Canada will phase out and begin collecting pennies in February 2014 because they cost more than they're worth to produce. UPI photo by Joseph Chrysdale.
However, the federal finance ministry announced this week the one-cent coins won't start being retrieved by banks until February so as not to disrupt the December shopping season, the Toronto Star said.
The copper-coated steel pennies cost 1.6 cents each to produce and many Canadians discard them as trash. UPI has observed homeless people who beg in Toronto throwing pennies down sewers.
The government said there would be an $11 million dollar annual saving by abandoning the lowest-value coin.
Retailers will have to round prices up or down to the nearest 5-cent value when the pennies begin to disappear, while non-cash transactions will still include cents-value, the report said.
