Florida Store Bans Pennies

A hardware store in Miami said it has adopted a ban on pennies.
Shell Lumber & Hardware hung a sign on the front door of the building stating that the business would no longer accept pennies in its cash transactions because accounting for the roughly 1,200 pennies needed each day for the store's 10 registers proved annoying, the Miami Herald reported.

"The bookkeepers used to come down and say your cash drawer was off by a penny," the owner of the business told the Herald. "It was just a lot of work for nothing."

According to the publication, customers using credit cards still pay the full amount, but store clerks lower sales amounts by up to four cents on cash transactions so that no pennies are exchanged.

Shell Lumber & Hardware's stance on the usefulness of pennies joins a growing movement across North America.

In March, Canada announced it was dropping its 1-cent coin from the nation's currency -- a move estimated to save the country about $11 million.

In 2011, the U.S. Mint spent $119 million to produce $49 million worth of pennies.

Miami Herald