the Presdients set was in part to make money for the Mint by creating a collectors edition- I and many others collect each one - me one for each mint - so all those dollars that cost a few cents to make will never be spent - same for the State quarters - calculated money-grabbing by the Mint?

What about the behemoth half-dollar coin? Why make a coin so heavy that even God cannot lift it and expect folks to carry it around?

Xyz123, you and I agree on one thing, anyway — the new $1 coins were too small and hard to distinguish from the quarter. We actually have fewer coins in circulation now than in the 1950s, when the half dollar was still in circulation, and that was a large coin.

If we did away with the 1¢ coin at the same time as introducing a larger $1 coin I think people would get used to it. The problem is our politicians being too gutless to make what they feel would be an unpopular decision.

cashless transactions rule the younger generation who could care didilly about whether there were pennies to throw away or not or dollar coins - bit coins perhaps but not the dinosaur to them at least regular coins.

I can see teens looking up from the smart phones and seeing someone with coins asking "what the heck are those used for?"

"The problem is our politicians being too gutless to make what they feel would be an unpopular decision."

Or, as we'd put it in English, the problem being that your politicians - unlike your hawkers of doolally projects - realise they live in a democracy, it matters 0.001% of bugger all what kind of coins you've got and that the job of a politician in a democracy is to listen to his constituents.

Just a "it's a rip off" is a guaranteed sign on forums like this a complainer is just a whingeing tosser with a grudge, "gutless politicians" is a universal marker for someone too lazy to learn how democracies work.

<i>Are you all tax dodgers or something? The only people who have $100 bills where I live are contractors being paid off the books.</i>

Yep. Pretty much the only cash transactions of any kind I engage in are paying my tax-dodging dry cleaner or the cabbies that don't want to pay the credit card vig.

<i>Yet again an indicator of something the USA is behind the times in.</i>

Do you find this something that touches your life? I don't. Accordingly, I see no reason to bother changing it.

<i>Of course then again we're one of three countries (Liberia and Burma being the others) that have refused to adopt the metric system, we still use Farenheit for temperatures</i>

And yet, we went to the friggin' moon. Take that you metric pansies.

Honestly, I support things like the $1 bill and abstaining from the metric system mostly because the joy I get listening to all the euro-pandering Americans make absurd claims about how outdated and backwards the world's leading economy is.

<i>Is there any other major economy that has paper notes worth as little as the US dollar? </i>

That depends upon where you live. Coming from overpriced Europe, a dollar may not seem like much, but in the land of the free, a dollar gets you a Buffalo Ranch McChicken, which is a lot of yumminess for a dollar.

What a load of hogwash. How can people who have never had to deal with such changes possibly have anything other than uninformed opinions about how something would work?

Canada has had different colours for different denominations of currency for many, many decades. That helps both the visually impaired and visitors to the country.

Canada has $1 and $2 coins. They differ in size and FEEL to other coins. You cannot mistake them for any other denomination. The dollar coin is called the 'Loonie' thanks to the picture of the Common Loon on one side and is gold coloured. When the $2 coin which is bi-metal came out in 1996 it was automatically referred to as the 'Toonie' even though it has a picture of a Polar Bear on it.

Canada dropped the 1 cent coin just this year. It took about a month for people to get used to it and perhaps 2-3 months for no more to appear in change. Merchants BY LAW have to round up or round down to the nearest nickel. They can't just round up (note specifically to Caliban). So if the total with tax is 96 or 97 it becomes 95 and if the total is 98 or 99 it becomes a dollar. Amazing how that works out exactly equal isn't it. Duhhhhh.

Some merchants make a point of always rounding DOWN to the nearest nickel. So 99 becomes 95!

People CAN get used to anything and NO real reason exists not to make such changes but SOME people will make an issue out of anything. THAT is the problem the USA has and I do not say that intending any USA bashing.

But travelgourmet, there is something to be said for standardizing these things. I will never forget being on a winter tour and coming into Lucerne and the tour guide saying we would be seeing the Lion Monument but would have to walk a couple of blocks from the bus park. One of the geniuses on the bus looked at the temperature display on the bus, saw it said 10 degrees and said you expect me to go out in 10 degree weather. Or how much time is wasted in our schools with such inane questions as how many feet are there in 3 miles. Indeed kids throughout the world are asked how many meters there are in 3 kilometers. Who do you think is more likely to get this right?

No it's not Europeans that have gone forward with these earth shaking conversions. Canada has managed to do it and the country is as large as the USA (although obviously a smaller population).

In Australia we dumped the 1 and 2 cent coins years ago. If paying cash for an item the price is rounded up or down. It evens itself out and I don't think anyone is in the poorhouse as a result. If paying on a card, the exact amount is charged.

5, 10, 20 and 50 cent coins are silver. 1 and 2 dollar coins are gold. Too easy.

I think Canucks were loony to accept the $2 buck coin so gullably!

<i>Is there any other major economy that has paper notes worth as little as the US dollar? </i>

India issues 5, 10, 20 and 50 rupee banknotes (worth about $0.08, $0.16, $0.32, and $0.80, respectively).

China issues 1 and 5 yuan banknotes (worth about $0.17 and $0.83, respectively).

Brazil issues 2 real banknotes (worth about $0.85).

These are three of the world's largest economies, so the US hardly leads the pack in low-value paper currency.

<I>But travelgourmet, there is something to be said for standardizing these things.</I>

Are you suggesting that non-metric weights and measures are not standardized?

<I>Or how much time is wasted in our schools with such inane questions as how many feet are there in 3 miles.</I>

Honestly, I don't think much time at all is wasted on it.

<I>Indeed kids throughout the world are asked how many meters there are in 3 kilometers.</I>

Why? Seems like kind of a pointless question, no?

<I>Who do you think is more likely to get this right?</I>

Who cares? This obsession with trivia is, frankly, the kind of "education" that we really don't need.

<I>Canada has managed to do it</I>

Good for them?

<I>and the country is as large as the USA (although obviously a smaller population).</I>

What does area have to do with social changes?

<I>People CAN get used to anything and NO real reason exists not to make such changes</I>

Don't know about you, but I would think that the real question to ask is whether there is a reason TO make the switch, not whether there is no reason not to. I mean, we could all start speaking Esperanto, but there isn't any reason to bother.

Same with getting rid of dollars. Most of the estimates for "savings" both underestimate the life of a bill (roughly 70 months for a dollar) and underestimate the costs of coining (roughly 6x more than a bill). They also routinely ignore any private costs to process. In short, it isn't clear there is much savings.

I knew things would start to go to hell when they started impressing the faces of despots on cakes of salt.

"People CAN get used to anything and NO real reason exists not to make such changes".

As a man said to the shoe salesman who assured him he would get used to his new shoes, "Yes, I could get used to a nail though my foot, too, but why should I?"

I personally hate all those heavy coins weighing down my pockets when I visit the UK or the Continent, but it isn't going to stop me from going there. I assume that most visitors to the US manage somehow to deal with our small bills.

As a Canadian, I love the loonie, toonie, the death of the penny and the new plastisized banknotes (of different colours.) As a frequent visitor to Australia, I admire the Ozzies for taking the lead in these monetary matters, as well as their banknotes of different sizes. But why do they still have those 50 cent pieces that weigh a ton? (or is that a metric tonne?)

...How much time is wasted in our schools with such inane questions as how many feet are there in 3 miles....

Sissy stuff. I can remember chains and furlongs. What about , if a hundredweight of coal costs one pound, sixteen and three pence three farthings, how much would it cost to fill my cellar that holds six tons..?

Cranachin, I've been to India, and the small denomination paper notes are so filthy one doesn't even like to touch them. Perhaps "major economy" was the wrong phrase to use — I was referring to countries where people have relatively high annual incomes, e.g. western and northern Europe, Canada, and Australia.

<i>India issues 5, 10, 20 and 50 rupee banknotes (worth about $0.08, $0.16, $0.32, and $0.80, respectively).

China issues 1 and 5 yuan banknotes (worth about $0.17 and $0.83, respectively).

Brazil issues 2 real banknotes (worth about $0.85).

These are three of the world's largest economies, so the US hardly leads the pack in low-value paper currency.</i>

You do realize that, when most of the folks on this board talk of the "rest of the world" that they really mean Europe, right? If they are feeling especially worldly, they might include Australia and/or Canada. But China, Brazil, or India? Never.

<i>Perhaps "major economy" was the wrong phrase to use — I was referring to countries where people have relatively high annual incomes, e.g. western and northern Europe, Canada, and Australia.</i>

And Heimdall obliges in short order!

>> personally hate all those heavy coins weighing down my pockets when I visit the UK<<

Crumbs, you should have visited in the pre-decimal era. Then you'd know about heavy....

You do realise it's all a fiendish plot to get you to spend them or give them away as soon as possible?

(Seriously, though, the Royal Mint and Bank of England put quite a lot of effort into making sure coins and notes are easily distinguishable for the visually-impaired - which also helps the rest of us. Don't the US equivalents, and if not, why not? Is there a problem in withdrawing old currency?)

Hi all,

If all major currencies were revalued at 1 new for 10 old, the penny would be useful again.

That would, I guess, upset a lot of people with offshore bank accounts.

((I))