When was the last time you saw a clerk at the Minit-Mart fondle a coin to see if it had ridges or not?
Asking them why they are fondling the coin is probably a bad idea.
Nickles are needed because the US quarter is in fairly heavy use: we don’t have a 20 cent coin. So first we need to start rounding to the nearest 5 cents, followed perhaps in 20? years by rounding to the nearest 25 cents.
The ideal thing to do would be to redenominate, maybe by 10x. But it would be a logistical nightmare and cause rioting in the streets.
That’s a really good point. We do have (but collectively refuse to use) half-dollars. Neither Canadians nor Americans seem to like them, though Canadians regularly use the two-dollar coin and Americans seem to fear the $2 bill.
Our monetary habits are just so weird. The majority of citizens hoard coins rather then spending as they go. We have denominations that exist and would be useful, but refuse to use them, while simultaneously clinging to pennies. ATMs are probably responsible for the popularity of $20s rather than $10s.
Here in Canada, $50s are more common than I remember them being in America. But this is a weaker currency, and I’ve been here for a rather inflationary decade. Are $50s more common in the US now?
I think Americans don’t regularly use half-dollar coins or two-dollar bills because there’s no spot for either in till drawers. That’s why I’m in favor of eliminating the penny, nickel and dimes and one-, five- and ten-dollar bills and adopting one-, five- and ten-dollar coins.
Not terribly so, no, and probably even less now that so many people are entirely, or mostly, cashless. I still see a 50 or a 100 from time to time, but I think it’s typically only if someone specifically requests them at a bank.
$20s are still the biggest currency used regularly in everyday transactions (like at grocery stores, etc.), and the $20 is still the default currency dispensed at ATMs and self-service cashier stations at stores that give “cash back.”
True. Till drawers aren’t immutable, but the whole thing seems to be that the economy of scale means that no one will change anything until they absolutely have to.
Interesting. ATMs here like to give out $50s. Some also give out $5s and $10s and let you select. $20-only ATMs exist but in my experience (Vancouver area) they are the minority.
In recent years, I’ve occasionally seen ATMs here that will give $10s, $50s, and/or even $100s, but in my experience, the default seems to be $20s only.
The ATM I use (because no fees and it’s in the grocery store I use most) gives out fives, twenties and fifties. Up to $600. You can decide how it’s divvied up.
In South Korea, the ATMs will give you an option of selecting either 10,000 won or 50,000 won notes. That’s essentially a choice between $10 and $50 bills. Here in China, I think it’s only 100 yuan notes. (Like everyone else, I’m using WeChat to pay merchants, so I don’t remember the last time I got money from an ATM here.)
I’ve encountered one penny in my bedroom and 9 more in my car, bringing our actual total to $0.68 located thus far. Plus a €0.02 coin.
Accept the nickel, but never give them out. As change, round 5¢ and 15¢ to 10¢ and 20¢; everything else can be made from dimes and quarters (and dollars).
El Salvador got it and the savings…
Despite some initial difficulties, El Salvador replaced the $1 note with the $1 coin in 2011, which reduced costs by more than half. This article discovers why the changeover succeeded and why the same procedure is not applicable to the US or other countries’ monetary systems.
Much attention has been given to the debate in the US in recent years regarding the $1 coin versus the $1 note. However, irrespective of the various evaluations in recent years making the case for the former, it remains a debate because the public has shown that, as long as both the $1 coin and $1 note remain in circulation, they will choose the latter.
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Once the dollarization process was fully established and stabilized, the BCR realized that around 40% of all banknotes imported and returned from the US each year were $1 notes. It decided, therefore, to undertake a study to see if it could reduce the cost of importing these, noting that the global trend was to substitute small bills with coins. It first looked at what was happening in other dollarized countries. It then evaluated the potential cost savings from moving from a $1 bill to a $1 coin, taking into account the cost of importing and exporting the $1 bills, the number of import and export operations involved in the process, the potential lifespan of the $1 bills, the feasibility of using $1 coins dispensing machines and all other aspects of replacing the $1 bill with a coin.
The evaluation confirmed the $1 note to be the most expensive in the dollarized system.
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Once satisfied that the implementation process was sound, the BCR suspended the supply of $1 bills and embarked on a public education programme on the conversion to the coin using media interviews, radio spots, newspaper advertisements, online videos, posters and flyers with the characteristics of the $1 coin, billboards, advertising on buses, monetary education programmes and interviews with cash experts.…
The use of the $1 bills in circulation increased as the public preferred them, and when they were returned to the BCR they exhibited higher than normal levels of deterioration. Use of the $5 bill also increased.
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He also noted two key factors that led to the success of the programme; first the BCR’s decision not to provide any more $1 notes to the public once the introduction of the $1 coin commenced and, second, involving all of the stakeholders, especially the banking sector.
I read a twitter thread by a guy who unsuccessfully tried to promote the one dollar coin in the US around the turn of the century. According to him, the major point of resistance was Walmart and other big retailers. The one dollar coin is heavier than the one dollar bill. The big boxes preferred the lighter bills over the heavier coins.
I’m not sure whether or not there would be a counterfeiting issue with 5 or 10 dollar coins.
Interestingly, the GAO recently estimated that the government would lose money over 30 years by switching to the one dollar coin, because improved bill processing technology and increased their lifespan from 3.3 to 7.9 years since the earlier 2011 GAO report. https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-19-300
The same report recommends that Congress permit the mint to adjust the metal content of circulating coins as they seem fit. Currently, the metal content is set by law due to lobbying by the villainous zinc industry, the scourge of all that is decent and good.
I found a penny in my jeans pocket yesterday. I have no idea where it came from. I pay with cash pretty regularly so have quite a stockpile of coins. Pennies, nickles, dimes, quarters, half dollars, and dollars. Each denomination in its own Illy coffee can. The can with the dollars has Eisenhower dollars, “gold” dollars (Sacagawea and presidential), and Suebees. My credit union doesn’t taken coins and I’m not about to pay whatever outrageous fee Coinstar wants, so they amass. I have probably $10 in half dollars, $10 in Eisenhower dollars, and maybe $150 in the various other coins. Spending them seems like a bigger PITA than it’s worth.
Please don’t say that. At least it’s not as bad as “the late 1900s” in reference to when I graduated from high school.
The New York Times Magazine article I linked to upthread mentioned that Artazn, the private company that supplies zinc blanks to the Mint to make one-cent coins has earned more than a billion dollars in revenue since 2008, but has spent less than three million on lobbying since 2006, or not very much.
You are of course losing value to inflation, which at some point will balance what CoinStar takes as their rake. Pick a splurge item or meal and cash in the coins to pay for it (since, much like me, you are unlikely to spend them otherwise and any heirs certainly will not be happy to have to figure out how to cash in 100 lbs of coins at your passing).