As far as $2 bills go, I don't do them and refuse to go that route. I'll take quarters b4 I take 2 dollar bills. There's a belief that the bills are cursed and cause issues to those who get them. Maybe it's a story, maybe it's not but I am NOT taking any chances since we already have enough problems going on in the house.
"Many vending machines already accept and dispense dollar coins, so, why quit making them?"
What it comes down to is that not a lot of people like the dollar coins and there was such an under demand it was costing the gov a lot of money to store the coins so they really couldn't go on. Plus there's a secondary problem, as far as dollar coins go, the push to switch to them is in an effort to save money in the government but the problem is that some believe it cost the gov money, not save it.
The numbers used to show how much money could be saved are using very outdated data. judging by all the articles I've read plus a few news clips on youtube, they peg the average lifespan of a bill from being anywhere from a measly 9 months to a solo article saying 60 months but the upper limit seems to fall at the 48 month mark. However an article I read that argues about if the coins would save money says with the better quality materials that they are using, the life span is closer to an average of a whopping 70 months! almost 6 YEARS of usage.
Plus one has to calculate the increased cost of shipping the coins since they are a lot heavier then a bill, the cost of retrofitting all the machines that can't handle dollar coins, and how people are supposed to lug around the coins when wallets aren't designed to handle a ton of coins these days unless they start using a tin or something to hold coins.
Plus there's the issue with it being confused with a quarter. It's way to similar in size. I compared a
SBA and a pres to a quarter and the size difference is less then 1/8th inch.
My personal opinion on dollar coins is this: IF the majority of people actually liked the coins, IF there would be enough evidence the switch would actually save money, and if they could go something about the size issue, I could kind of get behind the idea of a dollar coin. I tried getting a couple coins out of curiosity and I just don't know. I spent a james buncahan at the goodwill and the woman looked at the coin pretty funny so I might just go back to dollar bills unless I can track down a neat mighty ike. And I got a beautiful 1979 Susan b Anthony that I can defiantly see the quarter confusion issues. Will I spend the
SBA one day? Not sure since it's really cool looking but who knows
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So, in conclusion, why can't vending and self checkout machines just be MADE to accept and dispense these denominations here, just as they are in many other countries, instead of simply eliminating them from circulation?
I've read a few articles and some vender machine makers are willing to make the machines dollar coin friendly IF they'd get subsidy's for each machine the has to be retrofitted since the articles say itd cost around 50 bucks a machine.
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I think working as a cashier has led me to realize that people don't dislike half dollars in particular (usually) but all coins in general.
Not in this house(3 adults). We use coins along with bills with small buys and mostly bills, sometimes some coins with larger buys. Pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters.