Take A Penny, Leave A Penny
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"Take a penny, leave a penny" (sometimes "Give a penny, take a penny", penny tray, or penny pool) refers to a tray used for convenience in cash transactions. They are found in the United States and Ireland, in
gas stations A filling station (also known as a gas station [] or petrol station []) is a facility that sells fuel and engine lubricants for motor vehicles. The most common fuels sold are gasoline (or petrol) and diesel fuel. Fuel dispensers are used to ...
and
convenience stores A convenience store, convenience shop, bakkal, bodega, corner store, corner shop, superette or mini-mart is a small retail store that stocks a range of everyday items such as convenience food, groceries, beverages, tobacco products, lottery t ...
, and were once common in Canada before 2013 when the
penny A penny is a coin (: pennies) or a unit of currency (: pence) in various countries. Borrowed from the Carolingian denarius (hence its former abbreviation d.), it is usually the smallest denomination within a currency system. At present, it is ...
was taken out of circulation.


Usage

A small tray near a cash register is designated as a place for customers to discard unwanted
pennies A penny is a coin (: pennies) or a unit of currency (: pence) in various countries. Borrowed from the Carolingian denarius (hence its former abbreviation d.), it is usually the smallest denomination within a currency system. At present, it is t ...
received as change. For customers who want to avoid breaking a higher-denomination coin or bill, they can take a penny or two from the tray left by others. The tray can also be used by cashiers. For example, the cashier might take a penny from the tray to then give the customer one quarter instead of six coins totaling 24 cents (two dimes and four pennies). These are also called "penny pools".


See also

*
Cash rounding Cash rounding or Swedish rounding (New Zealand English) occurs when the minimum unit of account is smaller than the lowest physical denomination of currency. The amount payable for a cash transaction is rounded to the nearest multiple of the mi ...
*
Honesty box An honesty box, also known as an honour box, is a method of charging for a service such as admission or car parking, or for a product such as home-grown produce and flowers, which relies upon each visitor paying at a box using the honor system. T ...
* Penny debate in the United States


References

Personal finance Pennies Money containers {{Coin-stub