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 Replies: 64 / Views: 13,009 |
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
2805 Posts |
Recently, the mostly-unrecognized country of Transnistria has announced a new series of coins for 2014, slated to enter circulation today. I'll start with the history: Transnistria is supposed to be a part of Moldova, but it has a Russian and Ukrainian majority instead of a Moldovan majority, so in the 1990s it declared independence with Russian backup. OK, so, Transnistria is not recognized as a real country by any U.N. member state, but they sure act like they are. They have their own government, police force, military, and currency, and we are most interested in the currency. See, the Transnistrian ruble trades at about 9 cents U.S., and so the current set of coins (1 to 50 kopeks) isn't worth much. Take a look at the brand-new solution:         These hard-plastic coins have got anti-counterfeiting features normally only seen on banknotes: symbols that only appear under ultraviolet light and other optical tricks, plus raised text (of course, every normal coin also has raised text). So what do you think? The thing is, plastic coins could (and probably will) catch on, so this is the time to have a nice discussion about the viability of plastic coins in general. For: - They're more secure than real coins! Glowing UV ink and the like is hard to fake. - People who don't want to use dollar coins because "they're too heavy" have nothing to complain about here. - Now we can have fully-coloured circulating coin designs, freeing up space at the mints of the world for good NIFC. - The visually impaired will have absolutely no trouble telling them apart. - Cheap to produce. Against: - Too light, don't feel like "real money" (although I hate the "real money" argument because it's just a vague personal preference so try harder) - Not very artistic - The shapes are too weird - Too much like banknotes - Not very collectable! How would you grade them? - Say goodbye to proof and specimen sets - Would vending machines take them? There's one thing that nobody is allowed to mention in this thread and that's the American cent. Even if it was made of plastic it would cost more than one cent to produce so don't even start. Edited by nalaberong
08/22/2014 5:01 pm
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Moderator
 United States
187569 Posts |
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There's one thing that nobody is allowed to mention in this thread and that's the American cent. Even if it was made of plastic it would cost more than one cent to produce so don't even start. Seconded. You have been warned.  They are interesting, more interesting than bank notes, but still less than stamped metal coins. Probably on par with stamps. That is all I have to say.  (Other than that I always appreciate your additional background information.) |
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
1747 Posts |
Remember "Plastic" is a oil product, so as the price per barrel rises, the cost of these plastic coins will also rise.
Not to mention how would these work in a Coin-op machine? How many machines would become obsolete.
In Canada we have changed our $1 coin and $2 coins recently and it made all of the coin machines needed to be upgraded.
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
20753 Posts |
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In Canada we have changed our $1 coin and $2 coins recently and it made all of the coin machines needed to be upgraded. Not sure how many vending machines there are in Canada since I don't go there. But just in one large City in the USA there are possibly millions of them. One place I worked had an entire floor full of them for every one in the building. They are at all the train stations, bus depots, grocery stores, entrances at Walmart, Kmart, Target, etc. They are everywhere. To modify the millions and millions of vending machines to take plastic coins would cost more than is imaginable. And if you look into our present counterfeiters, they can make almost anything from metal so plastic would be a boom for them. ANTI-COUNTERFEITING FEATURES? Your kidding of course. This would be a new thing for them to play with. |
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Pillar of the Community
1325 Posts |
I see these and instantly see Starbuck gambling with them at a card game table while Moffit runs around causing trouble in the background, and then I want some.
I can only hope for plastic coins because they would be interesting to find anywhere and from any country and last as long as game tokens have with the new plastics. Lack of corrosion is also a benefit, and they could be made out of recycled plastic like old soda bottles and milk jugs and such to cut costs since it doesn't need to be food safe and use "virgin"-plastics. Mold them correctly and you could even put little RF chips inside them for vending machines to read or other automatic change-making systems or taking systems.
Then being plastic and already set for UV light it could go much more into clubbing and such with LEDs installed in them and all other fancy things, but that is more for BSG than real use, so....
Yeah I could see plastic with the right process working, and even threw it out as an idea in the debate on getting rid of the US penny. Just not PVC cause anyone that collects coins knows what PVC does after time and we don't need that. Acrylic resin coins with carbon nanotube substrates and RV chips in them, the future is NOW!
Also that 5 looks like it would make a handy guitar pick.
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Bedrock of the Community
Australia
21786 Posts |
If we have plastic (polymer) banknotes, then why not?
I have long thought that the U.S. One Cent SHOULD be made of injection moulded plastic.
Such a coin could be produced for only a small fraction of a cent.
If such a coin would be annoying, then so what? Isn't the current One Cent annoying, due to it's small value? That is the most common reason tendered for it's demise.
Currently, they are often used in a single transaction, only to go into a home cookie barrel, to be recycled in bulk.
Actually, it may be worthy of serious Public consideration to have ALL coins made out of a good quality recyclable plastic, much like gambling chips.
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Pillar of the Community
Australia
3831 Posts |
My partial coin collection http://www.omnicoin.com/collection/gxseriesMy numismatics articles and collection: http://www.gxseries.com/numis/numis_index.htmRegularly updated at least once a month. |
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Pillar of the Community
1325 Posts |
They float in wishing wells? Only reason I could see not to use plastic.
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
1118 Posts |
I feel like we will be a cashless society anyways with debit and those new fangled bitcoins.
They are a fun novelty and I would love to pick some up but the mark-up and shipping costs to Canada are going to make me pass.
They almost remind me of the POGS that American military bases use.
How long until the preppers and gold standard guys come over to this thread and start screaming "We told you!"?
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1037 Posts |
I do not think that plastic coins would have the longevity as metal coins, thus they would be more costly to produce over time.
Plus, with the newer generations of 3D printers, counterfeiting could be a problem.
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
3692 Posts |
The whole point of a coin is the coining process. You need heavy machinery and specialized dies to make a coin. Plastic is just asking for it.
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Pillar of the Community
1325 Posts |
The whole point of a coin is to have a coin. The process isn't as important as the features and Henning seems to have been close, so metal isn't completely safe. It isn't cheap to make plastic anything either, there is more to it than just grabbing your EZ Bake oven and making shrink y-dinks that look like coins.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2368 Posts |
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Plastic coins - are they the future? Dear FSM I hope not...  I'm with welder, 3d printing is getting better everyday. Plastic coins are like electronic voting, it's futuristic but easily corruptible. Edited by wheatchaser140
08/23/2014 5:59 pm
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Moderator
United States
187569 Posts |
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Such a coin could be produced for only a small fraction of a cent. Prove it. |
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Valued Member
South Africa
453 Posts |
Plasic hoarding anyone hahahs
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Pillar of the Community
United Kingdom
2868 Posts |
And with 3D printers everyone could jut print their own, instantly eradicating world poverty - :)
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Replies: 64 / Views: 13,009 |
Posted 08/22/2014 5:08 pm
