US To Move To Only Dimes And Halves?

The main problem with any possiby changes to our monitary system is the government just doesn't care what you, me or anyone says. They will either keep the Cent, make it smaller, make it bigger, maie it out of Gold, they just don't care. Do we need any coins at all? Why not stop all coins now or soon. Make it all a plastic country. How about making a new 2 Cent, 3 Cent, 20 Cent coins again. Why not? If they decide to do that, they will regardless of who says what. I would like to see all our coins made in every variety of denominations from a 1 Cent to a 99 Cent coin. Picture that being spent at a McDonalds.
And with so much complaints about coins, why not change everything to papper. Picture a 1 Cent Bill.

This idea makes way too much sense, hence it makes no sense to politicians. What you really need is to bring back the $2 bill and retract every $1 bill by force.

Anyone who's used Canadian Tire money knows how long it takes to tally those up for a purchase. It's a pain in the kiester, mister. A one cent bill would just be comical.

I've also thought about this before.. a dime, two-dime, half-dollar, and dollar coin. With the two-dime coin, no transaction would need more than three coins.

Rounding would not cost us money because rounding goes both ways. Also the marketing ploy will still be usable. Instead of $24.99, you'll see $24.9. I suppose electronic transactions could still go to the cent, but it's not necessary because over many transactions that value will be VERY similar to the dime-based value.

The issue isn't Congress as much as it is the people. As logical as the system is, politicians know that society has been unwilling to adopt changes in currency (the Sacagewea dollar coin for example). An entire overhaul would be confusing for the public and, perhaps, disastrous to the marketplace.

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.