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 Replies: 12 / Views: 1,197 |
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Valued Member
United States
185 Posts |
While searching through dimes last night I was thinking about how money is spent. Until recently, the majority of spending was done with paper bills and metal coins. In recent years, there has been a shift towards credit and debit cards - bills and coins exchange hands much less than before. What does this mean for us coin collectors? I can see coins lasting longer since wear decreases due to less handling. This could easily create more high quality coins down the road, possibly lowering their future value. What are some other pros/cons that you see?
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2600 Posts |
I truly wonder if we could become a cashless society. I am trying to think of places where they do not take credit card. Here are a few but not many.
car wash, some produce stands, vending machines.........
We even have commercials about slowing down lines using cash. I go to Panera Bread most every morning for coffee and I am amazed by the number of people using CC to pay for a $1.50 cup of coffee. Retailers are promoting them and expediting their use now by not asking for a signature unless the purchase is over a certain amount.
It would seem that we are destined to have nothing to collect. Gosh, I hope this is just a bad dream.
Jim
Edited by Jim1953
11/03/2007 12:40 pm
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1713 Posts |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
632 Posts |
Anyone up for collecting ATM cards from different banks?, Yea, its not the same is it?.
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Pillar of the Community
 United States
2703 Posts |
I hope there will be resistance to doing away with cash. Illegal transactions aside, having a mandatory electronic record of every single transaction you do, with no control over who can hack into this data, is giving up too much privacy. I can see it happening, though, since the government will say only terrorists and other criminals will have something to hide.
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Valued Member
United States
128 Posts |
If there was a move to a cashless society barter/trades would become huge and I think coins would actually increase in value.
Edited by Norcal Jim
11/03/2007 1:46 pm
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Valued Member
 United States
185 Posts |
Collecting ATM cards, ha ha, not quite the same ... Norcal Jim, interesting view. Thanks everyone for your input - keep 'em coming!
If coins were done away with (I don't think it'll happen in our lifetimes) it would technically make every coin more valuable instantly. They would all become discontinued products. Even the 6,000,000,000,000,000 2007 pennies that will be produced would eventually be worth more!
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Moderator
 United States
6563 Posts |
I could easily see us as being a cashless society. There will still be a demand for bullion that will be traded.
The thing I don't get is why people still use personal checks for retail purchases. I get about 10% of my non CC purchases at my work from checks and I just don't get it.
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New Member
United States
8 Posts |
In the credit card commercial, the sole customer paying in cash is singled out for not using his card like everyone else. I haven't had that happen, but I can say from experience that the store clerks give you the weirdest look when paying with 1976 $2 bills.
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Valued Member
United States
185 Posts |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2270 Posts |
Fewer transactions using coin will not necessarily lead to lower rates at which the coins wear because the FED simply adjusts production to match demand. There are numerous factors that have been leading to lower rates of wear but chief among them is inflation; when coins are worth less people can allow them to build up more before returning them to the bank. People don't engage in much strenuous activity any longer and when they do (like jogging) they aren't likely to have a pocketfull of change.
The composition of the dimes and quarters is far tougher than it used to be and since they are lighter sliding over one another is much less destructive.
While coins now are wearing more slowly it is occurring to ALL the coins rather than just a few. In the past coins would be set aside as backing for paper or by the public for emergencies but this no longer happens. Coins also got lost in FED or mint storage back before 1972 because they didn't rotate their coins. Now days none of this applies. If collectors haven't set aside pristine coins then they simply don't exist. Try finding a coin like a nice VF/ XF 1969 quarter. Coins like this are virtually non-existent and searching pocket change won't bring one up because these coins are much more worn than this. If you look at many many rolls then you might come up with a VF but it won't be nice. Most collectors will have to settle on a nice F. Dealers don't stock these and really couldn't if they tried. Collectors don't have them in collections because there are virtually no collections. For two generations if something like this was brought into a coin shop the dealer would just tell the owners it was pocket change. Even today such coins (if there were any) would probably be spent.
It used to take about six years for a quarter to lose a grade and around 12 years for all of a date to be worn to AU. Now it takes about eight years and sixteen years but this is caused much more by the way the coins are used than by their frequency of usage.
Time don't fly, it bounds and leaps.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1713 Posts |
I paid for something in half dollars the other day. The clerk asked me if they were halves I said yes. Then she proceeded to tell me that I still owed her more money (she'd added them up in her head as quarters). She counted them out on the table as halves and felt really stupid afterwards.
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Moderator
United States
6563 Posts |
I LOVE using Ike's at fast food places. The poor teenagers sometimes have never even Seen one before! It gets even better when they call the manager over asking if they can accept them.
I am looking forward to the day that someone threatens to call the police for "fake" money. I'll say "Sure!"
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Replies: 12 / Views: 1,197 |
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Posted 11/03/2007 12:20 pm
