$50,000 For Halves & $2 Bills?

Right and that was the end of that when they ran out. In all honesty right now businesses nor the feds should be doing anything that costs money to get a new denomination going. If you can come up with a way that doesn't require any investment people would probably be open to it. The businesses I'm sure will hear you out, but I really dont see any of their higher ups approving something that will cost 100s of thousands if not millions across their stores for that.




Even if you made them fool proof theres just no need. Large transactions are almost exclusively electronic now. Plus it still would solve the issue of money changing hands. Thinks over 10k have to be reported which makes it really hard or at least labor intensive to take that much out in small amounts over long periods of time as opposed to just handing over 10 1k bills

I have no idea how their service agreements work for those machines. They may have someone on salary, they may have unlimited services for it as part of the rental ect. Theres no assurance that less trips to it saves them any money depending on the agreement, or if the halfs would even cause less trips. But having them wont make them anymore money, theyre going to get paid either way when people buy things so the money they "make" with halfs in it would be there anyway.

Yes I honestly do think a store would immediately stop handing them out if people complained. They want as many customers as possible and theres always other stores, so if people dont like it they wont do it. Everything in a store in engineered to maximize their business from the placement of items on shelves to what you have to walk past to get to certain things. Ever notice the meat section in a grocery is always on the far end of the store so you have to pass everything else on the way there and back instead of just pop in the door grab the meat and leave? The candy free checkout aisle is a direct result of customer complaints as an example. Stores always take notice of large complaint numbers.

That said I dont think most people would care one way or another if they got a 2 dollar bill unless they thought it was fake. If you live in a small town I think you could pull it off locally, not in a large city though

The problem with spending "some hundred thousand to a few million, to add a feature to their machines that may end up making them hundreds of millions to billions over the years" as you say is that it won't make them any more money than they make now. People are fine with the quarter being the workday coin and most vending machines that would be candidates for your conversion plan already take $1 bills and many take larger bills, usually $5's. The problem with using larger bills than that is making change. And making change is pretty much all coins are good for these days.

Oh, and one more thing. I found it very nice that the self checkout machines at my local Walmart accepts halves (and $2 bills) in case I buy a bunch of halves from my local credit union. Sure, by dumping a bunch of halves in a single machine would likely land them back at a bank, but at least when I deposit halves in the machines, they are still getting accepted and I am still getting some halves out there and showing that halves are still a circulating denomination, so that the self checkout company don't shut off the half accepting abilities to use that space or whatever for something else. Now, if I succeed in getting my local Walmart to retool to dispense halves (and $2 bills) as needed, perhaps things may work out, and I will have revived a long dead (or, maybe just a long "dormant") denomination from the grave (or its slumber) If the self checkouts dispense some of those halves, at least they won't have to just go back to the bank.

I must ask the opinion of you guys though. Do you think these stores were just bulling me around, to get me off the phone? Because, like I said, the guy at the Meijer world HQ said that they do take customer complaints and suggestions seriously, and he also said that he would document the idea and send it along, and that using $2 bills and halves actually made sense. And the lady at the Walmart HQ pin-pointed my local Walmart's location, within seconds of me telling her where I live, and so I was thinking, these people may actially be taking me seriously and seriously be considering the ideas, seeing as the Meijer HQ even wanted my phone number in case they want to call me. Also, I was shopping with my mother at Walmart last night, and we were talking about how I called both, the Meijer HQ and the Walmart HQ, and since the Meijer HQ seemed more interested in the subject than the Walmart HQ did, my mom said "Yeah, I wonder if Meijer is considering it more, to try and out do Walmart for more business" since, ever since the Walmart was built, it seems like they really took a lot of Meijer's business away. I know some of you may argue that having self checkouts accept and dispense $2 bills and halves won't make the stores much more money, but it would be more conveinient for people who just happen to have halves on them. And it would be slightly more conveinient to carry one $2 bill or one $1 bull and one $2 bill or two $2 bills instead of two, three, or four $1 bills, and one large half over two small quarters, that is, especially if vendors accepting $2 bills and both, accepting and dispensing halves and self checkout companies did upgrade for accepting and dispensing both $2 bills and halves.

Oh, and by the way, do any of you think I should appeal to some of these stores's managers, and ask them if they would be willing to have their cashiers stock their cash drawers with $2 bills and halves if I supply their stores with them (in other words, have them buy boxes of rolls of halves and bricks or $2 bills off me) give it a shot, and see what they say? That won't cost the stores a cent, and if it takes off, maybe the managers of those stores will just start automatcally start ordering $2 bills and halves for their cashiers. I think the best time to try this experiment, would be around the holidays, when people could request $2 bills and/or halves for their young kids for Christmas, and even Easter. People try to get special money for Christmas anyway as far as I've been told. What do you guys think of these ideas?

(Yeah, I know. I keep repeating the same things over and over again. Sorry. I'd better watch it, or I may be viewed as a troll and thats the last thing I want to happen to me, as I enjoy talking and debating with you people here, even if most of you don't agree with my ideas. (-: )

Although you can be a bit of a broken record, Fox (much love anyways), your passion for the subject is inspiring. The only objection I actually have is that in one sense yours is an unwinnable battle. You'll likely get your wish regarding simplification and consolidation of issues - losing the Dollar bill, larger-denomination coins - as much as a result of desirable cost-cutting as for the unmentioned 800lb gorilla in the room:

We're not really using cash as a society any more. Cash transactions at POS are down to something like 25% of all transactions, and that number is lessening every day. Heck, I'm a Luddite in my mid-50's, and the only reason I ever use cash any more is for tips. I go through two debit cards per issue lifetime, wearing them out from having used nothing else to spend money. The younger generations are even more plastic-centric.

So some of your goals are rendered near-inevitable with or without your input, and others become less-likely (vending machine reform) every day because there simply isn't enough demand to justify the investment. Heck, it's getting difficult to hail a cab which doesn't have a card swiper in it.

You can assume that any changes made to our monetary system which do not directly relate to reducing overall cost are being made for purely political reasons, because some certain plurality maintains an emotional opposition to it. Nobody in government who uses logical thought progressions in their heart of hearts is in favor of expanding anything, monetarily.

You can retool a vending machine to accept rocks if you want, that isn't the problem.

The problem is that new coins and bills require each machine to be adjusted to accept them. Most vending machines are less than 20 years old, and in that time frame the half dollar or $2 bill have been invisible. While there may be some machines around that take them I would venture to say that most do not. There is no real need nor is there a demand for these coins to work in these machines.

With pop running $1.50 or more out of machines the next big investment will be more card acceptors and bill acceptors rather than retooling for large value coins. There are vending machines around now that accept ONLY plastic, no cash. Expect to see these around more and more.

I think that any plan to introduce $2 coins in the USA and make half dollar and $1 coins more commonplace is just going to run out of time. Plastic money is king now and the prince in waiting is electronic money (pay by smartphone etc,) or maybe biometrics.

The age of cash is pretty much over and there will be nothing new in coins down the pike except for maybe a lessor alloy for the 5 cent piece. I don't think that the vending machine folks will bother making these work in their machines, just like most don't accept the penny. As for bills, the current round of improvements might be the last or next to last.

n9jig & basebal21,

One thing you don't get about "plastic" money, is credit card fraud, and identity theft. This has happened to my mother and my father at least four times, each. Maybe more. You can't steal someone's identity or run up someone else's bills, who has a $200, $500, or $1,000 bill. Sure, if you flash that 1K bill around, you could get robbed and lose all of that money, and most likely, never get it back, but its much better than a wad of $100 bills in your pocket. And even though a stolen credit card could be canceled immediately, if stolen, that does not stop the possibility of someone opening up another credit card account with your stolen identity. Therefore, I believe we should really take a few steps back, and eliminate all electronic methods of payment, and bring back $500, $1,000, $5,000 and $10,000 bills and issue $200 and $2,000 bills as well. I think that would be way more secure, as far as identity theft goes. Try to think of how great your "plastic" is after dealing with identity theft and credit card fraud more than a half a dozen times.