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I'm wondering what that would do to the state sales taxes... They're currently added in at fractions of a sent (for instance, the DARE tax in MO is 1/8 cent). The total sales tax in the county where I live is about 6 7/8 percent. I suppose that on top of everything else, the city, county, and state governments would have to round up as well, probably to at least a 10% tax.

That makes no mathematic sense at all.

Currently, the 6-7/8% tax on a (say) $15.88 purchase is $1.09 (rounded down from 1.0918). Under a system without pennies and nickles, the 6-7/8% tax on a $15.9 (no need for that last zero) purchase is $1.1, rounded up from 1.0931. You pay a total of $17.0, instead of $16.97. (Note that I could have come up with an example where the rounding benefited you, so that factor all averages out.)

And the three cents we are talking about can be earned in less than 20 seconds by a minimum wage worker. Imagine if this simplification saved a few seconds each time people made a transaction, because of the simplification. That, multiplied by billions of transactions weekly would add up. (Say each person in the nation has three transactions daily, that's a billion a day.) Save 5 seconds per transaction, that is a penny of minimum labor value saved per transaction or $10m per day, or 3.6b per year. Makes the currency printing cost worries look pretty small.

So, please, anyone. Name me a transaction in which a penny or nickle is important.

It surprises me that retail business don't catch on and, after totaling a sale, don't round things down to the nearest nickle or dime. Lots of times, a cash transaction is extended many seconds by people reaching into their pockets for a penny or two to eliminate a few pennies change. The delay probably costs the retailer more in clerical time than it is worth.

It used to be that Wawa's around here had a bowl with lots of pennies in it to expedite transactions, (with a give a penny, take a penny, invite) for some reason that seemingly efficient innovation has vanished.