Yeah, if these were rolled, that would only be 996,000 rolls, which could easily all be in the hands of CRS's...
I use cash for restaurant tips, fast food and bowling. In my bowling league I also use cash for poker (one card for a spare, two for a strike), high game, and beer frames.
I had a customer come onto the post office a few years back. He bought a $.03 cent stamp to make up the difference in postage. He handed me a credit card. I asked if he had change and he answered no. I asked if he had a nickel in the car. He replied that he does not use cash if any kind. He only uses plastic.
The trend in digital transaction has been increasing every year. Maybe we see the coin becoming useless in our lifetime. Maybe.
Very interesting reading this post. Personally I use cash for small purchases so I can get coins to go through. The rest is done with plastic. What really gets my is when someone in front of me at check out starts writing a check. Now that's old.
I live in Thailand and use cash about 99% of the time. Of course, that cash comes from an ATM into which I shove my plastic...still, I think most of the world, away from the big cities and high tech enclaves, still does it the old fashioned way. I actually carried cash and paid for several vehicles. Big wads of cash, over half a million baht. I see nothing wrong with it at all. I wouldn't mind making some big buy with gold bullion, as long as both the buyer and seller knew full well the value of the gold that day. My dad told me he remembered seeing his dad buy and sell small farms and the money was double eagles stacked on a table there in the farm house.
Tell your brother to do what I do to fulfill that absurd requirement. I use that particular card five times at the gas station. I pump $.02 to $.03 each time into my car. I'd do one cent if I could, but the pump just goes too fast for a penny sale.
I have no bank account. I have direct deposit. My cashed checked gets deposited directly in my safe. The only plastic I have is a money card to pay my bills online. And buy coins online. The last time I had a credit card was sometime in the late 90's. I have found one thing I can't purchase in all that time with cash or the money card. Car rental, you have to have a credit card for car rental. There may be some other things I would need a credit card for, but, I haven't found them. I used to use my money card all the time. Hardly would use cash. Then one day at a restaurant some punk kid stole my card info. Before we could even drive back home he had bought $300 worth of high end clothes on line. That was the end of using plastic in public at all costs. Occasionally I have to use the card, because, someone won't accept over a $20 bill. Which is absurd, there are plenty of ways to tell if a bill is counterfeit.
I noted above in this thread that my CC had been compromised somehow, but that card is rarely out of my possession. I know that there are CC scanners that thieves put into gas pumps, but in checking, that card had not been used in a gas pump for many months. I live in a bad part of town where people are robbed at gunpoint often, so I don't carry much cash, usually less than $25. I was in Walmart the other day when a very elderly woman was trying to pay for her groceries with a 30 - 40 year-old $100 bill. Walmart employees would not accept it, saying that it wasn't good. The woman, obviously in her eighties was beside herself and told the manager that these were from much of the cash that her now-departed spouse had kept in the family safe for years. I suggested that she take this bill to her bank and ask to break it into smaller bills.
Most places have a minimum charge, for good reason. Card companies charge retailers 25 to 35 cents for every card swipe and then a percentage of the sale for credit. For fuel, the retailer is extremely lucky if they make 10 cents a gal on gas, usually it's more like 6 cents and none of this is profit after overhead.