But then, how would the 99 Cent Store differentiate itself from the Dollar Store?
Volume. Buy 100 of our crap and you’ll have saved a dollar.
In those countries that have a tradition of high-value coins, there is actually a drive towards replacing banknotes with coins, rather than getting rid of them. Coins have a much longer life expectancy than banknotes; they last decades, whereas banknotes typically have to be replaced with new ones after a year or two. At the same time, the productions costs of coins are only slightly higher than those of banknotes - figures that I’ve seen are ten (European) cents for a one euro coin versus seven cents for a five euro banknote. So for the issuing authorities, coins are far more economical in the longer run. From that perspective, it would make sense to replace certainly the $1 (and the rare $2) bills, and possibly even the $5 one, with coins, rather than abolishing coins.
Unless they’re both physically smaller than a US dime I’ll be giving any I get to the cashier as a gift/tip. I have no use for metal tokens in my pockets.
Ideally, a dollar coin should weigh four times as much as a quarter and a two-dollar coin twice that.
I recall someone working out that if you dropped a [insert small value coin here], would it be worth your while to stop and pick it up.
Cecil did that, though with 1983 prices. Might deserve a new calculation.
They used to be that way for all the silver coins. And still is for coins that keep the same sizes. That is, the dime is 2/5 the weight of the quarter. However, the US dollar coin is no longer the same size as the old silver dollar coins. Ditto for the Canadian dollar coin. And there never was a silver toonie.
Cecil had one column where he claimed (based on someone else’s calcs, IIRC) that it was worthwhile to pick up pennies. But that was long ago and it’s quite possible it’s no longer worthwhile. Then again, it depends on how much you value your time.
If I fumble a penny I just leave it. Regardless of whether it pays or not, the discomfort of getting way down to the floor and back up overrides any financial considerations.
Why “Ideally”?
Back when coins were actually just royally authenticated hunks of valuable metal that might have made sense. Now they’re just arbitrary tokens. You may as well argue that the thickness or surface area or length of a 10 Dollar / Pound / Euro note ought to be double that of a 5 Dollar / Pound / Euro note. Size doesn’t matter at all except as a way to make them more readily distinguishable from the other denominations.
As to the pennies, see this distinguished scientist’s take on it:
https://what-if.xkcd.com/22/
Because it makes it easy to count mixed bags of coins by weighing them.
Even if you shrunk the quarter down to be as light as the dime, a $2 coin that was eight times that weight would, I think, be the heaviest modern coin intended for circulation in the world. It would be almost as heavy as the old silver and Eisenhower dollars, which rarely saw commerce due to their size and weight.
Never mind basing it on the current quarter, which would put it just below the “cartwheel” twopence coin, which was more valuable as a weight than as actual money.
I’d like to see a hefty, high-value coin, worth say five or ten dollars (or more), perhaps electroplated in gold. Something that the tooth fairy could leave under a kid’s pillow, or you could put in their Christmas stocking and have them know the coin could actually buy something worthwhile.
Over here, the Royal Mint regularly issue ‘Crowns’ which have a nominal £5 value. These are cupro-nickel coins - the silver and gold versions cost a lot more but still have that £5 face value. I have no idea how a shopkeeper would react if I offered one in a purchase.
I am guessing that most families have a few of these around the house. My mother used to buy them and they live in a box at the bottom of a drawer.
This, of course, is good business for the Mint. The coins cost little to produce, sell for a fiver, and rarely get redeemed. I see a collection of five recent Crown on eBay for £8.00 so they are not really collectors items unless you just want to complete a set.
I thought property taxes were called “millage” due to them being mills per dollar of valuation, or dollars per thousand dollars of valuation.
Having fractional cent coins made a lot more sense years ago, but now I could go for eliminating pennies and rounding all transactions to the nearest nickel. Or even to the nearest quarter.
I had not thought of that. Thank you.
But for banking you need 100% accuracy, and given wear on coins you can’t weigh large quantities and be assured your count isn’t off by one or two. For individual users, bulk & weight is a detriment, whether we’re talking your or my pocket or purse or the safes and cash registers of individual retailers.
Not sure the idea pans out, but interesting nonetheless.
Someone is sandbagging on their revenue forecasts 
I’ve seen some 10¢ comic books, but they were 12¢ when I started buying them.
And of course 10¢ comics had no bearing on the current discussion of pennies and nickels.
But… But… But… I was responding to your comment.
Am I being whooshed?
My comment which specifically mentioned 12¢ comic books, because two pennies were needed to buy one.