Adjö, Swedish Penny.

At the end of the month, the Swedish penny, the 50 öre piece, will finally go out of circulation. A couple of years ago they finally pulled the other 50 öre piece, a slightly larger silver coin which was (confusingly) in circulation simultaneously.

This is a relief, as these coins have long been practically worthless since dispensing machines won't accept them. Really, we're practically a cashless society anyway, with coins being used for almost nothing besides buying bread and paying for parking.

I raided my daughter's piggy bank and liberated this pile of coins: öre on the left, and US pennies on the right. 50 öre is about 7 US cents, so when we're left with 1kr pieces as our smallest denominations, we're looking at having coins in our pocket worth more than the three smallest denominations in the States. So when is the US going to get rid of the near-worthless penny? Ask the nefarious Canadian zinc lobby. And then get used to Swedish rounding.

I counted up 40 50 öre pieces, slipped a 20kr note into the piggy bank, and headed off to the store. 20 kronor bought us 4 ears of corn for dinner.