No it’s not a magic trick, but rather an initiative by the Federal Government! The decision to phase out the penny is due to the cost of production relative to its face value, environmental considerations and the significant handling costs the penny imposes on retailers, financial institutions and the economy in general, along with other factors.
These changes will come into effect on Monday, February 4, 2013.
On that date, businesses are being encouraged to stop using pennies and begin rounding cash transactions. Sales and taxes will continue to be recorded as they are now. The changes will affect cash transactions only. Pennies can still be used in transactions indefinitely should individual businesses choose to accept them. Credit and debit card and other electronic payments methods are not affected.
Financial Services is recommending that vendors on campus that accept cash should adopt the “rounding” method on February 4th. Information about how that works is available at http://www.fin.gc.ca/1cent/index-eng.asp . The general rule is as follows:
| Receipt Total | Round Down | Receipt Total | Round Up |
| $1.01 or $1.02 | $1.00 | $1.03 or $1.04 | $1.05 |
| $1.06 or $1.07 | $1.05 | $1.08 or $1.09 | $1.10 |
As mentioned above, you may continue to accept pennies and deposit them as you do now. However, you will not be able to replenish pennies in your float after February 4, 2013. You may “sell” any pennies in your float back to the Cash Office the first week of February or swap them out for other coin denominations in your deposit.
Please contact the Cash Office at receipt_accounting@carleton.ca with any questions.