I think the cent should be eliminated. Perhaps 15 or so years ago, Bob Greene, a Chicago Tribune columnist, wrote an interesting column figuring out the cost-benefit of picking up a penny on the street. His biggest reason? Helps your flexibility by giving you a bit of exercise. So that's what I'm doing out there along the curb!
I don't see why they would? I don't see why they would? The in-between coins, (really anything under 25 cents) is imaginary money only - they don't buy anything - they are a bother and why would it pay any merchant to do it simply for change? Now for advertising that's a completely different story - it might pay for that especially if nice and had a classic look to them. Although with more thought I'd be reluctant to accept a token form Wall-world as it would surely be designed to push the little man under some more. Plus they are expensive to have made even in quantity with the set up fees and such - you cannot make them for much under 50 cents to begin with unless you ordered a million. Boys and Girls alike those were just such different times where media outlets were few and far between so it really paid then. Now if you could some how make them more valuable as they are such as a lottery or secret prize offered for obtaining the "right" one you might generate some interest. There may actually be an idea in here someplace but if successful I probably would be the one not to buy into it - but I'm gonna give this some thought for awhile. Everything's collectible even man-hole covers so there may be an idea in there. They (the tokens ) would need to be nice though and different - they could not appear like common amusement tokens are today - that's what set the others apart wasn't it - they were nice even for the times then. I just thinking out-loud here but this is a possible don't you know?
Your not the only one. HOWEVER, at one time people probably thought they would never stop Mills, 2 Cent and 3 Cent pieces, 20 Cent coins, Large Cents, Half Cents and now our Half Dollars are fading from view. Who would have ever thought cars someday would no longer have fins back in the 50's. And in the late 70's and early 80's everyone knew the convertible cars are gone forever. Always time for a change.
They didn't stop mills... no US coin ever existed with a denomination of less than 1/2 a cent for them to stop... It technically always existed (and still does; look at gas prices) as a unit of account, but no coins were ever produced with such a denomination. Spoken volumes on why half dollars are basically dead as a circulating coin (and have been since 1964). They're still minted, but just for the sake of collectors. But they're not fading from view... they've already long since faded more than 40 years ago for all intensive purposes. People thought they were going to stop 20 cent coins about as fast as they'd start them, and they were right. They were only produced for practical circulation basically for one year. It's the shortest lived denomination we ever had. Few thought 2 cent coins were going to last long, and they didn't. Not as short lived as the 20 cent piece, but it still was only produced for 10 years. They still do make convertible cars btw. Not as popular or prevalent as they once were of course, but they're still being made and they're still out there.
Well, depending on how you want define what constitutes a coin - yes and no. Mills were absolutely produced, and used every single day during certain periods in our history. The only question is if you want to call them a coin or not. Personally, they meet my definition. They were issued by a government, they were intended to be used and in fact were used in commerce as money. Thus they were coins.
You know GD, I never considered it but your right, they do meet the definition of coins. Issued by a government authority and intended to circulate as money. They ARE coins.
I have a number of tax tokens that were issued by various states for a while. The Supreme Court ruled them unconstitutional. Yet lots of communities around the country issue "village dollars," and make them legal tender for use in their community. The tax tokens were change for taxes when the US government didn't issue coins of a value small enough. Basically, it was state-issued money that didn't seek to replace the Federal stuff, but rather work alongside it. What's the difference with the tax tokens?
Yes, they were called mills and used to pay taxes on purchases. 1 & 2 mills were issued with 1 = 1/10 cent. Google them, it's easy to find a lot about them.
