Should small-value coins be discontinued?

In 1857, the US government discontinued the half cent coin. What coins should be discontinued today?

  • One cent (Penny).

    Votes: 8 42.1%
  • Penny AND five cent (Nickel).

    Votes: 3 15.8%
  • Penny, Nickel AND ten cent (Dime).

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Eliminate all coins - use credit card or e-payment systems.

    Votes: 2 10.5%
  • None, keep it the way it is.

    Votes: 6 31.6%

  • Total voters
    19
  • Poll closed .

JoeJester

Joined Apr 26, 2005
4,390
Elimination of paper dollar and replace with dollar coin - a coin only slightly bigger than quarter, or, slightly smaller than a quarter with a dual metal design.
Remember the Susan B Anthony dollar? It was "slightly" bigger than a quarter. There were plenty of people asking for change for a dollar and the unsuspecting person handed them four Susan B Anthony dollars. A very nice profit margin for some and a large embarrassing loss for others.

The dollar coins I had in Las Vegas are slightly larger than a quarter. I still have a roll of them.
 
Don't all US coins fall into that category? Bills too for that matter.
Not quite -- The treasury yet issues real money!:) - as for instance 1 OZ Au eagles -- they average 2,300% face value and, best of all, their value is vested in their substance (as opposed to politician's edicts) -- It just doesn't get better than that!:):):)

Best regards
HP
 

Glenn Holland

Joined Dec 26, 2014
703
If we get rid of the penny, what am I supposed to jam in the fusebox when I'm out of fuses??? :confused:
Just jumper out the fuse with heavy gauge wire (10 gauge will do the trick) and let your house burn.

Even if the fire department can put it out, your walls will get chopped up and you'll have a huge insurance claim to file.
 

Thread Starter

GopherT

Joined Nov 23, 2012
8,009
Deal! Send me your address in a PM. I'll give you my routing numbers so you can wire me $11M Canadian. As soon as I see it in my account, I'll wire you $180. Since I'm a good sport, I'll even round it up to an even $200.
Sorry, I'm on the US side. I was offering Max the $180. My biggest concern is that he would send me 11 million Loonies.
 

wayneh

Joined Sep 9, 2010
17,496
I've been watching since our government divorced our currency from a basis in physical matter (gold or silver) and wondering how long a currency can be supported by a belief system.
It's not all bad. Inflation is the primary, perhaps only, means we have right now to "pay" off the national debt. My grandchildren, age 2 and another due in February, are being born into debt of ~$170,000 each. That's their share of the current national debt. Money we've stolen from them. They're only chance to get out from under that debt will be to inflate their currency and pay us (and the Chinese) back with worthless paper. I can't blame them.
 

Thread Starter

GopherT

Joined Nov 23, 2012
8,009
I have long said, "Inflation is how we steal our mother's retirement money."
The converse, inflation is how we make it easier for 4 workers to support each retiree when the system was originally designed for support from 16 workers. In other words, don't count on the system - unfortunately.
 

RichardO

Joined May 4, 2013
2,270
Remember the Susan B Anthony dollar? It was "slightly" bigger than a quarter. There were plenty of people asking for change for a dollar and the unsuspecting person handed them four Susan B Anthony dollars. A very nice profit margin for some and a large embarrassing loss for others.
/QUOTE]
 

Thread Starter

GopherT

Joined Nov 23, 2012
8,009
Exchange rate $1.32 Can to $1 Us so $8,333,333.33 and 1/3 cents us to 11,000,000 Canadian:cool: You see! Even snot nose blonde bimbo can do simple arithmetic:D!
You are not helping, I was hoping that Max was not good at math.

Also, I think Max simply gave $11M as a reference point - the Royal Canadian Mint saved $11M by eliminating penny and nickel there, how much could an economy the size of USA (10x bigger?).
 

MaxHeadRoom

Joined Jul 18, 2013
28,619
At least Americans should be thankful for the decision made to change to Metric for their currency.:p
The original Penny was divisible by four (Farthings).
Max.
 
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Thread Starter

GopherT

Joined Nov 23, 2012
8,009
At least Americans should be thankful for the decision made to change to Metric for their currency.:p
Max.
Kind of. The Spanish Dollar was selected as the right size for a gold piece and the basis of our currency. The name was kept. The Spanish Dollar was commonly cut into 8ths to pay small sums. Therefore, the first coin agreed upon was the quarter (two 'bits' of a dollar). So, the US nearly fell into the non-decimal realm but cooler heads prevailed and, since most things cost less than 12.5 cents at the time (1 bit), the dime, nickel, penny and half penny were agreed upon. Notice that US and Canada are kind of unique. Most countries using decimals of their base currency use 0.2 coins instead of 0.25 coins. Not much difference in terms of number of coins needed to make change in a standard sale, but more in alignment with "Preferred Numbers" scaling,

e.g. the Renard Scale (R3 in this case), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preferred_number#Renard_numbers

Or, E3 series in resistor talk. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preferred_number#E_series

Or, more precisely, similar to the scaling factors on your oscilloscope. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preferred_number#1-2-5_series)
 
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