Like others have said, my answer to the OP’s question of what to do with money: buy stuff with it.
I’d much rather fish two coins out of my pocket for my $1.25 morning coffee than have to go in to my wallet, flip through a bunch of identically sized, identically colored pieces of paper looking for the one that says “ONE” on them, and then still having to go into my pocket for the remaining quarter. There are some places where I just don’t want to take my wallet out to fan out my paper bills looking for a single. I’d much rather pay for small purchases with as few coins as possible. The dollar coin is ideal for this.
I keep a change bowl next to the front door (where I toss my keys and unused change when I get home) and always grab a few dollar coins from it on the way to work every morning.
And maybe this is why the dollar coin works for me, because I have given up the penny. It really reduces the amount of metal currency in my pocket.
No, if you rightly oppose the coinification of our currency, please do not do this. Bring them to the bank and ask for real money. The bastards at NAMA want you to use them in a vending machine. Their lobby is the only reason this horrific things exist. Don’t reward them.
Absolutely. I prefer plastic bills in denominations of $.25, $1, $5, $10, $20, $100, and the elimination of all coins, and the rounding of all prices of to the nearest 25 cents, except on credit/debit purchases. Coins are an anachronism and are stupid.
Whenever I’m back in the US dealing with $1 bills is a hassle. So much easier to just reach into my pocket for a few coins than having to break out my wallet for small purchases.
I discussed the dollar coin repayment situation with some friends (who all agreed it was a dick move, which is why they are my friends). So yesterday, Dick (not his real name, but an apropos pseudonym) asked one of my friends if I was around.
My friend said, “Kayaker will be here later, but if you are looking to borrow money, don’t bother, he will likely tell you to fuck off.”
Considering the way typical cash drawers work: coins in the front row, bills in back, fifties and hundreds hidden underneath. We already have plenty of cash drawers to accommodate one or two additional coins types, and without eliminating pennies. Every cash register I’ve ever seen has at least five slots across. As noted, fifties and higher go underneath the drawer, so only four denominations need slots now–ones, fives, tens, and twenties. Take away the one and you’ve got only three bill denominations to sort. Oh wait, there are $2 bills, supposedly, but they are so rare as to be hardly worth mentioning.
My hunch is that if they cancel the $1 note and replace it with the $1 coin, then the circulation of $2 notes will increase. The slot formerly used for $1 notes will be used for $2 notes. If they cancel the penny, that opens a slot for the $1 coin.
My other hunch is that adding a $1 coin will increase circulation of the half dollar coin. I have no idea why half dollars aren’t more popular now.
I have a question about rounding cash transactions to the nearest whatever.
Some have suggested dumping the penny and rounding to the nickel. Someone else suggested dumping the penny and quarter, rounding to the nearest dime. In my fantasy world, we would dump the penny, nickel, and dime, rounding to the nearest quarter.
The question I have is how does the rounding work? If you round using cash and do not round using credit/debit cards, then in some cases, the merchant gets a windfall and the consumer pays more than the advertised price, plus tax. In other cases, the merchant loses and the consumer gets a windfall. On average, it generally evens out for everyone.
My concern is that, in any given transaction, the consumer may be required to pay more than the advertised price plus tax. Wouldn’t consumer advocates frown on this or would this just be written into law as an exception to consumer pricing laws?
Also, I assume the merchant would round off the final transaction amount and not round off each item when a consumer buys multiple items in a single transaction. Otherwise, the merchant can rack up a lot of additional money on each item if they all round up. On the flip side, I can see a savvy consumer wanting to buy multiple items, each in a separate transaction, because the consumer knows the final transaction amount on each item will round down, whereas buying multiple items in a single transaction will only round off once on the final amount of the entire transaction.
We already pay for things rounded to the nearest cent.
For example, gasoline is priced to the mill (that’s the extra “9”), but you pay in full cents. Likewise, any percentage, as for taxes or commissions, can easily produce fractions smaller than one cent, but these are rounded with no objection.
So nickel rounding would be the same. All products will be priced to some multiple of five cents. When taxes or other calculations are applied that produce any other result, it’s rounded up in favor of the seller (this is the way gasoline works now; $18.753 rounds to $18.76).
There’s no reason for electronic transactions to be any different than cash transactions.
Actually, what would make the most sense from the internal logic of American currency, would be to drop the cent and five-cent coins, and make the dime the smallest unit (like it says, “ONE DIME”).
Yes, that’s correct about Australia (don’t know about NZ, except the dollar coins keep ending up in my change.)
Australia has no one cent coins, either.
Personally, I love having one and two dollar coins, now that I’ve gotten used to it. It’s weird to go back tot he US and have to deal with scads and scads of folding money.
Dollar coins, half dollars and two dollar bills are my ‘Mad’ money–the two’s are for one of the gentlemen in my condo development that wants them for tipping valets when he goes to Florida.
Any body who steals the coins I will find easy–they will be in the local ER with sever hernias…
Any idiot who breaks in will get smited by my $30 Australian coin. A kilo of silver will leave a mark!
