The Canadian penny is scheduled to begin being withdrawn from circulation next month. One authority on the use of currency says it should have been pulled out of service more than 30 years ago. Jean-Pierre Aubrey is a retired Bank of Canada economist. He says that Canadians began to “hoard” pennies as early as 1982 when the coins didn’t represent sufficient value to them. Mr. Aubrey’s economic models show that year as a “tipping point” that required the Mint to churn out new pennies to keep retailers stocked because consumers were throwing them in a drawer. The Royal Canadian Mint starts collecting one-cent coins on Feb. 4 for melting and recycling of the metal content, with some six billion pennies expected to be surrendered by Canadians over the next six years. Mr. Aubrey also predicts that the nickel is nearing the same tipping point long ago reached by the penny.
