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 Replies: 157 / Views: 10,747 |
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Pillar of the Community
 United States
1796 Posts |
Provided they've been made in the past 20 years (i.e. check for weight, size, and electromagnetic fingerprint) they should.
Would sure fool the whirligig coin counters that rely upon size only. :-)
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1227 Posts |
Whenever I compare our money to the money of other countries, people get very passionate. But, I'm going to do it anyway:
Perhaps a place to start would be emulation of the Euro.
Allow me to explain.
The Euro coinage is set up so that the smallest coin is the 1c Euro coin. It is made of copper. Then there's a 2c and 5c, also copper but larger. Next, the 20c, gold, and the 50c, gold. These have two different kinds of edges so people who are blind or sight-impaired can feel the difference between them if the size isn't readily apparent (or if, say, they have a 50c but not a 20c to compare it to). Next, the one- and two-Euro coins: these also have different edges, and are bimetallic. The denominations are large and written with numerals to make them easier for children and mentally differenced people to use and to facilitate use throughout the EU (to prevent the need for coins to be written with, say, "one, un, une, ein, Euro"). And while the obverses are all different according to the country in which they were struck, the reverses are identical across all Euros from 1c to 2€--only the amount changes. It's obvious at a glance--or a feel--what denomination you have in your hand, and also that it is the correct currency* for the EU.
We could learn from this.
*I'm going to digress here: do you know how many other countries' coins I have received as quarters from people who had no idea they were handing me the wrong coin? NINE, including pre-Euro France (twice!), Nicaragua, and Japan. When you add in coins I've received as dimes, pennies, and nickels, the number jumps to seventeen, and when you include coins I've found in rolls that look nothing like American money but are the right size to elude a sorting machine, it goes up further to around two dozen.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1796 Posts |
The 1c Euro is hardly used, as it's a small little booger (smaller than a dime).
Also, I do remember a recent episode where I was nabbing an iced tea for the family at a Starbucks drivethru (and being at a Starbucks is unusual enough as it is for me) and paid with dollar coins. Turns out the cashier was a coin collector, himself, and found it fun as I gave him one of the Presidents he was missing. We talked a bit about how it's a shame they don't circulate much outside of urban areas, and as he gave me my change we touched upon how many foreign coins are in circulation incognito, like how many Canadian pennies and nickels we've come across.
As I pulled away and pulled into a parking space for a moment to get the straw in and hand it back to my wife and kids, I noticed that in my change I received a UK 10p instead of a quarter. He apparently didn't notice it either! :-)
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Pillar of the Community
United States
997 Posts |
I also appreciate the Euro coin design. I would do something similar but there are just too many coins (8, 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 50 cent and $1 and $2). Most countries there don't use the 1 or 2 cent coins, even the 5 cent coins are often ignored. It appears they do use the 20 and 50 cent coin the most.
If we did something similar here without revaluing the dollar, I would forget about the 1, 2, 20 and 50 cent coins, and have only 5, 10 and 25 cent coins and a $1 and $2. 5 coins are plenty. (Bills would be 5, 10, 25, 100 and 200 dollars, matching the coins...)
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Moderator
 United States
188342 Posts |
Quote:
do you know how many other countries' coins I have received as quarters from people who had no idea they were handing me the wrong coin? NINE, including pre-Euro France (twice!), I call that nine wins!  Quote:
I noticed that in my change I received a UK 10p instead of a quarter. He apparently didn't notice it either! Or maybe he thought you would appreciate it. Maybe.  |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
613 Posts |
My first thought was that he was generously giving you what he had already pulled out of his change drawer that night, a tip of the hat to a fellow collector.
That's what I'm going to believe.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1227 Posts |
I believe the tip of the hat, too. I give my foreign finds to little kids, sometimes.
And I still disagree with getting rid of the 5 coin. 1, 2, sure, but not the five-center.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
593 Posts |
Nina,
I think it depends on whether we are going to round transactions to the nearest 1/10th or 1/20th of a dollar. If we round to .05 then we would keep the nickel and quarter. If we round to .1 then the nickel and quarter are obsolete, so a 20c piece may be in order again.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
965 Posts |
Personally, I think we should get rid of the penny now, then wait maybe 10-15 years so that both the nickel and dime are obsolete so we can get rid of them at the same time, thus we can round everything to the quarter, and life would be easier than introducing a new 20 cent piece.
Edited by 1967Canadapenny
02/09/2013 8:59 pm
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Valued Member
Germany
138 Posts |
I think we should get rid of all paper money and coins, except dimes. Just think how simple our money system would be with only one denomination. No need for cashiers to make change at all.  |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
979 Posts |
People would freak if all the sudden things started rounding to the nearest 0.1. For convenience buying, like snacks, one could buy something for $0.95 and actually pay the full $1.00. Lot's of people have morning ruitines with small purchases like that with coffee or doughnuts .That's more than a 5% markup. Unlike the cent rounding, I think business would more easily use that rounding for substantial gain. That's almost as much as tax, which isn't on food here in NY.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1227 Posts |
Broseph raises a good point. I can tell you my job wouldn't "round up, round down." Everything, EVERYTHING, would be rounded up--except our paycheques, of course! I've seen it with teensy-tiny increases in our purchase prices--e.g., up until about a year ago, a donut was $1.09, and our purchase price was 87 cents.
Then the cost of flour went up. Our purchase price went up to 89 cents.
Guess how much the donuts went up?
TEN CENTS. The same donut you bought a year ago at $1.09 is now $1.19. They didn't just pass the cost on to the consumer--they went "eeeeeeeeeeeeeeek flour price is increasing WE MUST RAISE OUR PRICES" and bumped the cost by five times the additional cost. If ten cents doesn't sound like a lot, consider that my store goes through about 100 donuts a day. 100 x .10 = 10.00, 10 x 365 = $3650.
Rounding to the nearest dime? Oh yeah, they'd have a field day. And rob people blind while they did it.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
979 Posts |
I'm glad to see people who share my opinion! When I was a kid, my dad taught me how gas prices always had a minuscule "9" at the end for 9/10ths of a cent. I remember when gas was $0.949 cents a gallon!
Now I learned that credit cards that are 9.25% interest are actually 9.2549999% interest, and it is still legally advertised as 9.25% because they are accurate within legal parameters, that is, accurate to 2 decimal places.
I fully support removing the cent. It costs taxpayers and the gov more to keep them around than it would to get rid of them.
However, rounding can be very powerful. It can't be taken lightly.
Also, one of the things in Canada that they worried about with the penny's demise is charities. Having a coin so invaluable that people will give it without thought, actually supports many charities. massive reform could impact this greatly.
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
10038 Posts |
How much squash could a Sasquatch squash if a Sasquatch would squash squash? Download and read: Grading the graders Costly TPG ineptitude and No FG Kennedy halveshttps://ln5.sync.com/dl/7ca91bdd0/w...i3b-rbj9fir2 |
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Bedrock of the Community
13014 Posts |
That thread just shows that change isn't as easy as we like to think. Leaving the pennies in circulation kind of compounds the problem since theyll still be there to go to the old ways but not enough will be around for everywhere to have them.
Just because something is hard doesn't mean its not worth doing, but it would be a mess and most likely you will be paying more for a while until things get sorted out whether that means computer software or price adjustments or whatever.
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Posted 02/05/2013 01:24 am
