Google Canada embraced the penny's distribution end with a copper font theme and a spinning penny in place of one of Google's O's on Monday, but it's otherwise been a quiet transition so far in the local community.
In a move to save $11 million annually, the federal government announced the plan to end distribution of the penny last July, and the transition date was Feb. 4 this year.
Now as businesses are beginning to round cash transaction to the next denomination, the nickel, it's difficult to speculate when the last penny will be used.
But, for coin collectors in New West, speculation could drive up penny hoarding by the public or a spike in interest to collect coins in general.
"It was a long time coming," said Jeff Kuchera, owner of Crawford Coin Stamp Militaria on Clarkson.
Kuchera said some of the short-term effects of dropping the penny might garner attention for the coin-collecting hobby.
"It may introduce new people to the hobby," said Kuchera, who's collected coins himself since he was very young. "It might generate interest to some degree, but will the interest be viable? I personally think it won't."
Kuchera gave an example of the rare 1922, 1923 and 1925 penny, which can still be found in circulation, and are quite valuable-ranging from $30 to $40, or if found in pristine condition, are worth in the hundreds of thousands.
Otherwise, Kuchera said there's been no sudden influx of customers talking about the penny than before.
For a New West bank, there's been a lot of talk from locals who express the intention to come in with years worth of pennies, but no great waves have come in yet.
"The last couple of days have been light so far," Nigel George, branch manager for the Bank of Nova Scotia on Sixth Street, said just a day after penny doomsday. "We get the occasional question."
George also said it's too early to tell what kind of issues can be expected at this point, from a bank's perspective.
"There probably will be (issues) over time," he added.
George said one man came in saying he was going to round up his penny collection from the last 30 years that he accumulated in a bucket in his home.
"But that's what we've heard, 'I have pennies, I'll be bringing them later,'" George added.
The bank has a bag for those with a large penny collection with a line to show the equivalent of $3. It's a faster system for those who don't have time to roll a mountain of pennies.
If collecting or investing pennies in your own bank account aren't optional, then donating them to charities is another route.
The City of Burnaby passed a motion at a recent council meeting to start Coins for a Cause in support of the city's United Way annual campaign.
Burnaby will collect voluntary donations at city hall and other locations and donate the pennies from there, until the donations, or the pennies, decrease in volume.
But, for those interested to see what will come of the last of the pennies, Kuchera has some advice.
"For fun search for the last run of pennies, put them aside and wait," he said. "Just wait to see what happens."
