US dollar coin could save billions

[Tadaa]

I thought they were going to start mandatory Bar Code Tattooing on our foreheads soon ? No need for money then. Hold still while I scan your head...

... transaction complete. Have a nice day.

That's not until after 2012, silly.

 

[borg69unimatrix]

That's not until after 2012, silly.

D'oH! I shoulda known!

 

[TickTockMan]

I think you meant cards in addition to cash. I would still need cash for small stuff. I buy lots of small stuff. All the vending machines I use accept bills ($1 and $5) but the dollar coin would be good for frequent vend users.

No, I meant we should no longer use paper and ink or coins. It would chage the way the world works, but it is going to happen someday anyway. We should start finding a way to make it viable now.

 

[frankfrank]

2. They never make them right - don't freakin' make them almost the same size as a quarter.


P.S. I LOVE $2 bills but they're hard to find.

AGREE entirely with both!! Why do they always make the dollar coins the same size as the quarter? The Canadians have learned how to make TWO higher-value coins (in major/common circulation) and both are very easily differentiated from their quarters.

If we have to have a bill below $5, I'd much rather have $2 bills. I would welcome the USA having $1 and $2 coins.

There should be no $1 bills. As for a $2 denomination, there SHOULD be a $2 money piece. It doesn't really matter to me whether the $2 denomination is paper or coin.

And what has happened to HALF DOLLAR coins in the USA? Except for one hamburger stand in Michigan (which often gives them in change to be different - and a friend surmised, correctly I think, that it gives them some extra word-of-mouth "advertising"**), it is at least FORTY YEARS since I've gotten a Half Dollar coin in change anywhere.

I also don't understand the hoarding of the $1 coins in this country. Isn't that one of the less effective ways to invest money? What will be their face value 20 years after they were minted? $1.15?

**Possible scenario of a conversation:
ALEX: This is really strange, I got a $2 bill and a fifty-cent-piece in change today! When was the last time you've seen either of those?
JASON: Um, I didn't even know that we had 50-cent pieces. Is it real? I think I've seen a $2 bill maybe once before. Where did you get them?
ALEX: I stopped at this hamburger place on Division on the way home from Poli Sci 308. I was also surprised how good their cheeseburger and onion rings were, too.
JASON: For real? I like cheeseburgers. I CAN HAZ CHEEZBURGER! Were they even better than the Big Mac?
ALEX: HELL yeah...(so on Saturday they both go to Blimpeeburger and pig out, enjoying the food in sort of a Los Angeles ambience, in the middle of Ann Arbor, Michigan...)

 

[gsdx]

AGREE entirely with both!! Why do they always make the dollar coins the same size as the quarter? The Canadians have learned how to make TWO higher-value coins (in major/common circulation) and both are very easily differentiated from their quarters.

Our Loonie ($1 coin) came into circulation in 1987. The bills remained in circulation only until the banks got their hands on them. They never entered circulation again.

The same thing happened when the Toonie ($2 coin) was released in 1996.

Here are our 'general circulation' coins. There are many, many commemorative coins issued. (Usually about 1 new coin each month and mostly in the dime, quarter, Loonie, and Toonie.) The 50 cent coin is in circulation, but is rarely, if ever, seen and is never given out in change. I don't know why they keep minting it except for collectors.

 

[bankside]

I actually don't think there should be coins for full dollar amounts. Coins should be for fractions of the currency, bills for full units of it.

The trouble is we have allowed inflation to erode the value of money to the point where a dollar isn't really worth more than a dime from our parents' generation. What they need to do is revalue the currency by chopping off a zero.

So a nice dinner out with drinks would go from being $100 old useless dollars to $10 new dollars. And leaving 2 bucks for a tip would actually be pretty good!

 

[BearBoi]

But... but... won't somebody think of the poor strippers?! Will they hae to carry little buckets with them to collect the coins? ;P

Seriously though, I've never been to a strip club... how does that work in countries with $1 and $2 coins?

 

[thermodynamics]

Simple. Wallets don't have a place for coins. Duh...

I do like how one dollar and above is in paper, and the decimals are in coins. I do think we need to remove a decimal place. The penny is just sooooo worthless today.

 

[LoveIsNow]

When other countries have done this, it didn't work until they removed the bill from circulation. As it is when they introduce dollar coins concurrent with bills, the coins just become a novelty.

I personally love dollar coins. I trade in all the ones in my wallet at the end of the week at the bank for them and spend them in day to day transactions.

 

[gsdx]

All the objections mentioned here were also mentioned before Canada switched from the dollar bill to the dollar coin. They didn't last long after the switch when we discovered they weren't as heavy or as inconvenient as we originally thought they would be. Now we don't even give them second thought.

There were no objections when the $2 coin came out, and now there is talk of a $5 coin. Still no objections that I've heard.

The US government needs to just grow some balls and just do it and concentrate on the money saved.

 

[LoveIsNow]

When they first "come out" - they are hoarded as "collectible" nobody wants to use them for fear they will never see another one -- The Susan Anthony one was a "novelty" - nobody seems to have taken it seriously -- and the Sakagaewa (gold colored) coin also seems to have been sucked up by collectors -- Cash registers do not have another tray for a Dollar coin (atm) .

Actually, there are millions of Sacagawea dollars sitting in government vaults. They are even among the types of dollar coins the mint will ship you at face value (i.e. they pay the shipping because they are that desperate for you to use them) by the box of 250.

http://catalog.usmint.gov/webapp/wc...storeId=10001&catalogId=10001&identifier=8100

And actually from my experience spending dollar coins, a lot cash registers have a drawer to the left of the quarters for dollar coins. At some places I see a few already in there, so I know I'm not the only one who spends them.

And what has happened to HALF DOLLAR coins in the USA? Except for one hamburger stand in Michigan (which often gives them in change to be different - and a friend surmised, correctly I think, that it gives them some extra word-of-mouth "advertising"**), it is at least FORTY YEARS since I've gotten a Half Dollar coin in change anywhere.

I actually read an interesting explanation of that. Evidently, half dollars were circulated pretty commonly up into the 1960's, when two occurrences met in a perfect storm to effect it's demise. First, the modern Kennedy half dollar was introduced in 1964, the year after the president's assassination. Because of the national affection for him, they were widely collected, reducing their circulation. This wouldn't have been too bad on it's own, since the Benjamin Franklin half dollar was still circulating, but there was a silver shortage which began later that year. Until this time, balf dollars, quarters, and dimes (and the rarely minted silver dollar) were all made of 90% silver. In response to the silver shortage, the government removed all the silver from the dime and quarter, banned the minting of any silver dollars for five years, and reduced the silver in the half dollar from 90% to 40%. They then began melting down the old quarters, dimes and Franklin halves, as the new coins were minted to replace them. With the half dollar the only coin with silver in it, people stopped spending them, and started hording them. By the time the silver in the half dollar was removed in 1970, people had gotten used to not using the half dollar, so they didn't take it up again.

 

[Keelandson]

Ah. I'm beginning to understand.

Now, now.