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 Replies: 185 / Views: 15,202 |
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
1723 Posts |
Just an opinion question I'm going to throw out to the community.
How long do you think it will be before you can no longer fill a hole because coins are no longer manufactured?
With everything electronic these days, instant, digital, do it from home, I'm curious if we have 20 years, 50? 100? We've come a long way towards a cashless society in the last 20 years. I would like to hear others opinions and why. Obviously no wrong answers or guesses. Only time will truly tell.
Cheers all!
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Pillar of the Community
United States
5825 Posts |
IMO quite a while until coins are passe, at least in the US.
Heck, we can't even get Americans to give up on one cent coins.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
3469 Posts |
Until they are demonetized, folks will keep using them in one way or another.
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Rest in Peace
United States
18456 Posts |
When we start to inhabit Mars , no money as we know it will be needed . Everything we need will be purchased using micro chips embedded in our hands and arms . When the chips are finished we go to a special banking system ,there they will remove the old useless chips and install new ones . Each person will be allowed a certain amount of points in their chips to live on each year . Just Sayin .  |
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Forum Dad
 United States
24154 Posts |
Quote:
Heck, we can't even get Americans to give up on one cent coins. or dollar bills... or checks... |
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Valued Member
United States
461 Posts |
30 years. Maybe less.
The coins currently being manufactured (25 cents on down) have so little value or purchasing power they are mostly only good for making change for the dwindling number of people who still use cash. Many people who receive change carry it home and toss it in a large jar until they have enough to dump it in the coins to cash machine at the grocery store. Even though these machines charge a commission of 3% or so, people would rather pay the commission and receive bills at the store than count and roll coins and then take it to the bank (few stores will accept rolled coins). More and more vending machines take credit cards. Aside from keeping some coins in the car to feed parking meters or pay tolls many have no need for coins at all, even now. They will soon become antique relics.
The millennial generation, i.e. my kids, are completely comfortable with, and in the habit of, doing transactions electronically. When the old geezers like me die off, most people won't be using coins at all. There will be no demand, and there will be no reason for the mint to make any more.
The biggest barrier to a completely cashless society may be socioeconomic. There are many low income people who do not use banks or credit cards. So long as that remains the case, a need for some amount of coins and paper currency will still exist. But even this problem will eventually be resolved. I would be surprised if it took thirty years. A lot can change in that period of time. Foe example, we didn't have the internet thirty years ago.
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Moderator
United States
188213 Posts |
My guess is within 100 years. That is, if we last that long as a functioning society in a global economy.  |
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Pillar of the Community
 Canada
1723 Posts |
@sharkman all very good points. Especially when you talk about the more less fortunate group. That is a very strong reason to have physical currency around longer
@ Jbuck. I'm guessing around the same time frame. 100-150 years I think.
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Valued Member
United States
461 Posts |
Jbuck and Samsnate,
As a fellow coin lover, I hope you're both right. It would be nice if coins were still meaningful when our children or others inherit our collections.
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Moderator
United States
188213 Posts |
Coin collecting will survive the shift to cashless, even if it means that new collectors are born from something other than change hunting. Look at all the antique items people collect. Many of these things have been obsolete for more than 100 years. Do you think they relied on everyday use to inspire their desire? Nope. They have an appreciation for the history or the nostalgia of these items. Future coin collectors will start with the spark of fascination with items that have long lost their usefulness. Ultimately all coin collectors will be "ancient coin" collectors.  |
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Rest in Peace
United States
18456 Posts |
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Ultimately all coin collectors will be "ancient coin" collectors. Holy Smokes , you mean some day a 2018 Lincoln Cent will be an Ancient coin ? I wonder how the zinc rot will hold up ?  |
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
20753 Posts |
There will always be a need for coins and currency as long a there are flea markets, garage/yard sales, estate sales, drug people, gum ball machines, wishing wells, etc.  |
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Moderator
United States
188213 Posts |
Quote: Holy Smokes , you mean some day a 2018 Lincoln Cent will be an Ancient coin ? I wonder how the zinc rot will hold up ? Obviously by the year 3000 those 2018 Zincolns will be very rare indeed. Probably only five will survive and be worth $3,000,000,000 each.  |
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Moderator
Australia
16826 Posts |
Quote:Coin collecting will survive the shift to cashless, even if it means that new collectors are born from something other than change hunting. Look at all the antique items people collect. Many of these things have been obsolete for more than 100 years. Do you think they relied on everyday use to inspire their desire? Nope. They have an appreciation for the history or the nostalgia of these items. Future coin collectors will start with the spark of fascination with items that have long lost their usefulness. Ultimately all coin collectors will be "ancient coin" collectors.
Holy Smokes , you mean some day a 2018 Lincoln Cent will be an Ancient coin ? Technically, they won't be "ancient". "Ancient" has a definition which is pretty fixed: the "ancient period" ended sometime between 476 and 500 AD, and that isn't going to move forward just because of the progression of time. Future historians and archaeologists will no doubt have come up with their own name for our time period. And yes, "coin collecting" will survive the transition to cashlessness. But it won't be anywhere near as popular as it is now. Quote:
I wonder how the zinc rot will hold up ? It won't. Modern coinage alloys are designed only with short-term economics in mind: cheapness of manufacture, counterfeit minimization, length of time they can remain in circulation. "What they will look like in 1000 years" is not part of their equation. Most alloys will readily disintegrate after being buried for a couple hundred years. Zincolns don't need anywhere near that much time; they appear to have been deliberately designed to self-destruct. I can imagine archaeologists of the future coming to the conclusion that the world had already stopped using coinage by the late 20th century, because the coins we use now will leave no trace in the archaeological record. Quote:
Obviously by the year 3000 those 2018 Zincolns will be very rare indeed. Probably only five will survive and be worth $3,000,000,000 each. My favourite sci-fi novel series are the Alex Benedict novels by Jack McDevitt. I like them because they combine my two loves: sci-fi and history. They're set 10,000 years in the far future when humanity has colonized the galaxy, but the hero is an Indiana-Jones-type archaeologist-for-profit. At one point in one of the novels, Alex explains that only two priceless coins from Earth older than 3000 AD are known to have survived: a Roman sestertius of emperor Nero and an American silver quarter from the 1960s. Don't say "infinitely" when you mean "very"; otherwise, you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite. - C. S. Lewis
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Moderator
Australia
16826 Posts |
And to more directly address the OP's question: I suspect that it will depend on your definition of "coin".
The problem with coins is that they're kind of old-technology now (they were, after all, invented 2600 years ago). Today, they're considered "inconvenient" because they're heavy (especially in large numbers) and represent relatively little purchasing power; making coins of higher purchasing power (such as the British £2, Canadian and Australian $2 and EU 2 euro coins) is problematic because these days it's relatively easy for criminals to obtain the equipment needed to make convincingly realistic fakes.
Transactions by physical transfer of a monetary object has been a part of human culture since before coinage was invented, and will no doubt continue while humans still remain as they are. I personally suspect the modern Western world's fascination with purely electronic money is just a passing phase, and will diminish once more and more people are affected by its inherent flaws in terms of impermanence and vulnerability to hacking.
A more "counterfeit-proof" piece of physical money is conceivable: a plastic-based, ceramic-based or synthetic-saphhire-based "coin" with an embedded microchip, so an RFID reader can verify the legality of the coin, is one example. Such a "coin" would be lightweight and difficult to counterfeit, and would also be more convenient than a polymer-based banknote (which, while sharing some characteristics of paper money, is often awkward to handle, especially once it becomes heavily circulated). However, a coin collector would have to decide for themselves whether such an object is still classifiable as a "coin".
Don't say "infinitely" when you mean "very"; otherwise, you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite. - C. S. Lewis
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
10034 Posts |
I agree with just carl. Many times city people forget there is a huge market out there where cashless does not work. If you live where Uber does not go, where a pizza shop is not on every corner, and you have to travel 5 miles to find a Walmart or Mc Ds, cash is still not uncommon. |
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Replies: 185 / Views: 15,202 |
Posted 11/26/2018 09:18 am
