less than $0.05 shall be rounded upwards such that they may be completed using denominations of $0.05 and greater.

I'm not sure the government has the authority to legislate how private commercial entities do business and price their wares.  If stock exchanges wish to continue transactions to the penny (which makes for a more efficient market), I say let them.

I'll accept that as friendly. I assume most retailers will go along with the shift anyway (or else keep non-rounded amounts as a discount for buying a lot, as with gasoline right now).

I'd assume retailers would go along willingly, sure.  But I'd anticipate the stock market to continue trading in multiples of a penny, since each penny could potentially represent hundreds of millions of dollars in market cap.

Presumably. Don't some stocks trade in tenths of pennies right now anyway? (Not on the major markets, but on some markets.)

[Verily]

Twenty-four hours having elapsed, the friendly amendment has been adopted.

[Verily]

Hypothetically, would it be viable to make pennies out of some sort of cheaper material?

Probably yes, although we would have to work to preserve the appearance, but inflation has made the penny pointless anyway.

[Verily]

A question to the sponsor, what about non-paper money transactions?  Would these still be rounded.  Also, how would this affect the stock and mercantile exchanges?

I've already accepted Moderate's amendment to limit the shift to government transactions (although retail would presumably follow suit).

[Verily]

I don't see why what the penny brings in for charities wouldn't transfer over into nickels; that seems like a somewhat short-sighted argument to me.

As for rounding, any direct cost to the consumer would be more than made up for by reduced government minting costs which would free up money either for funding new or existing programs or for tax cuts. $600 million is, after all, only $2.00 per person.

[Verily]

If the first finding is correct, it is hard not to support this bill at face value. The concerns I have are these:

-Will the $0.01 still be a valid measure in all affairs? From basics such as calculating interest to high-level stock trading, the cent is actually a widely used and invaluable unit in our monetary system. Whilst I am not opposed to ending the minting process, or even automatically to the recall, I need a gaurantee that the cent will still be valid in all areas.

As I indicated when I accepted Moderate's friendly amendment, yes, transactions at lower levels will still be valid, much as transactions at the $0.001 level are valid now without any coin to represent them.

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I have no objections to such, but my primary feeling is that we should try to completely abandon the penny rather than allow it to linger. We can thereby more efficiently harvest what raw materials are still out there as pennies rather than allowing them to trickle in. If the majority opinion is against this, I have no strong devotion to this position.

[Verily]

Does anyone have any further comments or amendments? If not, I'll move for a vote tomorrow.

[Verily]

I will move for a final vote on this legislation.


We are now voting on the final passage of the following legislation. Please vote Aye, nay or Abstain.


Abolition of the Penny Act

Section 1: Findings
1. That the penny currently costs the government of Atlasia more money to produce than each penny is worth.
2. That transactions for which single pennies are necessary do not reflect increased precision in pricing.

Section 2: Minting
1. The Atlasian Mint shall no longer produce the Atlasian penny.
2. All materials used to produce pennies shall be redirected to the production of other denominations of currency or else sold as raw material.
3. This section shall take effect immediately upon the passage of this legislation.

Section 3: Exchange
1. The government of Atlasia shall offer to exchange with any and all banks pennies for higher coin denominations.
2. These pennies shall be melted down and either used to produce new coinage or sold as raw material as appropriate.
3. This section shall take effect immediately upon the passage of this legislation.

Section 4: Abolition
1. The penny shall no longer be legal tender within Atlasia.
2. All government transactions currently involving denominations less than $0.05 shall be rounded upwards such that they may be completed using denominations of $0.05 and greater.
3. This section shall take effect on January 1, 2010.


Aye

[Verily]

Tally on Final Passage
Aye: 2 (Verily; Hughento)
Nay: 5 (Meekermariner; Hashemite; Afleitch; Sam Spade; CultureKing)
Abstain: 2 (Colin Wixted; Bacon King)
Yet to vote: 1 (Friz)

With five opposed and two abstaining, this legislation has enough votes to fail. Senators have twenty-four hours to change their votes.