[QUOTE=Red Barchetta]
I was disappointed that the rumor which stated the “In God We Trust” statement was removed turned out to be false 
[/QUOTE]
Be patient. Since these words are on the edge of the coins, I’m sure they’ll wear off in about 30 years.
[QUOTE=Ferret Herder]
Personally, I think what they need to do is phase out dollar bills and get more vending machines to take the dollar coins.
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I take it you don’t routinely carry 4 to 8 dollars in your pocket. :dubious:
[QUOTE=Colophon]
I’d love to know why Americans hate change so much. I love coins, the chunkier the better. Our 5p pieces which are about dime-size, are annoying as hell. With nice chunky £1 and £2 coins in your pocket, you can reach in and get the right money without looking and without fumbling around in a wallet. I’d be happy with £5 and £10 coins too. (A million of each would suffice.)
[/QUOTE]
A trouser pocket full of coins, makes a man sound broken.
I want tenths of a cent, so I can pay the half cent county taxes, and pay the .9 cent that is on every damn gallon of gas.
[QUOTE=ouryL]
I take it you don’t routinely carry 4 to 8 dollars in your pocket. :dubious:
[/QUOTE]
I regularly have 7 or 8 quid in change in my pocket, in a mixture of pound coins, the occasional £2 coin, plus 50p coins and smaller bits and pieces. I don’t find myself walking in circles, distorting the Earth’s magnetic field or suffering any other ill effects.
That’s exactly why you need to embrace the dollar coin.
For one thing, it would mean you would no longer have to spend five minutes feeding several pounds of quarters into a vending machine (or an equal amount of time trying to get it to accept a mangled dollar bill) in order to buy anything bigger than a Peanut Butter Cup.
[QUOTE=Rilchiam]
It’s a no-win situation with him, though. In life, he did not look much like the Gilbert Stuart (correct me if I’m wrong) portrait of him. AIUI, the artist was accustomed to portraying aristocrats, and couldn’t reconcile Washington, who was really more of a jock than a prep, with that.
[/QUOTE]
Washington certainly did come from the upper classes, even if he didn’t look the part.
Washington looks like “lasers” are going to shoot out of his eyes and destroy half of downtown Tokyo.
The US Mint has clearly not thought this through. What are going to give strippers? Fives?!?
[QUOTE=Colophon]
That’s very far from the truth.
One example, off the top of my head - Cambodia has 50 riel banknotes, worth 1.25 cents at the exchange rate of $1 = 4000 riels. They don’t seem to use coins at all, or at least I never came across any while I was there.
[/QUOTE]
If you look at it that way, it may be far from the truth, but that’s only because Cambodia is evidently using a hyperinflated currency. Going in the other direction it’s very close to the truth. No other developed country has such a low denomination note.
When your smallest paper bill isn’t enough to buy a Sunday paper or to get on the Metro, it’s time to get rid of it and bring in a coin. IMO anyway.
[QUOTE=Gangster Octopus]
The wives don’t look any better.
[/QUOTE]
Re: the third from the left - so THAT’S what Sally Hemings looked like!
Dolley Madison, aka Sybil Ramkin.
I liked the loonies and twonies (toonies?) when I went to Canada. It’s an amusing difference – when I’m at home, I can open my wallet and look at a bunch of paper and still have no more than $10, maybe. Whereas in Canada I can look sadly at my wallet and think “Crap, I am running low on cash” then reach into my pocket to get change to buy some gum and realize “Wait, I have like $20 in here… awesome!”
It’s those little moments that make me want to have dollar coins. 
[QUOTE=Colophon]
That’s exactly why you need to embrace the dollar coin.
[/QUOTE]
You’re preaching to the choir on this one. If it were up to me, we’d have 4 coins, quarter, $1, $2, $5 and 4 bills $10, $20, $50, $100. A pocketful of coins is enough for a nice lunch, instead of enough for a candy bar.
I have to do laundry using the coin-operated machines in my apartment building. I do two loads each week and each wash and dry cycle takes $1.50, so I need to carry 24 quarters every time, more than half of a ten-dollar roll of quarters. So I’d much prefer using a dollar coin for this chore.
Egad. Washington made me jump outta my chair, Adams reminds me of Randy from My Name is Earl and Madison looks like Grandpa Munster. Jefferson, though . . . I’d hit that.
[QUOTE=Cheesesteak]
You’re preaching to the choir on this one. If it were up to me, we’d have 4 coins, quarter, $1, $2, $5 and 4 bills $10, $20, $50, $100. A pocketful of coins is enough for a nice lunch, instead of enough for a candy bar.
[/QUOTE]
What’s you point? If they made a $5,000,000 coin you could buy a Lear jet with pocket change. 
[QUOTE=Cheesesteak]
we’d have 4 coins, quarter, $1, $2, $5
[/QUOTE]
You don’t think you’d pay .24 more for everything? 
[QUOTE=tdn]
What’s you point? If they made a $5,000,000 coin you could buy a Lear jet with pocket change.
[/QUOTE]
It would just be nice if my pocket “change” (damn that word!) could buy something other than a newspaper, candybar or 30 minutes of parking. In all seriousness, the only reason to reach into your pocket for a coin, is to avoid getting more coins.
You wouldn’t necessarily pay .24 more for everything, because it all gets rounded to the nearest quarter based on the total transaction value. Buy multiple items at various prices, and it’ll generally even out. Also, if you’re the guy selling a coffee for 1.25 (to get the extra .24) and the guy next door gives up that penny and sells for $1, who gets more customers?
[QUOTE=Dewey Finn]
I have to do laundry using the coin-operated machines in my apartment building. I do two loads each week and each wash and dry cycle takes $1.50, so I need to carry 24 quarters every time, more than half of a ten-dollar roll of quarters. So I’d much prefer using a dollar coin for this chore.
[/QUOTE]
All the laundries around here require you use their debit card that you slid in a slot to activate the machines. You have to charge it with credit at a machine that takes paper bills only. I hate this system, because if you have one occassion every few years to wash a large item, you have to tie up your money on a card that has a $20 purchase value to get the card.
[QUOTE=tdn]
The US Mint has clearly not thought this through. What are going to give strippers? Fives?!?
[/QUOTE]
I take it that it is common to give a stripper a dollar bill? That’s an embarrassingly small amount. :dubious:
/unless you’re joking of course
Moving to larger coin denominations seems to be backwards progress. I think plastic money (credit/debit) should be where we move to next. A lot of things you once used coins or bills for are being replaced by credit/debit machines.
[ul]
[li]Parking meters - Both the traditional meter on the street, and the “Pay Here” boxes of downtown lots are being replaced with digital credit/debit machines[/li][li]Gas Stations - Used to be that you filled your tank, then went inside to pay. Now, the pumps take plastic, checks are rarely accepted, and you need to pre-pay with cash. Much easier to just slide in that card.[/li][li]Laundromats - As Harmonious Discord mentioned, you no longer need to bring bags quarters to the coin-op laundry. Makes more sense to slide a card then plug 6 or more coins into a slot.[/li][/ul]
Several of you have mentioned vending machines needing to be updated to accept new currency. Why not add a debit slot instead?
Last time is was in Vegas, first thing I did was change a $20 for two rolls of quarters… foolish! I found less then a dozen machines that even accepted coins. Every other machine took bills, and printed a ticket when you “cashed out.” I doubt it will be long before the machines take plastic, or perhaps some sort of “Vegas Visa” that you link to a credit/debt card (lots of ways this could be done, I am only providing an example)
So the way I see it, physical money is becoming less important, and digital currency is becomeing the new standard. I do not believe we will ever completely get rid of coins or bills, but they likely won’t be used frequently.
[QUOTE=CoG888]
Moving to larger coin denominations seems to be backwards progress. I think plastic money (credit/debit) should be where we move to next. A lot of things you once used coins or bills for are being replaced by credit/debit machines.
[/QUOTE]
Yeah but what happens with strippers? Oh, hold on I’ve got an idea…
You swipe your card…