Coinage Hasn't Kept Up With Inflation

Thank you SM.

What is the status of the economy of US in the 60s downward?
When they start mining oil in the midwest and when it start to go downward?
what is the status of the world economy in those days?
And when the dollar start to lost its value and why?
What happen when if coinage will kept up in inflation its effect on the majority?

Dick, you have great attitude for those days. You sound like you remember all the goods. Unfortunately I remember all the bad things of back then. In Chicago there was just to much pain, suffering, death, crime and starvation. I'm glad those days are gone. I really like today.

quote tights24: "Regardless, I think the initial thought was why we don't have even $5 and $10 coins to keep up with the current prices of things in convenience stores etc. TS, straighten me out if I misinterpreted your original thoughts."

You've got it tights. My thinking is why can't I go in a lunch place, get a sandwich and a coffee and pay with change? That's what pocket change was traditionally for. Nowadays we don't need "pocket change," we need "pocket cash."

A long time ago I read an article about the early development of our coinage system. A decision was made not to mint 1/10 cents and to round purchases to the nearest cent. It made sense then, why not now? It's time to move the decimal again.

quote sap: "Governments know changing the currency is both unpopular and a sign of problems with the economy, so they only do this as a last resort."

I think sap is right. Doing a straight 10% adjustment would appear that we're fixing a problem. The way around this dilemma is to continue with our current coinage system, but add a $2.50, $5.00, and $10.00 coin. I would be tremendously pleased if this happened. It may have to occur in sync with the suspension of $1, $5, and $10 bills to be successful.

Here's an interesting story that might support TS's view.

Last week I went grocery shopping with my wife and kids. As my wife and I got in line to pay, we were 4th in line so my 5 year old son and I went to the other end of the cash register to sit on a bench waiting for our turn to bag the groceries.

As we were waiting, the first person dropped a penny that everyone heard and no one could be bothered to even look. My 5 year old, being the opportunist, jumped on the coin immediately the customer left and returned so proud he found a penny. As the third person in line checked out, they also dropped a coin and once again no one could be bothered to even look. And yes, my 5 year old quickly scooped up his find and returned to display a nickel that he proudly put in his pocket.

As my wife checked out and I bagged we headed out the exit with my son running ahead of us excitedly to spend his new found money on one of the many gumball machines located by the exit doors. Unfortunately, he hasn't grasped the concept of cost and coin values and could not understand why he could not use his new coins (the cheapest Gumball Machine was 50 cents). Feeling his disappointment, I offered two trade two quarters or his penny and nickel which he did and went on to buy a super-ball from one of the gumball machines.

The sad lesson to this is what little pocket change he had did not even have enough purchasing power for a Gumball Machine.

Nothing excites a kid more than having the ability to purchase something THEMSELVES and typically a kids access to money comes in the form of pocket change.

Nothing expressed this more than when I took all three of my kids to Staples last Friday where they were able to buy folders for 5 cents each, a one subject notebook for 39 cents and a box of crayons for 12 cents. They each pulled coins out of their banks to make the purchase and they were so happy to go up to a cashier by themselves, pay by themselves, and even counted their change by themselves. This was a pretty rare occasion where a coin had purchasing power but it made me remember how neat it was when ever I could buy whatever I wanted without Mom or Dad. With inflation being what it is, how many times a year can my kids enjoy this type of moment that I as a kid experienced all the time?

Sorry to ramble on but I though it might be interesting.

As for the original topic of this thread: I think eliminating the penny is probably a good idea - it costs too much to make it, it's like 1/10 of a penny or even 1/100 of a penny from 100 years ago. Those weren't needed then, and a penny isn't needed now. Like someone said, 99% of people won't even bend down to pick one up. That means its time has passed (due to the gov't printing so much money that our currency is almost worthless - the dollar has lost 96% of its purchasing power since the Federal Reserve started in 1913.)

As for $1 and $5 coins - think about how much cash you normally carry around. Inflation has made it LESS likely that you want to carry change. (Unless you're talking about $1, $5, $10, $25, and $50 coins.) You want to carry around $50 to $100 in $1 or $5 coins?

As much as I love OLD coins, I HATE having "pocket change." I use a credit card for almost everything so I don't have to carry much cash, or get back a handful of change (that's worth nothing). When coins were made out of silver and gold, well, that's another story altogether. Then you had something of real value, and I'd be glad to have a silver coin over a piece of paper. But now, the paper might be worth more than what they make the new $1 coins out of.

The more I read about what things used to cost, the more I want to buy silver and gold.