$50,000 For Halves & $2 Bills?

basebal21,

Oh yeah. I forgot to mention, you said in a previous post about criminals with $200, $500, and $1,000 bills, "but you dont just give up and throw in the towel because somethings hard" So, why is this any different of a view with me trying to get halves back into curculation? And by the way, I just talked to the Meijer World HQ, about their self checkouts, telling them that most new vending machines and self checkouts have the ability to accept halves, but just currently do not have the parts in them, and I asked if the guy could help me in my cause, and while he could have just been lying to me, he did say that he will document my proposal, which was to make their self checkouts dispense $2 bills as needed, and accept and dispense halves as needed. When I told him it made more sense to have less coins such as quarters, and less bills such as $1 bills, he just said to me "Yeah, that does make a lot of sense" and he was serious, and even took my name and phone number, in case anyone needed to contact me. And my brother works for a Meijer warehouse, so I knew from him that the World HQ takes customer calls and suggestions very seriously, and I told this guy about that, and he said "Yep. Thats how we become a better store. We listen to our customers's input" And of course I thanked him dearly for considering my proposal and saying he was going to forward it along. Oh, and by the way, he refered to the half as the "50 cent piece" just as some of you guys here do. Anyway, the half is NOT dead yet!

basebal21, keep in mind that I am NOT mocking you in any way, but if the government is fighting a hopeless battle, then, why can't I?

1967Canadapenny,

No timetable has been set for the release of the Meaningful Access redesign, but it is a bit suspicious that the Series 2009 "old" style $2 bill print run was made only to last until 2014, and as I said 2003 was the release year for the "NexGen" $20 bill and 2013 will be the release year for the NexGen $100 bill, so, 2003-2013 = 10 years and the government has stated that it will redesign the currency every 7-10 years, so, if they want to keep on schedule, they will release at least one Meaningful Access redesign denomination next year, and with the old style $2 bills running out in 2014, that seems to be the perfect year to release the redesigned $2 bill, to test the Meaningful Access designs, with the least important denomination first, in case there are flaws with the new features, rather than releasing a more important denomination, like the $20 bill first, and having a mishap, like with the NexGen $100 bills. I also suggested that the new $2 bills and new $5 bills come out together, because vendors most likely will not make the effort to reprogram their machines just to take the lowly, rarely circulating $2 alone, so, if they have their machines pulled apart for the more important $5, they will also be able to program in the new $2 design with a lot less trouble. And NAMA has agreed with me on this.

Oh, and by the way, off the subject, but I called the Walmart HQ now, and the lady I talked to there, was nice about the idea of their self checkouts dispensing $2 bills and halves as needed. I told her the machines already accept $2 bills and I was amazed by them accepting halves as well, and she said she would forward the idea to my three local Walmarts, but she wasn't sure if it would happen nationwide. But at least, if it happened here, other $2 bill and half lovers could contact the world HQ and ask that their machines be set up to dispense $2 bills and halves as needed, and accept them, if they don't already.

basebal21,

Well, thanks for not taking offense.

I do realize that there will be a cost to the stores/vendors and they all seemed to acknowledge that there will be costs, and neither world HQ (Meijer, or Walmart) told me anything like "Oh, thats too costly for a denomunation that rarelu circulates" or "Thats not cost effective" all Meijer seemed to be interested in, was satisfying my wants, as a loyal customer and since Walmart already accepts halves and $2 bills, they probably would not have to go through much money for dispensing them either. I think Meijer would have more troble, seeing as, they accept $2 bills and thats it (unless you include small dollar coins, but why dispense those when you have $1 bills?) The big thing with Meijer would be both accepting AND dispensing halves, aside from dispensing $2 bills. Anyway, they no longer mint dollar coins for circulation, and thise still have their support, and I know there are half supporters out there too, even if not as many as dollar coin supporters. Man, I wish I knew how to do and manage a website, because I would do two. The "Half Dollar Coin Alliance", and the "Two Dollar Bill Alliance". (-;

Anyway, even though halves are no longer made for circulation, I still can't see why it can't work out like the Susan B. Anthony dollar coins did. The Feds thought they'd never get rid of those, but people started using them, because vending machines started accepting them, and the Federal Reserve ran out. Why couldn't this even at a 1% chance, be the half's fate? People could use up that ten year supply, BANG! More halves will be minted for general circulation.

n9jig,

Great ideas on the security strips! I always thought that, if we did issue a $200 bill and reissue the $500 and $1,000 bills, we could have horizontal (long-ways) strips on those three denominations. A strip neear the to for the $200, a strip in the middle for the $500 bill, and a strip toward the bottom of the $1,000. And then, a "Motion" 3D ribbon like on the $100, but red on the $200, green on the $500 and of course, golden on the $1,000. Even though a few of you disagree with the need for larger denominations, I still want at least a $200 and $500, if not the $1,000 as well. Maybe they will print larger denominations again, when or if they could ever microchip the bills somehow so they can track them.

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. (-: )