After 232 years, today the U.S. mint has made the last Penny

[Yoused]

I recently had a bout of parnoia that caused me to get an RFID-blocking wallet for my bank card. I just open it up an tap the card pocket, so I almost never have to pull the card out.

 

[japanime]

dude, i was at a great mexican restaurant the other day, and noticed they had a QR code- it actually allows you to order food, AND pay when you’re done. So relaxing…. If only they had robots to bring me the food.

Here in Japan, many casual dining restaurants actually do have robots that bring us our food.

And yet, cash is still king here. And we still have the one-yen coin (which, at today's exchange rate, is worth about 0.65 cents).

 

[Herdfan]

Here in Japan, many casual dining restaurants actually do have robots that bring us our food.

Do they serve it as well? There is a robot in the cafe at Twin Arrows Casino in Flagstaff. It just comes to your table with the food and a server comes out to put it on the table. Then they hit a button on it and it returned to the kitchen.

 

[Katbel]

Here in Japan, many casual dining restaurants actually do have robots that bring us our food.

And yet, cash is still king here. And we still have the one-yen coin (which, at today's exchange rate, is worth about 0.65 cents).

We liked the sushi train experience

 

[Yoused]

We liked the sushi train experience

We have a couple of those in this neighborhood.

 

[Katbel]

We have a couple of those in this neighborhood.

Going to Japan first then to your neighborhood

 

[Nycturne]

Here in Japan, many casual dining restaurants actually do have robots that bring us our food.

How many are tray delivery robots, the wheeled kind with shelves? A local sushi place picked up what looks like a Keenbot T6, although they mostly use it to deliver water. Kinda a waste, IMO. They used to use a conveyor belt, but during COVID they remodeled to use a "sushi monorail" setup, only missing the rail.

It seems like Japan hasn't been minting a ton of the 1 yen coins though. It looks like the last year to really mint them for use in circulation was 2016. They mint something like half a million a year for collectors, so buyers are covering the manufacturing costs. Meanwhile, the US mint produced 3.2 billion pennies last year for circulation. If anything, Japan seems ahead of the curve compared to the US on this front.

Assuming the sources on Wikipedia aren't just trash.

 

[Renzatic]

It is, 75% copper, 25% nickel.

So why do they call it a "nickel" and not a "copper" then, huh, Herd? HUH? HUH? I MEAN, DAMN!

 

[japanime]

Do they serve it as well? There is a robot in the cafe at Twin Arrows Casino in Flagstaff. It just comes to your table with the food and a server comes out to put it on the table. Then they hit a button on it and it returned to the kitchen.

Sorry, I should have been more clear in my first post. These are the robotic tray carts, as referenced by @Nycturne. No human staff is involved. The robot rolls up on its own and announces itself (as if we hadn't noticed!), we take the plates of food, and the robot then rolls back to the kitchen on its own. No buttons for anyone to push. (The ordering is also done without human interaction via a touchscreen device, which I think is something that is becoming common worldwide.)

How many are tray delivery robots, the wheeled kind with shelves? A local sushi place picked up what looks like a Keenbot T6, although they mostly use it to deliver water. Kinda a waste, IMO. They used to use a conveyor belt, but during COVID they remodeled to use a "sushi monorail" setup, only missing the rail.

It seems like Japan hasn't been minting a ton of the 1 yen coins though. It looks like the last year to really mint them for use in circulation was 2016. They mint something like half a million a year for collectors, so buyers are covering the manufacturing costs. Meanwhile, the US mint produced 3.2 billion pennies last year for circulation. If anything, Japan seems ahead of the curve compared to the US on this front.

Assuming the sources on Wikipedia aren't just trash.

All of the ones I've encountered are the tray delivery types.

Thanks for sharing that info about the 1 yen coins, too. I had no idea anyone here collected the darn things! (Other than collecting them in a big jar, like I do at home!)

 

[Nycturne]

Thanks for sharing that info about the 1 yen coins, too. I had no idea anyone here collected the darn things! (Other than collecting them in a big jar, like I do at home!)

If I’m reading it right, it seems more like sets of coins, like this: https://www.mint.go.jp/eng/buy-eng/coin-sets-eng/eng_2025japan.html

Also seems like enough of these get bought by foreigners that they have a dedicated English storefront. I didn’t think there was demand for this sort of thing, but I was never much of a coin collector.

 

[japanime]

If I’m reading it right, it seems more like sets of coins, like this: https://www.mint.go.jp/eng/buy-eng/coin-sets-eng/eng_2025japan.html

Also seems like enough of these get bought by foreigners that they have a dedicated English storefront. I didn’t think there was demand for this sort of thing, but I was never much of a coin collector.

The Japanese page of the store has about a dozen different sets available. I almost pulled the trigger on one of the 2025 sets, but then thought twice about whether I really need to start a new collection, LOL.