When I was young, I was always excited if I got a Canadian Penny back in my change. It amazed me that a penny from what I saw as a far away land could find its way into my pocket in Colorado.
When I got older I had the opportunity to take a trip in 2012 to go to Canada. I exchanged a fair amount of my US money for Canadian currency, which is when I found out that due to rising production costs vs value Canada was stopping production of and phasing out the one cent in February 4, 2013. Being young and unknowing I thought this meant the penny was going away forever. However, even today the Canadian penny continues to be legal tender in Canada and it is up to the individual businesses to determine if they will accept pennies.
If a business does not accept pennies that business will have the choice to either round up or down to the five-cent incriminate. There is no law that specifies how retailers must round if they don't accept the penny. Therefore you could go to one business and have a total of $5.02 and be charged an even $5.00 and then go into the business next door and for that same $5.02 bill be charged $5.05.
The Canadian penny is slated to resume its value indefinitely in Canada. In the US a 2012 Canadian 1 Cent BU 2 coin set 1 Mag 1 Non is listed for 5.90 on Ebay.
Resources from Canadian Banking
Association cba.ca/phasing-out-the-penny- in-canada
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