The Future of US Currency

Pere;
How much currency do you need to keep at home to start every day this way? You can't be going to the bank every time you run out of an in pocket denomination.

 

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Well, I do keep a cash box at home (as everybody should, IMO). It needn't be a huge sum; I don't actually spend all my cash each day, I just like to be prepared. I go to the bank when I have deposits to make, a couple times a month, and I get whatever denominations I need to replenish. I need $10s and $5s right now; maybe I'll get a full strap of $5s to hold me a while, as I did for $2s.

In short, it's not really any harder than the way most people use their bank, it just takes a little bit of thought.

 

If I am planning larger purchases on a particular day, naturally I add some large bills to my regular assortment. I now see it as an advantage to dealing in cash for in-person shopping, that it forces one to plan for more substantial spending.

 

That's partially because of the superiority of cupronickel as a coinage material. Silver coins are more romantic and are more valued, but the clad design seems to be more durable. I find 1965 quarters and dimes in excellent shape all the time.

 

I've found a couple of nice '64 quarters and a whole bunch of nice silver dimes (many of them are also '64s) in circulation. How long they were actually in circulation and not sitting in a change jar is unknown, but some of them are in AU-50 condition or better.

 

I'm updating my initial post to see what has happened over the past decade with the circulation of the dime. Again, I choose the dime for no good reason. Here is a quick look at the average mintage in each decade of circulating dimes:

1960's 1.072 billion/year
1970's 0.921 billion/year
1980's 1.490 billion/year
1990's 2.198 billion/year
2000's 2.188 billion/year
2010's 2.164 billion/year
2020's 2.334 billion/year

I was expecting that the use of coins would be reducing in this age of electronic transfers and debit and credit cards, but it is not. It appears that the death of currency isn't happening at the pace that I would have expected. I'm not sure if that is good or bad for our hobby but I'm thinking good. As a note, there has been a sudden drop off in mintages of the 2024 dimes as well as cents, nickels, and quarters. Could it be harbinger of things to come?

 

These are interesting numbers, but mintages don't necessarily translate into usage. Just because the mint is making them, it doesn't mean they are getting used. How many of these are sitting in bank vaults? Or sitting in people's change jars? Or maybe people are still using coins just as much? If they are, it's hard to prove by mintage numbers alone.

It would also be interesting to juxtapose the increase in mintage with the increase in population. The population of the US in 1960 was 179,2323,175. The estimated population in 2023 was 334,233,854. The population has more than doubled since 1960, and the mintages above have more or less reflected a similar increase. But again, this doesn't prove that people are actually using coins at a lower or higher rate.

I have personally used next to no coins for the past 5 years. They, along with paper currency, have actually become an inconvenience. This doesn't make me happy, because I've always enjoyed tangible money, but the reality is that I just don't need it anymore and life is actually easier without it. And anyone who thinks that the threat of the power going out makes tangible money a better bet, most cash registers and money counters, etc., are digital and electronic now, so the advantage has severely decreased. In the days of purely mechanical registers tangible currency may have held a larger advantage, but in today's heavily digitized economy I don't think it would make a huge difference. This of course varies by location as well, but overall the benefits of tangible money have diminished greatly over the past two decades. And, again, I'm not happy about it, it's just the reality that I live in.

 

Sorry, but I still use cash on a daily basis. Many places where I shop have started a 3% surcharge for credit card use.

 

I lowered my usage on cash but since businesses are charging for the use of my credit card I pay them with cash. I use cash, credit and checks, whichever is best for me. Some say that I’m selfish but it’s good business and to me, my life and what I buy is a business.

 

I don't know how to interpret that data. The US population has more than doubled since the 1960s, so that's one factor. A phone call at a pay phone used to cost 10 cents, other things as well (parking meters?), so it seems like more dimes per capita would have been needed. And a large percentage of those dimes from previous decades are probably still circulating.

 

Certainly that's a factor too. I dump ours back at the bank about once a year and it's usually $200-300 worth. Those jars and cans full will make it back into circulation eventually.

 

I virtually never use coins but always keep over a hundred dollars in my wallet just in case. I will sometimes use money when I see the surcharges but not always. Credit cards are just too convenient and easier to track spending. Production numbers from the mint show a huge dip in 2024. The banks are probably loaded up with change, especially the rarely used nickel. It will be interesting to see the trend for the next couple of years. It will also be interesting to see the impact on coin collecting. Without coins in daily use, will new collectors join the hobby?