The newly minted Loonies and the disappearing penny have Canadian businesses struggling to keep customers happy during the changeovers.
Although the new loonie may look identical to their old counterparts, the coin is causing frustration for businesses that haven’t had their machines retrofitted yet.
In April, Canada’s new loonie and toonie were minted in order to make it harder to counterfeit, more cost efficient and longer lasting.
The Royal Canadian Mint says everytime a new coin is made, it is the responsibility of the business owner to make the appropriate changes.
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But businesses like car washes and vending machines are having a hard time with the changeover.
Angry customers are reporting their money isn’t working in the machines and costing businesses money.
Some Saskatoon residents say the city parking meters don’t take the new one dollar coin, despite the city putting $25-thousand into retrofitting 28-hundred of them.
The federal government announced changes to the one- and two-dollar coins in the 2010 Budget.
Speaking of pocket change, Canadians will notice a little more copper in their pockets for a while longer than expected.
Earlier this week, the federal government announced it would be postponing the circulation stoppage of the penny until February 4, 2013.
The penny’s last day has been pushed back from this fall to early next year, after business owners asked Ottawa to keep the coin ’till after the holiday season.
In March, it was announced as part of the federal budget that the penny would be killed off, saving taxpayers an estimated $11-million a year.
Once the penny is eliminated next year, all cash transactions will be rounded to the nearest five cent increment, whereas as electronic ones will be rounded down to the individual cent.
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