Tracer: yeah there are wallets with coin pouches. Is yours thin, though? Everytime I’ve seen them they manage to make the wallet super thick, and my wallet is thick enough for me (I have too many damned supermarket savings cards [those are fodder for yet another debate…], credit cards, etc.).
Ok, so I think we all agree that vending machines are the major advantage here. Perhaps we can mess with the technology of scanning those bills in vending machines instead? Does anyone know how those work and if they are at all improvable?
Or maybe we can start plastic coating our bills, like playing cards. And make them smaller, so they are playing card size. And I think I want my picture on them too. And I want a whole bunch for thinking up the idea. yeah. mwahahahaha I will foil this golden coin yet.
I suspect that the special interests that have introduced this new coin won’t stop until they eliminate the dollar bill.
The dollar coin is being introduced not by popular demand but by two groups. First, the vending machine lobby wants to get rid of dollar scanners in their machines. The scanners are expensive, difficult to maintain and often unreliable. Second, the Treasury claims that there will be “savings” by replacing paper dollars with metal ones.
Personally, I might use a vending machine at work once a day but not always with dollar bills. Most of my dollar purchases are at stores. But I don’t want to jingle with large coins in my pocket nor do I want a coin purse. The dollar bill is light and easy to carry and handle. Unless “they” eliminate the dollar bill, IMHO the Sackies will prove as popular as the Suzies.
Yes, they will last longer - so? Last time I checked, the Fed operates at a loss. Let’s further this lunacy by getting rid of the $5, $10, and $20 bills replacing them with coins.
When a federal agency talks about saving tax dollars through an innovation like this, don’t believe them. As an ex-Fed, Federal agencies are only interested in their function, mission, and staff size - stories about “savings” are just pr fluff. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if the very same idiots who introduced the Suzie are behind the Sakie. Who knows, maybe there is an entire Treasury section dedicated to this concept. We’re with the government and we’re here to help you!
To those of you who love coins, go for it. After all, you can get all the Suzies you want by buying stamps at the post office.
But I want my bills, and just after tax day, I believe I’ve paid for them.
Hmmmm…I have mixed feelings. On one hand it is nice to have coins with some sort of buying power behind them. I was in Europe last summer and it was nice to be able to pay for a museum ticket or a small meal with coins. Places like Italy, with their practically worthless 100 lire notes drove me nuts. I hate a fat wallet of poimtless bills as much as I hate change jangling aound in my pocket. My only complaint is psychological…I tend not to see coins as “real money”…so spending six or ten of them at a time isnt a bad thing, whereas emptying my wallet would be. But spending is good for America, so I predict sackie will be too.
Put me down for a nay, thank you. First off, I have not found vending machines to be such a source of trauma. Sure, once or twice I’ve wanted to beat them senseless from lack of acceptance but that has been a rare occasion.
Secondly, I hate having coins in m pocket. I don’t like jangling like the cat with the bell around its neck with every step. I don’t like hearing the soft clang of lost change when I sit down in a movie theater. You want me to accessorize? Fergetit. I’ve got too much in my pockets as it is (oofah, never thought I’d say that in a thread!) and don’t want another coin purse.
So those are my two cents (so to speak).
Once in a while you can get shown the light
in the strangest of places
if you look at it right…
I just read that 13 countries, including Australia, have plastic money! They are supposedly “slippery and hard to fold” but I can see some adjustments being made to make them more useful.
Having recently visited China, let me say that I gained a new appreciation for coins. Over there, the 1 yuan and up bills are slightly larger than the bills worth less than one yuan (there’s a name for those, analogous to cent, but I can’t remember it). The little ones are a pain in the neck! You’re always mistaking them for their more valuable counterparts, and after a few days, you end up with a big wad of bills that can’t even buy you a pack of gum! Hooray for coins!
As for this issue, I favor using both paper and metal dollars. I am firmly declaring my stance to be indifferent, and I will defend it to my death!!
I can’t imagine keeping coins in my wallet, or do you do it
because you wear your pants falling off your butt and can’t
put anything in your pockets (other than a wallet chained to your belt loop)?
there’s still no earthly reason anyone has to have more than
four Sackies in their pocket, at least not for long.
Nobody seems to mind very much having four or five quarters
in their pocket. this is almost the same thing, except
you can actually buy something with them. Some examples:
Purchase Quarters Sackies
Stamps (20x.33) 26 & change 6
Video rental 4 1
at my local
indie shop
Video rental
@ Blockbuster 10 & change 2 & change
Fast food combo 16 & change 4 & change
meal
Pint of beer at
British style pub 16 & change 4 & change
Now, friends & neighbors, notice in the rightmost column
how few coins are needed to make minor day-to-day purchases.
That’s what MONEY is supposed to be…convient…allowing you to merely reach into your pocket and pull out a few
coins. No opening your wallet and fishing out bills. No
need to return the limp singles back into your wallet after
you get your change.
PatrickM, you cheapskate! (Ummm…BTW, where are you finding strippers that take 1$ bills seriously?;))
I’m with tracer on the cost/durability thing. After all, how many bills from the 1950’s do you see in circulation vs. coins from the same year?
I haven’t had occasion to use sackies in a vending machine, but if the mechanism is set up to handle dollar coins rather than bills, I’ll be glad of it. The bill-checkers stink.
I haven’t had any trouble getting sackies here in Texas–I just go to the bank and request my withdrawal in rolls of 'em (sometimes I have to clarify the term, though).
As for carrying them, I find that four to eight of them fit nicely in the otherwise useless watchpocket in the right front pocket of my jeans. Also, if you carry them there, the limited number tends to provide a check on the “it’s not real money” impulse spending.
Finally, I love using them at Renaissance Faires. It spoils the whole garb effect when you pull out a wallet. Paying with golden coins is much cooler.
Heh. Funny you shoudl mention, Tracer. I traumatized several people in Cozumel a couple weeks ago by making purchases with Sackies and new fives and tens.
One guy wouldn’t take the five, said he thought it was counterfeit.
I’m in favor of the sackies. The dollar has become a trivial amount of money. While I appreciate the fact that people don’t like walking around with a pocketful of change, I think a good common ground would be the elimination of the dollar bill coupled with the elimination of the penny. With penny-elimination, I think we’d have to deal with just about the same amount of coinage, without fussing with worthless pieces of copper-coated zinc every time we buy a big-gulp.
The penny is a COMPLETE waste of time and space. Just round everything to 5c and be done with it. And a dollar is now a coin-worthy amount.
In “Class”, the funny yet sound expose of the American social class system, Dr. Fussell points out that, almost always, old ways and things things outclass new ways and things. Wood is better than formica, sail is better than power, and so on.
In this country anyone younger than about 40 probably can’t remember routinely buying anything with just coins, not
even lunch at McDonalds or a copy of Time Magazine. So
using dollar coins is clearly more archaic, and hence has more cachet, than bills.
“Class” is somewhat outdated, biased toward the East Coast,
and seems oblivious to matters of race, but is still worth
a read. I recommend going to http://www.amazon.com and checking it out.
I agree that pennies need to go, but I want to reduce the amount of stupid change I have to walk around with every day. As it is, I have a jar at work and a jar at home just so I don’t have to carry change for more than a few minutes.
But the penny HAS to go.
As an aside, I think that the have a penny, leave a penny, need a penny, take a penny thingies are such a good idea.
Until I saw this thread, I didn’t even realize that $1 coins were in popular circulation in the US.
Speaking as someone who hasn’t seen a dollar bill since 1986 (and I also haven’t seen a two dollar bill since the tooney came out a few years ago), I’ve become quite accustomed to it.
The bonus is that whenever I go through my loose change, I usually find at least $10-20 dollars. Those one and two dollar coins add up fast!
