Half a croissant, on a plate, with a sign in front of it saying '50c'
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99 pence piece

 To get rid of poor shopkeepers having to root around for a penny change
  (+24, -4)(+24, -4)(+24, -4)
(+24, -4) 		  [vote for,
against]

Everything seems to be valued at £4.99, or 99p or £1,599.99 to make it sound cheaper, but we end up with lots of 1p change, in a jar, down the back of the sofa, in the washing machine, in the footwell of my car, or rattling around my pocket. If there was a 99p coin it would solve the problem.
—gizmo, Apr 23 2002

Odd number pricing and Melville E. Stone http://www.uscg.mil...nchor%20January.doc
"Mr. Stone was the publisher of the Chicago Daily News. In 1875, he came up with the idea of odd pricing of merchandise by subtracting a penny from the price (e.g., $1.99). . ."   Caution! This is a Mac Word doc. The mention of odd number pricing is at the very end of the doc, on page 14. [bristolz, Apr 24 2002, last modified Oct 21 2004]

99p coin http://www.hippy.fr....co.uk/twopound.htm
[pjd, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 21 2004]

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       Are there no sales taxes where you live? I always seem to pay $1.07 for something listed at $0.99, and $4.99 ends up somewhere around $5.40. When you're paying £1,599.99, or even $1,599.99, I would recommend paying by cheque.
—ickle me, Apr 23 2002
   

       gizmo at the risk of repeating myself - you are a genius! get rid of the £1 and have these instead - call them gizmos. ha ha I'd like to see the Europeans converting these into euros ha ha
—po, Apr 23 2002
   

       wir würden machen that 1.61580 European currency units mademoiselle po.
—mcscotland, Apr 23 2002
   

       ha, 5 decimal points great ha. got my gender right at last I see.
—po, Apr 23 2002
   

       [ickle]: Yes, we have sales tax (called Value Added Tax), but it's applied already when you see the price ticket. We can do this in UK because the rate is the same throughout the country, unlike US where it varies from state to state.
—angel, Apr 24 2002
   

       Crikey! Why don't we just get rid of the peny? It is a much easier solution. Just convert everything to multiples of five. So, instead of something be ing $19.99, it will be $19.95. Big deal.
—vecini2, Jun 11 2002
   

       Chop off a digit! Have the currency have only 10p, 20p, 50p, £1. I the USA, change it to 10c, 30c, $1.
—juuitchan3, Jun 13 2002
   

       The reason sho keepers price things at £nn-99 all the time is to make things seem cheaper. For instance, £1 sounds a lot more than 99p to the average consumer, hence ensuring more sales.   

       However, by introducing a 99p coin, shop keepers are going to do the same, pricing everything £nn-98 once the 99p is accepted as a certain interval of cash. This would inevitably make life harder, as your average old nag is going to have trouble working out how much 4 99p pieces adds up to.   

       Consequences...
—chard, Aug 02 2002
   

       So if you want to buy something that costs £4.99, are you just going to have to hope that you have four £1 coins and one 99p coin, or will you end up having to spend two £1 coins, two 99p coins, and a penny; or a £1 coins, three 99p coins, and tuppence?
—supercat, Aug 03 2002
   

       Fantastic! then everyone will end up paying less for things. A new anti-inflationary force. Then rather than fiddling around with income tax etc, the treasurer can just introduce a new, smaller denomination coin.
—Loris, Aug 06 2002
   

       I think the problem is existant in every currency. I wouldn't mind a 99cent piece. +
—joshkouri, Apr 29 2003
   

       Why stop there? There should be a coin for every denomination from 1 to 100. "The price is $1.47? Here's a dollar, a 23 cent piece, two 6c, and a 15c." "Here's your 3c piece change." Should make those of us that are good at math feel like our worth has increased. I'd hate to see the cash registers required though.
—Worldgineer, Apr 30 2003
   

       I love this idea. Sure [supercat] if you think it through, there will be all sorts of practical reasons that would stop this working, but it is just one of those ideas that at first read just sounds like a complete brainwave. In other words, it is perfectly "half-baked". +
—goff, Jul 22 2003
   

       good idea, but not original i'm afraid.
—pjd, Jul 22 2003
   

       This could be baked by sticking together coins to make a chunky pyramid. In the UK, it would be 50,2,2,20,20,1,5. I'd quite happily buy them for £1 just so I could annoy shopkeepers that charge everything at £X.99. So the question is, can you glue 7 coins together for less than a penny?   

       <geeky nostalgia>I remember paying for a 72p item with £1.22. The till girl gave me a funny look, took only the £1 and gave me 28p change. I then gave it back along with the 22p and asked for a 50p piece. She was annoyed, I was indignant, she didn't know what that meant, so I was angry. It's lucky anyone got out unscathed</geeky nostalgia>
—marklar, Dec 31 2007
   


 

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