Change Our Currency's Denominations? - My Latest Coins Rant.

As a computer programmer, I disagree that incremental change (pardon the pun) is better, at least on the low end where rounding occurs. I would rather we bite the bullet and eliminate the penny AND the nickel. Round everything to tenths of a dollar. Then you only have to change all of the computer programs that handle inventory, taxes, pricing, invoicing, etc. once. I agree that taxes should be included in the price, so individual transactions are clean. The taxes paid by businesses could easily be rounded to the nearest dime with no ill effect. We would need dimes and halves, and I agree that dollar coins should replace paper bills. I would stop there with replacing paper money for now. Replacing a $5 bill with a $5 coin is one thing that could be put off, and if there is going to be a $5 coin, perhaps there should be a $2 coin first. We could take a clue from our friends to the North.

If everything is rounded to a tenth of a dollar, we would get the 20c coin again (Woo-hoo!). So dimes, twimes, halves, and dollar coins. If you had a half, two twimes and a dime in your pocket you could make change for a dollar in any transaction.

As to the obverse for each coin, I would say:

Dime - Roosevelt
Twime - Lincoln
Half - Jefferson
Dollar - Washington

And the dime would be Teddy, not FDR. If we have 4 coins, they should be the four faces on Mt. Rushmore!

This is a fascinating thread and a very interesting read. Everyone has good ideas. The thought of coins eventually disappearing from circulation scares me. I know it will happen eventually but I hope it is not for a long time. I love looking at them and discussing them with anyone who will listen. I don't want this to go away.

I have one comment about including sales tax in the purchase price. Althought I think this is a good idea and it would greatly simplify things on the retail end, it would be perceived as a price increase even though the end price paid is the same (except for the rounding, of course). Perception is reality. People believe what they see. For this reason, I think it will not happen any time soon.

I agree it wont happen but it should. Sadly if people see 3.99 they somehow think theyre paying less than if they saw the price with tax included

After all of the very good points in this thread have been made, the fine arts science of numismatics, and the hobby of coin collecting will remain.

I guess I did not make my point clear, either.

It is not like we will not "see it coming" if/when modern coinage comes to an end. As it happens, our mission will become more important. If we want the hobby to survive, we have to be proactive and do something about it. The members of this website will have to do more work, to recruit more interest, and keep the flame burning.

There is a difference between what I would like to happen and what I think is likely to happen. While I would love to see the Congress eliminate the penny and nickel and allow the Mint to start fresh with totally new $0.10, $0.50, $1.00, and $2.00 plated steel coins, I don't see that happening. It would be too much of a change and require a complete reset for every machine that takes coins. I could see a lot of vending companies simply eliminating the coin slot and moving to credit card only.

I also don't see Congress eliminating the nickel because then they would also need to eliminate the quarter. They could either replace it with a $0.20 coin or simply eliminate it all together and rely on the half dollar. We still have the problem of changing vending machines that currently don't accept half dollars so that idea is out.

The most likely scenario I see is for Congress to eliminate the penny and dollar note. Such a change will have no effect on the vending machine industry and limited effect on retailers. Retailers will simply have to change their software to round to the nearest five cents which isn't any different than programming for a change in sales tax. Eliminating the penny and dollar note would also be a big revenue increase for the Federal government when they need all the revenue they can get. The mint made 12 trillion pennies in 2012 and lost a cent on each one they made. That is a loss of $120 million in 2012. Before they stopped making dollar coins for circulation the mint was making 375 million per year. At a cost of $0.21 per coin that is $296 million in seigniorage per year. Add them together and even discounting the cost to make dollar bill that is a net gain of $416 million per year. When Congress routinely squabbles over programs that cost $10 million per year, I can't see them continuing to ignore saving $416 million per year. Some may say that seigniorage is just an accounting gimmick but when has congress passed up the opportunity to use accounting gimmicks to make the books look better?

Now to the demise of the hobby of coin collecting. In case you didn't notice, the decline is already happening. This reality was made even more evident by a recent visit to my local coin store. I should point out that this was my first visit because 3 earlier attempts were not successfully due to very restricted hours and the timing of their vacations. However, I happened to be driving by on a Saturday and they were open so I stopped in. The first thing I noticed was that I was the youngest person in the store buy a couple of decades. I'm 35 and the rest of the clients were 55 plus. That also explained their hours. There is not reason to bother being open when someone working a normal shift can come to your store when your primary customers are retirees. It was a nice shop but I suspect it will close with the passing of the boomer generation or when the shop owner (also 55 plus) decides to call it quits. I don't see enough coin collectors in younger generations to keep a local coin shop in business. That doesn't mean the end of CCF or online stores, but I don't see much future for local shops or coin shows.

hesgut:




Stamp collecting is my primary hobby, and I'm no where close to 70 (or 60), but stamp collecting was done in (in my humble opinion) by the proliferation of Commemoratives after 1970. The chances you would see every issued stamp on your mail during the course of a year plummeted, and most collectors started as kids who could get used stamps for free. That was better than the 5c it cost to collect nickels! There are plenty of collectors still out there, but not enough to sustain the market. A set of U.S. Airmail Zeppelins cataloged for $650 in 1972, $2000 in 1990, $1525 in 2008, and $1270 in 2011. I was really excited when I completed my set for less than $1000 about 5 years ago, but that would be fairly easy now. Do I cash out and give up my hobby, or wait for the prices to erode further so I can afford the remaining 3 stamps I need?

Coin collecting is here to stay because coins (and paper money) are here to stay. There will always be an off-the-grid economy that requires cash (and sometimes PMs). If coins can be purchased for face value from the bank and there are interesting and/or valuable things to look for, kids (and adults) will noodle coins!

I have two nephews ages 9 and 13 that are really getting interested. The 13-year-old got his first Red Book for Christmas. I gave the 9-year-old a 3rd Century Roman coin last week and Sunday the sermon was about that time period and he was amazed that he now owns a coin from that period! My sons are 6 and 8. I decided to get them involved in a project collecting 2005-2010. I also make ALL cash payments (tooth fairy, reward for raking leaves for an hour, or whatever) in special coins (halves, Ikes, or "gold" dollars).

Cash may be obsolete in 500 years or maybe 200 years, but certainly not less than 100 years. I don't plan beyond that.

I agree. If you get rid of the nickel, the quarter has to go.

Vending machines take dimes, so all vending purchases could be done with dimes and credit cards until the new machines came out that took 20c pieces (size of pennies), the new (smaller) 50c pieces (size of nickels) and the dollar coins. The new coins (20c, smaller 50c) could be slightly thicker so folks couldn't use old pennies and nickels to trick the vending machines. Then the $2 coin could be the size of a half and if we got to a $5 coin it could be the size of an Ike.