I’ve been asked to write more, even if it’s of stuff of no importance. So here goes.
Congress has passed a bill authorizing new dollar coins one for each presidents (dead ones only), four per year, like they’re currently doing with the states on the quarters.
I think this is great. I wish people would use the dollar coin more often. When I was living in New York City, I’d regularly use and receive as change the dollar coin. That’s probably because of the subway system, as you’d use the dollar coins to get the subway tokens, and always receive dollar coins as change. But that may be changing, as the tokens have been replaced by plastic cards with magnetic strips that you refill.
I wish there were even higher denomination coins, like there are in other countries. In Japan, the smallest paper bill is 1000 yen, about $10, but they have 500 and 250 yen coins. For some reason I found satisfaction in paying for things by reaching into my pocket and pulling out the exact change. In the US, we just pay with bills, receive coins as change, which we then take home and put into a jar. Then when the jar is full, we take them to a machine which charges us money to convert back to paper. In the UK they have the pound coin, worth about $1.80. The pound coin is a nice size, too. Our dollar coins are a little to big and too heavy.
I’d really wish our government would just get rid of the penny, and perhaps even the nickel. The Lincoln penny will be 100 years old in 2009. That would be a good time to get rid of it. Adjusted for inflation, a penny in 1909 was worth 21 cents in 2005 dollars. If people in 1909 could get by with the penny being the smallest denomination coin, we could get by with the dime.
But that would require an act of Congress, and congressmen from neither Illinois or Virginia would approve of such a measure, as they see the penny and the nickel as promoting their states. Look how hard it was to replace Monticello for just a few years to celebrate the bicentennial of the Louisiana Purchase. But I have a solution: get rid of the penny, nickel, $1 bill, and $5 bill; put Lincoln on a 5 dollar coin and Jefferson on a 2 dollar coin. Make the dollar coin more the size of the British pound coin.
Either that, or replace all paper and coins with virtual wallets.
Since 1997 the UK has had £2 coins too (there never was a £2 note) - pictures. I think they look quite nice but they don’t seem to be very popular, since I hardly ever come across them - possibly because not many vending machines take them and businesses couldn’t be bothered to get new drawers for their tills/cash registers.
I agree with you about getting rid of the penny. It’s not a very hot topic on Washington, obviously, and it’s Capital Hill that needs to make the decision. We had no problem getting rid of the half cent, why so long to get rid of the one cent? We need to get some member of the house or senate to get this topic onto the floor long enough to get it passed, and then forget about it.
http://www.consumptionrules.com