In the time-honored MPSIMS tradition of asking the Teeming Millions for opinions on a totally off-the-wall subject, I saw in another thread that some authority noted that the US has fewer denominations of coins than any other major country – and when you consider the relative rarity of dollars and halves in the East, it’s even worse. (Do Westerners still use the high-denomination coins as much as they historically were reported to?)
So your task is to identify what denomination of coin the US needs, and why. If you think something should be changed, that’s an OK post too. (Personally I find the Jefferson nickel a repulsive-looking thing that does not do justice to TJ and has effectively no “inspirational” artistic value. You got a peeve with pennies?)
I think a 1/16 is too damn small. I’m already in favor of eliminating not just the penny, but the nickel, too. I mean, what can you really do with a nickel?
I’ve got it all figured out, have the Treasury Department give me a call if they need more information. Here’s what you need:
coins
1cent
5cent
10cent
20cent
50cent
$1
$2
$5
Bills
$10
$20
$50
$100
$1000
That should cover anybody’s everyday needs. I argue for keeping the penny, it has a long and noble history. It’s not that hard to keep track of, you just store them in your change container with the rest of your change and use them as needed.
Bills should come in different sizes and colours. Come on, we’re in the 21st century (or almost), monochrome paper is so 19th century.
In addition to politicians on the bills, you could have great americans from any walk of life, e.g. writers, artists, etc…
If there are more halves and dollar coins being used in the West, it may be because of Nevada gambling, in particular slot machines and blackjack. You need the half to pay 3/2 if the bettor bet only a dollar in BJ. Dollar machines are second or third in popularity, IIRC, behind quarter slots. New machines take paper dollars, but there are still plenty of coin-only machines. (I’ve been to Las Vegas and Reno.) While it’s true that casino gambling is being approved in other states, there are still far more slot machines in Nevada than there are in all other states combined, if I’m not mistaken. Let me go check back issues of Nevada magazine, if you want.
Why don’t we add a 2-cent coin? Or replace the penny with it? I think that’s the only change–no pun intended–we need. Rounding off to the next lowest nickel would cost too much sales tax revenue, which we would have to do if we got rid of the penny.
Just this morning, I paid for a newspaper with two dimes and a nickel. And yesterday, I bought a soda with two quarters, a dime and a nickel, so I don’t think we should get rid of the nickel.
Where I went to grad school, we had a long corridor in our building, and for amusement, we’d see who could roll pennies the farthest down it. Even in 1988, that seemed to be the highest and best use of the one-cent coin. Their main function is pocket clutter.
Why do I suspect that Arnold’s suggestions are the same used for the Swiss Franc? Different Colours and sizes, indeed! What next? Socialized medicine?
How could you leave out the quarter, Arnold? They can get rid of the “noble” penny for all I care, but don’t touch the quarter! Without quarters, how am I going to buy my LA Times in the morning? How am I going to play that ancient Captain Fantastic pinball machine at the local pizza joint? How are college kids going to get drunk? 20 pennies aren’t worth 1 quarter! (Although they would be worth one freakish 20 cent coin.)
Get rid of the penny. We don’t need them anymore. I don’t think we need any new coins, either. However, what we do need is to rejigger all the vending machines so that they’ll accept halves and the new Sacajawea dollars and/or Susan B’s and/or Ikes. Well, probably not the last two. And possibly, now that we have the aforementioned Sacajaweas, we can get rid of the dollar bill. Unfortunately, that will have the effect of rendering George Washington homeless in Greenbackland, just like Thomas Jefferson. So, what we need to do is to bring them in to replace Andrew Jackson (a vastly overrated president) and Alexander Hamilton (c’monn, Hamilton? Nine out of ten schoolchildren don’t even know who the hell he is!) on the twenty and ten, respectively. Thus, we will have paper money that looks like this:
$5- Lincoln
$10- Washington
$20- Jefferson
$50- Grant (another overrated president, but he can stay because he did win the Civil War for us, after all.)
$100- Franklin
What with inflation and all, it will probably become necessary to introduce $200 bills, $500 bills, and possibly even $1000 bills at some point. When this happens, we can put the faces of some worthwhile figures from American history on them. Thomas Paine, perhaps. Or maybe Robert E. Lee, since we already have Grant. And to round it out, how about Tecumseh, or Sitting Bull, or Chief Joseph?
Boy, did I ever wander off topic! Just get rid of the pennies, that’s all I ask.
Hey, sometimes I just throw suggestions out there to see if they can fly. Cecil said, “Get rid of the penny” here. I thought the two-center would work because the government would be able to turn more of a profit from it than they do now with the penny. And you could pay the exact price of anything whose price ended in seven cents with a nickel.
BigDaddyD,
If you want half-dollar coins, go to Tito’s Tacos on Washington at Sepulveda in Culver City. They use halves when they make change.
If you want a sackie, try Wal-Mart. I like the sackie, but there are still very few of them out at the moment and I thing people who get them tend not to spend them.
