Wow! I've Never Seen A Half Dollar Before.

Dollar coins, Kennedy halves, $2 notes - I do spend them, but judiciously so as not to get into arguments. I like leaving Ikes as tips. I've begun avoiding using the Susan B. Anthony coins, they really do confuse people for whom I'm really not trying to make their work day harder. Interestingly, I went to a bank yesterday to replenish my supply of these lesser used items, and the teller advised that someone had earlier in the week come in and completely wiped them out of all such.

I patronize a particular Chinese retaurant regularly, and leave various Chinese coins (like QEII Hong Kong dollars) in addition to the appropriate tip in U.S. currency. The manager recently told me that her servers get a big kick out of that.

I suspect the reason Our governmemt is holding off on doing anything about coins is the think soon enough all coins and cash will be useless. Plastic is taking over everywhere. Why use cash when one card is all you need and no change to worry about. And if I use my card, I get money back from the card company. So why not use a plastic card?

Number of reasons. One, the card company talkes a cut with every transaction. To an extent, we already pay more for everything to cover the card usage that now occurs; if it became all plastic, we'd pay even more. Two, if all your transactions are via plastic, your life becomes an open book. Yes, I know the mantra, "If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear." I've just never had anyone explain satifactorily to me what the benefit to having no privacy in your affairs is supposed to be. Third, if there's the vulnerability of a widespread cyber attack, in which case your card is likely dead. All commerce would come to a screeching halt for as long as those systems were down.

Cash and coin is legal tender for all debts public and private (private being the key). A lot of people don't like a "paper trail" for the government to keep tabs on them. A card is nice because it's like carrying my bank account with me but I often will have my card and cash on me.

I spend less when I use cash, it's that simple, although cash-back deals are attractive.

Wife has had two cards compromised since after Christmas by someone in and outside the US.

As far as dollar coins go, I can carry 100 times the cash a lot more comfortably, that's for sure!