The other day at a gas station, I went to go pay for my gas inside the mini-mart. When a woman walked out and dumped her change inside of a concrete planter. She had a look as if this was all to common for her.
It just bugs me to see our currency being trashed and I know "penny is just a penny", but so is the nickel and dime too.

Why do we have the penny anymore for? If its just going to be tossed in a ash tray or in our gutters.

lol i always toss my pennies, nickles and dimes away unless I'm at home then it will just sit on my table and build up until my g/f rolls em up and takes em to the bank

I keep all the lose charge I found/have. Unless I'm buying something. And I currently have a lot of lose charge. I usually put my lose charge in The Ronld McD's house. :3

I have always kept all of my change in a jar, once it gets full I will take it to the bank that has been nice enough to count it with their little machine... it ends up being a couple hundred dollars usually which i use for mad money...whatever I want to spend it on...

I'm shocked!

People actually throw money away? Why don't they just give it to the person serving them,
or leave it on the counter. Or at the very least drop it on the floor for someone else to find?

If I see a penny...or a two pence on the pavement....I just leave it for a little kid to find and
buy themselves a penny chew or something....

We toss ours in a jar and when it,s full i roll it up and hubby takes it to the bank! We can,t afford to throw any money away! But i agree the pennies can be a pain!

They add up to pay for school lunch.

I throw mine in a five gallon jar and cash it in for spending money to take on vacation. It averages about $600 a year.

You guys need to find a bank with the automatic counting machines.

We fill up a gallon water bottle with change I find all over the house...Last time I took it to the bank I got $345....wasn't bad...

I find pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters tossed in trash bins, to flattened by trolley and trains. I've seen street sweepers suck them up and nearby stop lights where the homeless just leaves them there. I think they should go.

cents Here is what America thinks.

Can you believe that there's a lobbyist in the U.S. whose job it is to keep the penny in circulation? No kidding. And why were designer quarters and nickels produced during a time of war? To support starving artists at taxpayer expense. I'm not buying the patriotism argument, because a sane person does not promote pride in a nation with a monetary form soon to become obsolete.

New Zealand's concept works well without the penny. If an item amounts to .96 or .97 cents, for instance, it rounds down to .95. If .98 or .99, then it rounds up to the dollar.

Most banks now charge service fees when customers request coin redemption, and contrary to popular opinion, it's money one had all along. It's a loss by virtue of the fact that interest hasn't been earned, despite the superficial fun of receiving a wad of cash. My brother has taken this concept to an extreme. He buys vehicles on loan, pays them off, and sometimes sells them shortly thereafter for the joy of receiving a pile of money. Usually he trades them in for the bragging rights of showcasing the latest model.

I put all my change in an Altoid case.

A good sayin' "The man who throws away a penny is not worthy enough to hold a dollar"
Hold on to your pennies and nickles especially because the nickle is worth more than 5 cents . This is true.

That makes me sick. Here there are so many people that can't afford a freaking meal, and people are throwing it away. I would have probably went right back over there and picked it up.

My boyfriend hates change, but he keeps it in a jar. Our Food Lion has one of those coin things where you pour all your change in and it gives you dollars in return. We usually average about $50 or so every time we go up there. It adds up man, no way I'd be throwing it out. We've also gotten so poor that we have been those annoying people that have to buy lunch with all change. I know everybody hates me for that, but hey, you gotta do what you gotta do.

It just baffles me to hear of people throwing money away...literally. A penny may be a penny, but 100 of them make a dollar. It all adds up, and you'll thank yourself for saving it when you least expect the need. When I was working every dollar I spent, whatever change was left I would put it away. No matter if it was 3 quarters or 1 penny, it was all put away. After a year of doing that I had over 500 dollars easily.

And the majourity of them were pennies ^.^

yea--throwing away money--no matter how small the amount is just plain stupid--besides that is congresses job--

$$$ is so tight in these parts--you see people scuba-diving in dirty urinals because they THINK there MIGHT be a penny in it--lol

I hate change in my pocket, so I toss it in a bucket. 200 bucks later, new cell phones!

I guess some people forget what it's like starting out or were born into money. My parents had money, I didn't, but they bought what I needed. When I was out on my own...I was out on my own.

I bought my first car at 16...a '62 T-Bird for $500...an oldy but a goody.

by the time i turned 12 i had a part time job and payed for everything myself mattresses, sheets, clothes, t.v sometimes even food i know the value of a dollar... doesn't change the fact that i hate change clinking around in my pocket lol

I keep my change in jars too, and cash it in when it gets full (or make a trip to the casino for some fun). If I am out and about and my pocket gets too full of change, I throw it in one of those jars that nearly every store has at their counters, for hungry children, or whatever. Besides which, change can thrill a grandson, lol. Give 'em a handful of change and they think Grandma is the greatest.

Well it isn't no better with a fixed income where it forces you to save, so I save all I can, and if I have alot of coins, I roll them up and use them as a emegency money on my needs when it the time for buy needs comes. So that way I might have some bills left. But that goes sometimes too on bills & needs.

You don't have to roll coins anymore!

I used to not care and throw my money away, but I might actually be getting smarter [] and have started keeping it in my wallet 'til it's overflowing when I go to pull something out. Then I either put it in a jar at home, or dump it into some charity thing.

I have a bunch of little boxes full of change all over my apartment.

I really can't recall a time where I've ever bought anything with change, I just use bills and so then I have more change.

I do like to buy the little trinkets from the 50 cent machines they have at the little stores on corners.

I have lots of plastic jewelry

yes I do

I spend it. If something comes to $ 5.57 for example, I pay exactly $5.57. (whenever I can) Its all money and spends the same.

That's just crazy, don't you like to jingle when you walk?

*sings* I have spurs that go jingle- jangle-jingle!....Oh sorry.... just amusing myself. So, change right. Yep it jingles!

lol. Off topic for a second, my boyfriend wears a long black trench coat with chains on it. One day we were in the grocery store and a little girl comes up to him and says "Mister why do you wear chains on your coat?" He says "Because I like to sound like christmas, I jingle when I walk"

Here's kind of a cool trick I heard about years ago on a radio program that's really neat and I do this ever single year.

At the end of every day, empty your pockets and/or purse of all the change you've amassed over the day. Toss it into a jar or something. At the end of the year, you'll be really suprised by how much money you've saved!

The first year I did this, I didn't have an ATM card. I actually saved up $2000 doing this and took myself on a great vacation in Mexico on what I'd saved in change.

In subsequent years, since I don't use much cash anymore, I've generally saved on average of $400-$500 dollars in pennies, nickels dimes and quarters. You have to be fairly religious about it and dump ALL your change left over from the day-- it has to go into the jar. I even made it a habit to not give a clerk .20 cents if the cost was $4.20... that way I threw .80 cents in the jar at night.

I'm so frugal ... my purse strings are tied so tight, I sometimes can't get them untied. Throwing money away outrageous....I never pass up a penny lying on the ground.

The Mint estimated that it issued 8.7 billion pennies in fiscal year of 2006.

I am glad to hear alot of you saved and also what you spend it on, its a good feeling to know not all is a waste. Unfortunately one out of four Americans do nothing with it(stated on my last link), and adds on year after year while out of circulation and not counting the nickels and dimes.

Yet 'change' is making a comeback with CoinStar. Its in almost every major grocery store nowadays, so if its a hassle of rolling them, take them to your store and get back cash to shop.

BTW most cash registers have donation jars so you won't get stuck with change and you're helping the needy at the same time.

To Sweetpumper on the comment that I don't have to roll coin anymore. You do where I live b/c you have to pay to use the coin machine here at a geocery store. So to me why pay to get your cash when you can use what you roll up. It keeps me busy too. Btw, I heard on a television show guys, I think the show was NCSI, that billion of dollars in coins are thrown out by people every year. Does that sound crazy or what?

Yea, millions in dollars of change is thrown away yearly in the U.S alone.. I read this not too long ago..

Billions!!? Hopefully its in the millions, either way who is paying for that loss missing from circulation?
Is it us!? the Taxpayers...

Jody, your too much....

I keep all my loose change in a very large bottle....when I cash it in, I usually go to an "Indian Casino" and lose it all, so I might as well thrown it away in the first place...no really I value my money..
the only good thing about change on the streets is it's considered "Good Luck" for the person who finds it...

I'm an Aussie, but when I went to America last year I wondered why the penny was still in circulation. Prices like $3.99 for example got me so confused (in Oz we round it off to $4, but in America you have to actually pay $3.99), I would just pay with a note and the coins just kept gathering. In the end an American friend of mine gave me an old backpack of hers to keep all my pennies in because I had a mountain of them. When I went to see my family in Canada afterwards, I gave the backpack with all the change to my 7 year old cousin. There was alot. Thinking back I probably should have taken them to a bank and got myself some extra spending money.

Also I heard people believe the myth about dropping pennies from high rise building too. So some people are seeing if they can throw away a penny but also knock someone out. IF I saw a penny dropped, I'm picking it up.

Even rounding it off would leave us the need to use pennies. With sales tax (in my state, 7.5 %) it is never an even amount.

...and another thing about pennies. Why do they break down over time? I mean I've found pennies that are completely unrecognizable, decayed and peeling. I know they use zinc and some have nickel in it, why?

In another hundred years I don't think they will be able to dig up a lost penny from the ground. Hey just throwing my two cents in.

my pet peeve at the moment ? it's 1 am and the neighbors are having a party in their backyard with a DJ blaring music.

rude. very rude and selfish.

I throw my pennies on the ground, stomp on them, and then spit on them.

Ah true. Here in Oz we have tax, but even that's rounded off. Our tax is also included in store prices, not added on in check-out. I kept forgetting that in America it's not only the store price, but tax on top when you go to pay. Even after several weeks over there, I was still forgetting.

I really, really, really like dimes

They're little and shiny and they buy so much!

well our currency is pretty much obsolete considering the fact that it's not backed up by gold anymore.

Yeah, a day will come when you will go shopping an fill your bag and just walk out the door without handing any currency or cards. They will scan your face or eye and your bag and automatically deduct it from your account.
Technology can be scary at times.


On a different note: I remember when I could go to 7/11 store and buy individually wrapped candies that were on the bottom shelf for one cent and a bag of chips were .75 cents. Good luck in finding anything for one cent now... and a bag of chips. nearly three dollars now!?

i give all my change to my daughter to put in her bank. makes her happy anyways.

Bear's Quest

Yep, there are already some places that using barcode stamps on hands or chips to be allow in some places. In china I heard that the cellphone are electronic credit cards. So it going to be harder to have money to spend one day.

Doggirl3
Yeah, its getting close to no currency at all except in a museum.

I really don't mind having currency, its just seeing money being tossed out like the daily trash.

One thing for sure gang. I love how they made the new dollar coins. They are a little thicker then the quarter.