30 Mar Now get rid of the nickel

Contrarian readers know I have no affection for the Harper Government. There are, however, occasional advantages to having hard-assed right-wingers in unfettered control. The willingness to do obviously sensible but unpopular things—like getting rid of the penny—is one of them.

The penny should have been killed decades ago. Taxpayers lose money on every one we mint. Consumers and storekeepers lose 492 million hours every year handling the all but worthless chips. (Yes, I made that number up, but it can’t be far off.)

But… the government should have gone further and ditched the nickel, too.

Donham’s Law of Coinage states that when a government adds a coin on top, it should remove one on the bottom. We added the loonie in 1987, and we should have got rid of the penny then. We added the toonie in 1996, and that would have been a perfect time to get rid of the nickel.

Today’s nickel will buy what a penny would have bought in 1973. Today’s dime will buy what a penny would have bought in 1949. I was only four at the time, but as far as I know, we got along just fine with the metallic currency in circulation then. Get rid of the nickel.