# Paper vs. coin: American politics are overly commercialized **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 23, 2012, 5:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paper-vs-coin-american-politics-are-overly-commercialized/616582 "2012-03-23T05:35:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![zoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zoid/32/336_2.png) [@zoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zoid)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2012, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paper-vs-coin-american-politics-are-overly-commercialized/616582/21 "2012-03-24T13:54:04Z")
> [@Terr](#): > > I would hate dollar coins. Having 6-7 single dollar bills in my wallet is nothing. Having 6-7 huge coins in there would bulk it up way too much. No thanks. And I am glad that at least in this the “powers that be” seem to be listening to the people. Maybe. Yep. I carry only bills and I have a jar I dump all my change into. Once every couple months I stop at the bank while I’m out and about and - PRESTO! - $40 I never knew I had! It’s like found money. Only it’s mine. I admit it’s stupid but I swear, in my head it all makes sense. ---
**Author:** ![Ximenean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/aca169/32.png) [@Ximenean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ximenean)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2012, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paper-vs-coin-american-politics-are-overly-commercialized/616582/22 "2012-03-24T13:59:20Z")
> [@jjimm](#): > > It’s a weird paradox isn’t it? The US is the world’s leading innovator, but also one of the most socially conservative. My theory is that it’s because our governments in Europe are in fact slightly less democratic - but the additional democracy in the US, which is theoretically ‘better’, gets hijacked by lobbyists and pressure groups which actually makes it ‘worse’ in the long run. > > On the one hand you’ve got amazing things like the Moon landings and the iPad, and on the other hand you’ve got the stubborn refusal to adopt international standards. The coin vs note thing is symptomatic of a wider issue issue - Lobby groups: “waah, we’d have to redesign all the vending machines”; rest of the world: “yeah big deal, we did it years ago”. The US system does seem to be almost excessively democratic at times, yes! They seem to have referendums all the time, which are rare events here. And we have the (grossly exaggerated, but with a grain of truth) idea that they have elections all the way down to the level of county dog-catcher. I think it’s also partly due to the greater separation of powers in the US system. In the UK parliamentary system, a government with a solid majority controls the executive and the legislature, so can do what it likes, within reason. The old “elective dictatorship”. Being used to this fact, if the government announces that the pound note will be replaced with a coin, UK voters just shrug and accept it. In the US system, with a congress that does not necessarily support the president, gridlock can ensue. The other thing is the sheer size of the US. I wonder sometimes if 330 million people, or whatever it is, is too big for a working democracy. Any issue, even fairly trivial ones like replacing a note with a coin, can attract sizeable pressure groups on all sides of the argument. The system seems to expend a lot of energy pandering to extreme views which would just be ignored in smaller countries. ---
**Author:** ![Ken001](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/43a26b/32.png) [@Ken001](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ken001)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2012, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paper-vs-coin-american-politics-are-overly-commercialized/616582/23 "2012-03-24T14:14:29Z")
I suggest this is discussion revolves around an anachronism. Notes and coins will disappear. A friend of mine in his 50s has barely carried any cash for the past 10 years. He confidently expects to be able to pay electronically (credit card etc). I like cash myself but if I’m honest, almost all of my spending and bill paying is electronic. I keep a collection of change in my car for parking meters but mostly coins go into a pottle which eventually visits the bank. We have $1 and $2 coins so it adds up nicely. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2012, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paper-vs-coin-american-politics-are-overly-commercialized/616582/24 "2012-03-24T14:19:38Z")
> [@Jamaika\_a\_jamaikaiake](#): > > Thank you! Every time someone tells me that the various dollar coins in recent US history didn’t work because people didn’t like them, I want to pull me hair out. 😕 How does “If you give the American people a choice, they will overwhelmingly prefer bills to dollar coins, and they’ll only use coins if you force them to” **not** mean that dollar coins haven’t worked because people don’t like them? ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2012, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paper-vs-coin-american-politics-are-overly-commercialized/616582/25 "2012-03-24T14:20:42Z")
I am an American who has spent some years in Europe. I can’t stand having a pocket full of change all the time. I would hate getting rid of the paper dollar. And where would I stamp “wheresgeorge” on a coin? ---
**Author:** ![Ximenean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/aca169/32.png) [@Ximenean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ximenean)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2012, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paper-vs-coin-american-politics-are-overly-commercialized/616582/26 "2012-03-24T14:50:16Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > I am an American who has spent some years in Europe. I can’t stand having a pocket full of change all the time. I would hate getting rid of the paper dollar. And where would I stamp “wheresgeorge” on a coin? I don’t think the “pocketful of change” argument stands up. Experience in other countries seems to show that coins can usefully cover a range of values from 1 to about 100, where 1 is the least valuable useful coin. Over time, lower denomination coins are withdrawn and higher denominations are introduced. In the US, the ratio is absurdly low at 25 (or maybe even less than that). Get rid of the useless 1c coin, that would counteract any increase in pocket change due to a dollar coin. ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2012, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paper-vs-coin-american-politics-are-overly-commercialized/616582/27 "2012-03-24T15:04:23Z")
> [@Terra1041](#): > > I prefer dollar coins, but (at least here in Seattle) I never get them from retailers as change, so the things I have to spend are dollar bills. Yeah, I have received dollar coins as change exactly two times in my life. Once I got a dollar coin back as change for buying a $4 lunch at a food cart with a $5 bill, and once I got a bunch of dollar coins from a stamp machine at the post office – I needed stamps but only had a $20 bill on me. I’d be perfectly happy to use the dollar coins in my day to day life, and had no problems dealing with large denomination coins when I was living in Japan\*, but I have had very little chance to do so. \*In Japan, they have both a 100 yen coin (about $1) and a 500 yen coin (about $5). The smallest denomination bill is 1000 yen (about $10). ---
**Author:** ![Terr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/839c29/32.png) [@Terr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terr)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2012, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paper-vs-coin-american-politics-are-overly-commercialized/616582/28 "2012-03-24T15:12:58Z")
> [@jz78817](#): > > we can “reject” them because they won’t take the dollar bill out of circulation. Simple solution: start minting dollar coins, stop printing dollar bills. > > problem solved. I mean, what are you gonna do about it? Stop using money? Who cares what people prefer? We know better than they what’s good for them! ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2012, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paper-vs-coin-american-politics-are-overly-commercialized/616582/29 "2012-03-24T15:18:10Z")
They do. Dollar coins are much better than bills if for no other reason than they last longer. ---
**Author:** ![Terr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/839c29/32.png) [@Terr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terr)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2012, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paper-vs-coin-american-politics-are-overly-commercialized/616582/30 "2012-03-24T15:22:23Z")
> [@Inner\_Stickler](#): > > They do. Dollar coins are much better than bills if for no other reason than they last longer. And dollar bills are much better than coins if for no other reason that they take up less space and are more convenient to carry. ---
**Author:** ![sparky\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/77aa72/32.png) [@sparky\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sparky_1)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2012, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paper-vs-coin-american-politics-are-overly-commercialized/616582/31 "2012-03-24T15:42:04Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > I’m not saying that the government should act like it knows better than the people… but sometimes, the government should act like it knows better than the people. Haha. Exactly! ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2012, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paper-vs-coin-american-politics-are-overly-commercialized/616582/32 "2012-03-24T15:46:50Z")
> [@Terr](#): > > And dollar bills are much better than coins if for no other reason that they take up less space and are more convenient to carry. That’s why along with the US, Canada, Great Britain, Japan and a host of other countries use bills almost exclusively. ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2012, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paper-vs-coin-american-politics-are-overly-commercialized/616582/33 "2012-03-24T16:49:11Z")
> [@Terr](#): > > And dollar bills are much better than coins if for no other reason that they take up less space and are more convenient to carry. I did not find 100 yen coins to be any less convenient than dollar bills, and I carried a lot more cash and paid for things with cash far more often in Japan than I do in the US. If the dollar bill was replaced by a dollar coin, I think you’d get used to it pretty quickly. Thinking back to my college days, carrying a few dollar coins would have been _vastly_ preferable to having to hoard stacks of quarters to take to the laundromat every time I needed to wash my clothes. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2012, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paper-vs-coin-american-politics-are-overly-commercialized/616582/34 "2012-03-24T18:16:10Z")
> [@Ximenean](#): > > I don’t think the “pocketful of change” argument stands up. Experience in other countries seems to show that coins can usefully cover a range of values from 1 to about 100, where 1 is the least valuable useful coin. Over time, lower denomination coins are withdrawn and higher denominations are introduced. In the US, the ratio is absurdly low at 25 (or maybe even less than that). Get rid of the useless 1c coin, that would counteract any increase in pocket change due to a dollar coin. No ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2012, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paper-vs-coin-american-politics-are-overly-commercialized/616582/35 "2012-03-24T19:18:00Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > 😕 How does “If you give the American people a choice, they will overwhelmingly prefer bills to dollar coins, and they’ll only use coins if you force them to” **not** mean that dollar coins haven’t worked because people don’t like them? Well, this assumes that dollar coins were actually in common circulation. Most businesses didn’t give out dollar coins in change. Instead, the coins were put in the leftmost coin bin, where all the half dollars and Canadian coins lived. The cashiers only used the dollar coins if they had run out of dollar bills…and even then, they were more likely to give out four quarters instead of checking to see if they had a dollar coin. If the coins weren’t available to give out, then we didn’t have a fair chance to use them. Most consumers only got dollar coins in change from the PO, or if we specifically asked for them at the bank. Heck, my husband had to place an order at the credit union in order to get some dollar coins, because they generally don’t even have them on hand. And when a consumer DID get a dollar coin, s/he might very well have put it in a jar at home, rather than spending it. ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Feldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lord_feldon/32/341_2.png) [@Lord\_Feldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Feldon)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2012, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paper-vs-coin-american-politics-are-overly-commercialized/616582/36 "2012-03-24T19:24:45Z")
> [@zoid](#): > > Yep. I carry only bills and I have a jar I dump all my change into. > Once every couple months I stop at the bank while I’m out and about and - PRESTO! - $40 I never knew I had! > It’s like found money. > Only it’s mine. > I admit it’s stupid but I swear, in my head it all makes sense. If dollar coins were common, you’d find more money. ---
**Author:** ![Jamaika\_a\_jamaikaiake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/7993a0/32.png) [@Jamaika\_a\_jamaikaiake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jamaika_a_jamaikaiake)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2012, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paper-vs-coin-american-politics-are-overly-commercialized/616582/37 "2012-03-24T19:54:08Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > 😕 How does “If you give the American people a choice, they will overwhelmingly prefer bills to dollar coins, and they’ll only use coins if you force them to” **not** mean that dollar coins haven’t worked because people don’t like them? The currency will ‘work’, no matter what form it is in. Dollar coins failed because the US mint introduced them as a novelty, and they never took paper dollar bills out of circulation\*. The preferences of the users really had nothing to do with it. \*usually mints do this by buying them from the banks. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2012, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paper-vs-coin-american-politics-are-overly-commercialized/616582/38 "2012-03-24T22:07:48Z")
> [@Terra1041](#): > > I, and probably most Americans, wouldn’t be willing to go out of their way to the bank to get rolls of dollar coins when every store offering change gives out paper dollars. I was actually surprised about a week ago when I was in a bank, and saw that the teller who served me had 15-odd of the things. I bought all she had. But come to think of it, it was the first time I’d been inside a bank in at least two years. Like most people, I hardly ever go into the bank at all. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2012, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paper-vs-coin-american-politics-are-overly-commercialized/616582/39 "2012-03-24T22:23:06Z")
> [@Ximenean](#): > > The US system does seem to be almost excessively democratic at times, yes! They seem to have referendums all the time, which are rare events here. We only have those at the state and local levels, and not all state constitutions permit them. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2012, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paper-vs-coin-american-politics-are-overly-commercialized/616582/40 "2012-03-24T22:25:27Z")
> [@Terr](#): > > I would hate dollar coins. Having 6-7 single dollar bills in my wallet is nothing. Having 6-7 huge coins in there would bulk it up way too much. How does one carry coins in a wallet, anyway? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paper-vs-coin-american-politics-are-overly-commercialized/616582.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paper-vs-coin-american-politics-are-overly-commercialized/616582.md?page=3)