US To Move To Only Dimes And Halves?

I dislike the idea because it's too much, all at once. Nobody will take well to a completely revamped system thrown on them all at one time (look at how decimalization went for Britain--as late as the 90s I could STILL flip on British TV or read a British newsmagazine and hear them complaining about it), especially with the world going through a recession right now.

As for revaluing the dollar, n9, I encourage you to read "The Running Man" by Stephen King (under the pseudonym Richard Bachman). In that book, the exact thing you've proposed has happened, and New Currency is all made out of plastic. Some places will not even accept Old Currency (e.g., at one point the main character needs to use a pay phone--keep in mind this story was written in the 1970s--and is told he'll have to trade a dollar's worth of Old Quarters to get the two New Quarters he needs).

The problem? New Currency was made available to the wealthy first, and they promptly used it to segregate the country into poor slaves and wealthy upper crust. That's not an exaggeration, either--people from the main character's side of the Hudson River are actually not allowed to have New Currency. It's a crime, as is working a whole slew of better-paying jobs. How long did it take to put this in place? Only about seventy years from end to end, which, if you think about it, is absolutely frightening (this book also predicted the rise of reality television thirty years before it happened and also postulated the idea that we might be poisoning our air far more than we knew long before King had anything to back that idea up, so don't just brush it off as pure fiction, either--he was onto something).

With the political climate standing as it is, I hesitate to suggest a revaluing of anything, because it's our vulnerable--poor folks paid in cash--who would suffer. I don't think it's a good idea unless all the old money is immediately withdrawn from circulation and everyone is given a fair shot at the new currency.

This is the one best reason to go all plastic. Eventually on Earth this will HAVE to happen. The reason is even now becomimg apparent. How much is a 42" Sony TV in Russia? How much for the same one in India? Brazil, New York?
International trading just has to go all digital and done with plastic. No more monitary systems anywhere. You go to a store anywhere on Earth and the computers say how much you pay via your plastic card. You no longer have to woneder how much an Apple costs in the Belgium Congo, Argentina, Iran, etc. since it's all done by computers via a plastic card.
The only real problem with the above is how would our politidcians get their kick backs.

I'm not a currency collector so not sure but on many occations lately I've asked for and received what looks like new $2 bills at banks. And I get those same lousy looks when spending them as with the baby sized dollar coins.

Really...Removing the 1 dollar bill, and forcing the $1 coin and using the 2 dollar bill would save plenty of money. probably wouldn't have to eliminate the penny or nickel to brake even then.

The real problem is the majority of people just don't like those baby sized dollar coins. Removing the 1 dollar bill would also drive people nuts. You buy something for $4, hand them a $5, get back a pile of coins. WAy to many people just don't like to carry anything heavy. All hat extra weight? Now if there were $1, $2, $3, $4 and up dollar bills up to $100, so much would be all in paper.
To make this work, everything would now have to be in dollar only prices.


I could forsee a Dansco Type Set Album being about 10 feet or more wide is there were coins made of each denomination and Mint. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, etc. all the way to $1. And then too, one proof of each?

OR lower the prices on everything. This way a Cent would be a necessity. Like a roll back to the 40's prices on everything.
Everyone keeps on nagging about getting rid of the Cent, Nickel, Dollar bill but so few say lets just roll back all prices on everything. Completely roll all back. Then a Candy bar that I used to get for $0.02 would still be $0.02 instead of almost a dollar. Then a Cent would be used more for a Cent. Just imagine purchasing a new car for a few Hundred dollars.
So why not? Just cut everything by about 75%. Wages, salaries, the price of a loaf of bread, gas for your car and on and on aod on. So why not?

I like the idea, but after thinking more on this, do agree with jbuck. Eliminate the penny and the dollar bill, allow people to get used to it, and then remove the nickel. Remove the quarter as well in the future. A 20 cent coin might become necessary at that point. And the banks need to push $2 bills as well. I think everything is going the way of plastic credit cards, but the monetary system needs to be revamped for those who still use coins.