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 Replies: 51 / Views: 6,083 |
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Moderator
 United States
188770 Posts |
The Twenty Cent coin would be way better than the quarter dollar.  We had a chance to make that change and blew it.  If only we did, getting rid of the cent and nickel would be that much easier. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4963 Posts |
By the late 1870s, quarter dollars had already circulated for about 8 decades, and I guess people were just too accustomed to them. If we had switched then, we would have gotten accustomed to the 20 cent piece quickly. Sort of like how we could have switched to the [superior] metric system in the 1970s, but didn't take the opportunity like the rest of the world did.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
997 Posts |
Numisma hits it on the head. We are stuck with the quarter because by the time it was discovered to be the wrong coin it was too late. The quarter came into being because US currency was still being based on 8's even though it was a decimal system. The Spanish Dollar upon which our entire currency system was built was often divided in half, then in half again, then in half a third time. We are lucky they didn't come up with a 12.5 cent coin (which would have likely been called a "Bit") instead of the Dime.
While I am ranting, let's also get rid of the Dime, Quarter and Half Dollar right now and replace them with "10 Cents", "25 Cents" and "50 Cents".
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Pillar of the Community
 708 Posts |
I kinda wish they would have stuck with the Half Dime, instead of making the nickel, because, wasn't the Half Dime a little smaller than the dime? I thought that the reason they went to the nickel, was because it was harder to lose, than the Half Dime was. I think if that's the case, we should go back to the Half Dime to save money on using less metal(s) to make the five cent coin, and if we kept the one cent coin, make it a little smaller than the Half Dime, even it it still would cost more than a cent to produce, if you have the stubborn people who won't give the cent up, even if you could easily lose such a small coin, because, who cares if you lose a nearly worthless one cent coin. Then we could resize the half dollar to the size of the current five cent coin, the nickel, making it worth more to carry one half dollar than two quarter dollars, due to the half dollar's advantage of being lighter weight than two quarters. |
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Moderator
United States
188770 Posts |
Quote:
Sort of like how we could have switched to the [superior] metric system in the 1970s, but didn't take the opportunity like the rest of the world did. Truth! I remember learning metric in the 70's and was excited, but then it just seemed to end overnight. Quote:
While I am ranting, let's also get rid of the Dime, Quarter and Half Dollar right now and replace them with "10 Cents", "25 Cents" and "50 Cents". I am all for that!  Maybe use numbers instead of words, so the "$1" on the dollar coin haters will have a full conniption.  |
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Pillar of the Community
708 Posts |
n9jig and jbuck, how about 1 cent and 5 cents. If we keep those coins. Put their denominations in numbers for a change, not words.  Let's also put 100 cents for the dollar coin.  After all, I noticed Canada's $100 bill says "One Hundred Cent Dollars" on it, I believe.  Edited by Fox
06/04/2015 11:52 am
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
17884 Posts |
Quote:I kinda wish they would have stuck with the Half Dime, instead of making the nickel, because, wasn't the Half Dime a little smaller than the dime? Have you ever tried handling Half Dimes? If you did you would understand why people embraced the nickel five cent piece. Quote: I thought that the reason they went to the nickel, was because it was harder to lose, than the Half Dime was. No it was because the silver that disappeared during the Civl War didn't come back right away, and any silver issued disappeared as well. The base metal coppernickel five cent piece wasn't hoarded because it wasn't precious metal. And they were able to make it a larger more convenient size while still not having the metal cost more than the face value. Oh and by the way, when they introduced the nickel five cent they also officially switched all the weight specs for the coins from the English standard of grains to the metric standard of grams. The government officially switched to the metric system almost 150 years ago. But they didn't make the changeover official policy for the public. So 150 years later we still haven't switched over to the rest of the world. (Most of the world switched in the 19th century.) |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
997 Posts |
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After all, I noticed Canada's $100 bill says "One Hundred Cent Dollars" on it, I believe. I think that "Cent" is French for 100. After recently adding to my collection of Canadian silver 5 cent pieces, which were almost identical to US Half Dimes, I can honestly say the larger 5 cent coin is preferable. I dropped one or two of these and they were so small I had a hard time finding them. I can only imagine the trouble users of half-dimes had, it had to be even worse for the old 3 cent silver coins! |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1414 Posts |
I lived in Japan for 7 years and we had a 500 yen (almost $5 at the time) and it was nice but I hated the change, haha. Jeff
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Pillar of the Community
708 Posts |
Wasn't the U.S. 3-cent silver coin called a "trime"? Also, I can't see it being overly bad getting used to Half Dimes and even smaller pennies, if that made them cheaper. Either that, or make the dime the size of the nickel, the nickel the size of the dime, and the penny the size of the Half Dime, because, like I said, who really cares if you lose a one cent coin or two, while handling them? They're practically useless to buy things. |
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Moderator
United States
188770 Posts |
Quote:
Wasn't the U.S. 3-cent silver coin called a "trime"? Yes, it is called that now, but I am not sure if that term was contemporary. Someone else will need to confirm. Quote:Also, I can't see it being overly bad getting used to Half Dimes and even smaller pennies, if that made them cheaper. Remember material cost does not matter, at least for the cent (minting and handling is still more than a cent for a cent). |
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Pillar of the Community
708 Posts |
Yes, jbuck. I know that, unless you could go "abra cadabra" and make the one cent coins appear, and deliver themselves to consumers, you're just wasting money if you produce them. (You might even share the same success if "hocus pocus" worked as well.  ) Edited by Fox
06/04/2015 4:31 pm
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Moderator
United States
188770 Posts |
I just wish someone would Avada Kedavra the circulating cent.  |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4963 Posts |
Quote:
Numisma hits it on the head. We are stuck with the quarter because by the time it was discovered to be the wrong coin it was too late. The quarter came into being because US currency was still being based on 8's even though it was a decimal system. The Spanish Dollar upon which our entire currency system was built was often divided in half, then in half again, then in half a third time. We are lucky they didn't come up with a 12.5 cent coin (which would have likely been called a "Bit") instead of the Dime. Thanks, but I was really just speculating. Personally, I think it would be better if our entire numeric system was in base 8, 12 or 16 instead of 10, but we're a couple thousand years too late for that. If that was the case, I would be happy with half, quarter and eighth dollars. Quote:
We are lucky they didn't come up with a 12.5 cent coin (which would have likely been called a "Bit") instead of the Dime. They sort of did. Spanish/Latin American Reales, exchangeable at 8 to the dollar, widely circulated in the U.S. until 1857. Half Reales also were used, equal to 6.25 cents. |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4963 Posts |
I would also like to say that although I like the idea of a coin's size being directly proportional to face value, the 5 cent nickel is probably a more logical option- I often have trouble picking up a Half Dime or trime off of a flat surface where I can see it. And just imagine how tiny the cents would be. However, I'm all for getting rid of them all together, as stated in my rant earlier in this thread. |
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Posted 06/03/2015 6:13 pm
