It'll be interesting to see if the government has to bring back the $500 bill as the dollar loses purchasing power over the next several years. Or alternatively, they could just eliminate paper currency altogether and force everyone to use an eDollar! Imagine that...
The cent has been irrelevant for decades, and at this point so are nickels and dimes. People talk about it, but nothing gets done about it. Cash itself is being deprecated. At this point, if you use it to pay at the grocery store, the folks behind you in line give the frowns that used to be reserved for people writing checks, and before that were reserved for people that made the cashier drag out the credit-card impression stamper.
Good point, digital currency is already here, many stores that I frequent are credit or debit card only at Costco you have a choice to stand in a bigger line and use cash or a smaller one and use a debit card.
So I guess it's come full-circle. I have to admit though, sometimes I'm the one doing the frowning when someone pulls out a card to pay for a $0.48 banana or $1.25 soda and it declines. Like at least have a few dollars, or some quarters in your pocket
Criminals might use them, so we can't have them. Gee, I wonder what other things someone might try to apply that reasoning to?
Better than watching the customer and the cashier trying to do the advanced calculus to make change from a dollar...