It appears that I have become cashless...

Good point.

So...I suppose I have to slip out my Square Reader on my iPhone for very 25 cent purchase at my garage sale. Or Craigslist, or to put in the Starvation Army's red kettle.

 

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Either that, or simply use one of the other "non-cash" ways to pay. Now there are reasons for not using them, @rmpsrpms just mentioned one. Another one is that by using cash only at a coin show is that you will probably have more control over how much you spend. But in general I like having more than one payment option ...

Christian

 

One of my daughters uses her phone as a contactless credit card portal for everything and carries no cash. That works great until she loses the charge in her battery. Our Canadian Governor of the Bank of England advocated a cashless society some years ago which of course enables not only total control of tax collection but an unprecedented interference in privacy. 1984 is now a memory but in 2024 you can imagine the scenario when an algorithm recognises that Citizen X has just bought a can of dog food and he or she lives in a dog free apartment block, or has bought a book on some left wing subject when living under a right wing government or vice versa. Political monitoring of social media already exists, the abolishment of coinage would bring no enhancement of liberty.
I collect ancients and marvel at the political messages that have been handed down by the moneyers more than two thousand years after the event. I also enjoy the artistry of many modern coins and commemoratives and it will be a sadness if coins were to disappear. I can't see my great grandchildren admiring a cabinet full of silicone chips somehow...…
We live in a throw away society and I am not certain if our reliance on cloud based databanks will prove to be the best vehicle for recording history in the future.

As I am on a downward curve I'll stop by saying that I am not a Luddite and the technology I am slighting to an extent has allowed me to learn more about coins and engender new interests as a participant and observer of this forum than I could have possibly have achieved otherwise.
As long as the lights don't go out I am on a roll......

 

Can't do this is a cashless society!

 

All the talk about invasion of privacy rings hollow to me from those who use Facebook and Twitter. I use plastic and cash, so I'm on both sides of this. I still believe we will always have coins given their intrinsic value, but don't see much use for paper money.

 

Problem is the mint does not make high value coins like we had before 1933. A $20 gold piece would be like a $1000+ bill ! I'd be happy if they minted $5, $10, $20, and $50 coins, and stopped printing those denomination bills. The coins could even be made of base metals, I don't care. The bills are just paper after all!

 

Remember to get yourself RFID Chip blocking sleeves for your plastic in your wallet or possession in public .

 

So I'd need to worry about digital pickpockets? Sounds less secure than my wallet.

 

Interesting subject. My weekly budget is $100 cash to purchase coins and flea market items. I get some great bargains with cash and I carry small bills which makes the vendor happier when they don't have to give change for a large bill. I also purchase with dollar coins and half dollars and hope somebody becomes a coin collector. I go to coin shows and carry my check book and again $100 cash. All of the dealers at the small coin shows I go to know me well and take my check for large purchases without hesitation. Any purchase I make for $15 or less is by cash. Gas is by credit card with a 5% cash back feature. Food is by credit card with a 5% cash back feature. Online purchases are by PayPal. When I go through my $100 weekly cash budget a flea markets, I have had vendors say "Bob, you're here every week, I'll put this coin on the side for you and you can pay me next week and a few of them will say, take the coin with you and pay me next week". A sensible person uses cash, check or credit card within reason. I don't see a cashless society in the near future. As the "hacking" industry increases, I see more people use cash for small purchases. Even gas stations in many areas have two prices, one for cash and one for credit cards with the difference being about 10 cents.

 

Exactly the same as what I do.

 

Not paper, cotton.

 

Paper which is made from cotton and other fibers.

 

I carry some cash, including $2 bills, but rarely use it. All of my cards pay money back. At the end of a year, I had more than $500 to spend at Costco b/c of my Citi Visa card. My change, when I get it, goes into a box on a dresser. I occasionally find a 1c piece on walks with my wife. If it's in a parking lot, the coin usually looks like something a newbie would post on here as a possible error.

 

By the way, cash is much more useful in foreign countries that my wife and I have traveled in. For one thing, there are higher denomination coins that circulate.

 

Opposite here, I use cash for pay bills, etc.

 

Problem with bills is you can't pay cash through the mail, so must pay them in person. That's OK if you live near the office but for some bills it might be quite a drive to get there. Please don't tell us you send cash in the mail...

 

I use bill pay through my bank. I'm sure many banks charge for this service but mine does not. I can just log in and my bills are lined up. They have their respective info saved already on one convenient page. All I have to do is fill in amounts in the boxes down the list and click a button. The list is paid at the click of the button. Nothing to get delayed or lost in the mail.
With a postage stamp at 0.55 cents now, there's no way anybody should be mailing bills anymore. It even emails me reminders (that I don't need) and tells me what the amounts are that I owe for the month in their respective section. I am done wasting my time writing checks.
If they charged for this service I would still use it. There's no jumping around to seven different websites entering account info and remember passwords for each (which I was doing not too many years ago).

 

I also use bill pay through my bank. When did first class postage go to 55c? They're still letting me get away with 50c for the few bills I pay by check.

 

Was supposed to go into effect Jan. 27th 2019.

 

I use money orders haha. I find that I'm better at budgeting with cash than with a card.