Obama's 2013 Budget Seeks Increased Flexibility For Coin Com

Yeah, I don't get the $2 note/coin either. We don't have a 2 cent piece, so why a $2 note/coin?

I will just relay what I remember the general concensus amongst my Canadian friends and the bankers I talked with at the time of the Toonie introduction

They were telling me (I know some people here will not like this, but this is what happened where I was ...) that they had too much change in their pockets. As I said before, the banks were not liking to cash Loonies in for larger bills b/c the shipping costs for the banks to exchange a lot of metal for higher denomination bills from their suppliers was costing them more (the same as my bank where I am now saying they will have to charge me 20.00 to get a box of halves shipped there for me). Both banks and people told me the Toonie was a way of helping reduce the amount of pocket change. Whether or not this is the official, government-stated reason or not... I do not know/remember. This is what the Canadian people/banks at the time were telling me.

I especially remember this b/c Tim Horton's (google it) is as Canadian as baseball is American. It seems everyone up north loved/loves Tim's coffee etc. even more so than Starbucks in the US (you really would not believe how much a part of their life it is!). So I spent a lot of time with people going to and from a Tim's. There always was a large pile of change to dig through (mostly Loonies) in pockets and in the various car consoles when stopping at the drive through windows. Since the cost of the coffee and the Loonie were similar, a lot of Loonies were spent at Tim's - and then Toonies. This is also where a lot of conversation about the coins was spurred.

Since I was a coin collector, I liked collecting some of the the Loonies and Toonies and also went to banks for coins to roll search (side note - here - you would be surprised at how many Canadian bankers have never seen a Canadian half dollar and did not even know the RCM makes them!). I stopped at different banks in many different places. The story was always the same.

The Toonies do cut down on the amount of change in the pocket if you have one coin in the place of two. Obviously, it may be the Canadian government said it saved money on printing/replacing bills. I am just relating what the people were saying.

That is interesting to hear about Canada's coins, but it still doesn't answer the question of why a $2 note/coin?

With the logic of saving coins in your pocket/purse, then why not a $3 and a $4 coin?

If there is that much confusion, then just don't use them. Just like everything else, if demand is not there, then they go away. Look at the $1 coin in the US. It took about 5 years to stop the mass production of it.

Sorry, I also find now I was assuming a lot. Having been with both cultures I forget things that I should state.

In Canada, the price tags on items are higher numbers than our price tags. I specifically said it this way b/c, although the numbers are higher, the wages people are paid are also higher. So it all works out in the end.

The basic unit that was most commonly spent was over $1.00 and closer to $2.00 (hey %15 tax on a lot of items with GST and PST)! I do not know if this might also have factored into why they always seemed to use their 2.00 bills though since back in the late 60's, the prices were not such that 1.00 was less than pocket change..

As an example, I distinctly remember when Star Wars The Phantom Menace came out b/c I bought mine at a Wal-mart in Canada. At the time US money was such that 10.00 US was ~15.00 Canadian.

So why do I remeber this?

B/c I paid 15.00 Canadian or 10.00 US at Wal-mart for my movie.

Wal-mart was, obviously, making adequate profit in Canada by selling the movie for the equivalent of 10.00 US. What made me angry is that I realized that had I bought the movie at home for 15.00 US, not only would Wal-mart have the same profit they made from me in Canada, but they would get an additional 5.00 US from me on top of that!

I admit that one of the things I enjoyed about in Canada is that I found that most of the people still wanted to assure a customer got quality for what they paid. The work ethic was better.


wording edit

So you are basically saying that driving at slower speeds isn't safer? That human error isn't a factor? Its all the "gubmint" right? An excuse is an answer that someone does not except. That is the fact of the matter. BTW. You can take 2 identical cars with identical brakes and tires. you go fast, ill drive slow, we'll see who lives.

again, the conversation was focused on a dollar bill vs a dollar coin. if I paid with a 2 dollar bill for something that was 50 cents, I would have at least a dollar coin in my pocket vs a dollar bill. I would prefer the dollar bill. I love change, I make money off of change. 1 million pennies at home and more on the way.

I think it is time to shut this one down.

I guess my earlier comment that "This thread has danced close to the political edge a couple of times and so far everyone has kept from crossing the line" was taken as some sort of challenge.