Japan's Sales Tax Increase Means More 1-Yen Coins

While Australia, New Zealand, and Canada have all done away with their penny, the United States, Great Britain, Euro-zone, and Japan all see at least some use for retaining their lowest unit coin despite the eroded value after decades of inflation.  Specifically, 1/100th unit coins are needed to make change due to government sales taxes.  One interesting thing I learned from the story is that Japan has "100 Yen stores" the same way we have "Dollar stores" in the US.  There are currently 38.8 billion one-yen coins in circulation.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-03-27/one-yen-coin-maker-ends-4-year-hiatus-for-abe-sales-tax.html

Gold sales in Japan are also up due to the coming sales tax increase:

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-03-31/gold-sales-by-japanese-retailer-jump-before-tax-change.html