# Cleanup on Hwy 11 please!



## carverman (Nov 8, 2010)

A Brinks truck with "millions" of looneys and dubloons crashed on Hwy 11 and spilled coins in every direction. I'm sure that this
would not be considered a windfall, as the cops were on the scene to keep rubberneckers from investigating.
Apparently they used magnetic tools to pick up the scattered loonies as there were too many of them.

http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/0...-to-retrieve-millions-in-loonies-and-toonies/


The gov't mint is reducing the nickel content in the loonies/toonies as the cost of producing the coins with nickel content exceeds their
worth these days. The new coins will have base metal in them..or recycled metal from China from the recycled cars. This move is the
Mints part on being "green" yet preserving the integrity of the coins. The coatings will not have any brass or any worthwhile metal,
but some kind of "flashed coating" to give it that "golden" colour. 

I guess times are changing and along with the plastic $100 bills, and now the $20s coming up, saving money and laying off gov't
(mint)workers is the way of balancing the federal budget.


----------



## ddkay (Nov 20, 2010)

Wow that's awful, I hope the drivers are ok. I wish we did away with coins, they aren't even really necessary anymore...


----------



## carverman (Nov 8, 2010)

ddkay said:


> I wish we did away with coins, they aren't even really necessary anymore...


Then all the Dollar stores would go out of business..or be forced to raise their prices to $5 per item.

There has been some talk about eliminating the penny as they are completely worthless, but the
gov'ts are hesitating on that one because of the taxes they couldn't collect on making items rounded
off to the next nickel..which is practically worthless as well.

Besides, carrying all that weight in your purse or change purse, it's a physcological marketing ploy as
well...marking an item at $1.99, 2.99 etc makes it easier to sell than at $2.00, $3.00 even if there is
13cents tax on top of the price. In Ontario you would have to pay $2.12, $3.38 etc..so those pennies
and nickels are still required because if they rounded it off to $2.00, then the gov't would collect another
penny and you still would need to find 3 cents in your pocket.....or they could raise the sales taxes to
15%, gouge us even more and be done with it, then get rid of the penny.

$2.00 = $2.15. Why not raise the GST to 6% for Harper, and 9% for Preimer Dad...who could 
really use those extra pennies to help pay off the deficit (8billion?) before 2017...or 2021?, or 2025?.

Here's a novel solution.

Get rid of any notion of buying useless jets that we can't afford.
Stop getting involved in foreign wars that we can't wind and ends up costing us Billions. 
Scrap the money pit submarines.
Raise the eligible pension age to 70 for anybody still counting on OAS
Raise the eligible pension age to 70 for anybody wanting to collect CPP.
Use the OAS and CPP surplus to pay off the deficit.

Problem solved.


----------



## financialnoob (Feb 26, 2011)

One of the other trailers involved in the chain reaction crash was carrying candy, which was also thrown all over the highway. Candy and coins all over. What a wonderful world that would be.


----------



## Spudd (Oct 11, 2011)

Carver, they just announced the elimination of the penny in the latest budget. Finally.


----------



## carverman (Nov 8, 2010)

Spudd said:


> Carver, they just announced the elimination of the penny in the latest budget. Finally.


Yes, just heard about that on CBC news. Finance minister Flaherty, when asked what people should do with the millions of pennies in jars in most households.... mentioned that perhaps giving them to charity.
Good idea..but at $3.79 per pound for copper scrap metal, the pennies are worth more in scrap metal than what they can buy indivdually.

A pound is 454 grams. What does a penny weigh? 2.27 grams? So a hundred pennies would be about 227grams or about 1/2 lb which is $1.89. 
So a "dollars worth" of pennies is worth $1.89 on the scrap metal market.


----------



## carverman (Nov 8, 2010)

financialnoob said:


> One of the other trailers involved in the chain reaction crash was carrying candy, which was also thrown all over the highway. Candy and coins all over. What a wonderful world that would be.


Maybe this would be a theme for a movie...CandyMan meets Johnny Cash? They invite all the poor kids in the country to enjoy a frolic in the wreckage.
Kids eating candy and throwing loonies up in the air..exclaiming "I'm rich! I'm rich!"

Working on the script..type! ..type!..type!


----------



## Beaver101 (Nov 14, 2011)

Easy man with the writer's block ...but still looking forward to CandyMan meets Johnny Cash ... LOL! : (these smilies are terribly tiny).


----------



## andrewf (Mar 1, 2010)

A couple problems:

1- Pennies are only copper-plated these days, with a zinc (IIRC) core.
2- It is illegal to melt down coins.


Good riddance to the penny. I have been advocating this for a while now. Next up should be the nickel, but ditching the nickel would require eliminating the quarter and replacing it with a 50 cent piece. Alternately we could ditch the dime and keep the nickel.

Also, assuming 2% inflation per year, and that the toonie was introduced in 1997, the $5 bill should be replaced with a $5 coin in 2043 (the year $5 will be worth what $2 was in 1997).


----------



## Toronto.gal (Jan 8, 2010)

Beaver101 said:


> (these smilies are terribly tiny).


Please place your complaint under the 'site upgrade' thread! [size is not the problem, it's the expression, or lack thereof].


----------



## carverman (Nov 8, 2010)

andrewf said:


> A couple problems:
> 
> > 1- Pennies are only copper-plated these days, with a zinc (IIRC) core.
> 
> ...


----------



## carverman (Nov 8, 2010)

Toronto.gal said:


> Please place your complaint under the 'site upgrade' thread! [size is not the problem, it's the expression, or lack thereof].


Yes, I would have to second the complaint on the new smilies. They are hard to see, and basically expressionless. There are lots of free smiley
sites where you could import better smilies. 

I like the active ones where two smilies bash each other.


----------



## carverman (Nov 8, 2010)

Beaver101 said:


> Easy man with the writer's block ...but still looking forward to CandyMan meets Johnny Cash ... LOL! : (these smilies are terribly tiny).


Still thinking about the movie script..but here's the theme song..

Who can take a sunrise, sprinkle it with a loonie or two
Cover it with choc'late and a miracle or two
The Candy Man, oh the Candy Man can
The Candy Man can 'cause he mixes it with coins and makes it all taste good

Who can take a highway crash, wrap it in a sigh
Soak it in the sun and make a groovy lemon pie
The Candy Man, the Candy Man can
The Candy Man can 'cause he mixes it with coins and makes and it all tastes good

The Candy Man makes everything he makes satisfying and delicious
Now you talk about your childhood wishes, you can even eat the dishes

and Johnny Cash...

I hear the train a comin'
It's rollin' 'round the bend,
And I ain't seen the sunshine,
Since, I don't know when,
I'm stuck in the Super Prison,
And time keeps draggin' on,
Helped myself to some toonies,
On the Highway 11 roadblock spill

When I was just a baby
My Mama told me, "Son,
Always be a good boy,
Don't ever play with guns,"
But I stopped to help pickup some loose loonies 
And now they put me in maximum security
and now I'm not having fun...
When I hear that whistle blowin',
I hang my head and cry.


----------



## Barwelle (Feb 23, 2011)

Hmm thought I posted something, guess it didn't go through.

Glad to see the penny go. Some countries have it worse though.

While in Russia last summer, I came across a 1-kopek (one-cent denomination to the ruble) coin and a few 5-kopek coins. Worth about 0.03 and 0.17 cents respectively. Their 10-kopek coin, which was more common, was still worth only 0.34 cents. And I found the cost of food, accomodation, etc to not be any cheaper than here. Though I only was in Moscow and St Petersburg.


----------



## andrewf (Mar 1, 2010)

Moscow is famously expensive. Not sure if the rest of the country is the same way.


----------



## OhGreatGuru (May 24, 2009)

carverman said:


> ...
> Good idea..but at $3.79 per pound for copper scrap metal, the pennies are worth more in scrap metal than what they can buy indivdually.
> 
> A pound is 454 grams. What does a penny weigh? 2.27 grams? So a hundred pennies would be about 227grams or about 1/2 lb which is $1.89.
> So a "dollars worth" of pennies is worth $1.89 on the scrap metal market.


Except they stopped making the 98% copper one at the end of 1996. Since 2000 the composition has been: 94% steel, 1.5% nickel, 4.5% copper plating or copper plated zinc.


----------



## carverman (Nov 8, 2010)

Confirmed. The Canadian penny is still copper to some degree, maybe even 1%. 
I drilled into a 2008 penny to verify...and it's the copper colour on the surface and base metal underneath.
Scrap metal? 


Ok, so what is the US going to do with theirs? 

Also, did the powers in trust at parliament hill figure out what we are going to do with the demise of the penny and the generations
of sayings (what are these called?) when the penny is no longer around?

And would you still stoop to pick up a penny?

"a penny for your thoughts'
"a penny saved is a penny earned"
"watch your pennies and the dollars will take care of themselves"
" found a lucky penny"

anybody can think of any more?


----------



## Toronto.gal (Jan 8, 2010)

carverman said:


> 1. And would you still stoop to pick up a penny?
> 2. anybody can think of any more?


1. Always, for good luck!
2. Alright, I'll give you my 2 cents [doesn't just have to be 1]:

- I'm not giving you a red cent.
- The penny finally dropped, eh?
- Do you trade penny stocks?


----------



## OhGreatGuru (May 24, 2009)

_Penny wise and pound foolish (OK, that one was already obsolete)
In for a Penny, in for a Pound (OK, another bad example)
Pennies from Heaven.
When the penny drops.
A bad penny always turns up.
Penny stocks._

The worst is that anyone caught using such expressions or terms will be instantly deemed an eccentric old fogie by younger generations.


----------



## Beaver101 (Nov 14, 2011)

carverman said:


> Still thinking about the movie script..but here's the theme song..
> 
> Who can take a sunrise, sprinkle it with a loonie or two
> Cover it with choc'late and a miracle or two
> ...


Cool lyrics ... now got to add these to the favourite songs thread also


----------



## Beaver101 (Nov 14, 2011)

> ...an eccentric old fogie by younger generations.


 ??? You mean a "wiser" old fogie ...


----------



## carverman (Nov 8, 2010)

OhGreatGuru said:


> _Penny wise and pound foolish (OK, that one was already obsolete)
> In for a Penny, in for a Pound (OK, another bad example)
> Pennies from Heaven.
> When the penny drops.
> ...


here's more that will be gone by the wayside
-a penny for your thoughts (does not apply to lawyers of course)
- penny ante
- in for a penny
- not a lot of cents (sense)
- penny pinching (pincher)
- and not one penny more!


----------

