Why no $5, $10, $20, or $50 coins today?

why in the world would you want a 50$ coin anyway? think how easy it is to lose a nickel or a quarter....... but how would you feel if you lost a 50$ coin??

 

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How would you feel if you found a $50 coin?

 

"How would you feel if you found a $50 coin?"

Excellent wit on display.

 

I wouldn't lose one in the first place.

 

There are a couple reasons.

The biggest is that the government is trying to rend cash obsolete by inflating it out of existence. There are various reasons from tax collecting to the prevention of money laundering. They also don't want to give inflation the psychological boost of eliminating the smallest coins which now have a negative value. Even the nickel is really a net loss when the cost of production is included.

It's unlikely that cash will be completely eliminated because too many people profit from some of the things that can't be purchased with trackable money or that are prohibitively expensive for electronic transfers. Imagine the screaming when garage sales and farmers markets become impossible because of the cost of transactions.

 

The nasty part of me thinks that's the real reason they will always keep coin and currency in circulation.

 

paper money and coins

in the future, it might be no more coins and paper money. everything is plastic card. electronic transfer, and maybe a new devise or invention too. how we gonna collect coins?.

 

You should take examples from worldwide. the reason why there are no big denomination coins is simply because of the cost production as well as counterfeiters. Sure, to make a coin that is worth 5 dollars or more, it just means that you have to put a lot more security or at least mint it in somewhat more expensive manner, such as putting silver in bigger denomination coins. But for that to happen, metal prices have been climbing these few years. Not going to happen.

Japan used to have severe problem with the 500 yen coin (face value of 4-5usd), which is used very commonly in circulation. The smallest denomination note in Japan is actually 1000 yen which is around 9USD. At one stage, the 500 yen coin was counterfeited at a very heavy rate and remember in some banks, they actually do accept coins as deposits in some of the ATMs. Appearently some fraudster deposited some 2,000 dollars worth of 500 yen coins each time and caused a nationwide panic. And yes, coin deposit machines were all forced to change to the new type, which was very very very costly. I don't remember the exact figure.

More infomation here: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0WDP/is_2004_May_17/ai_n6264415

In short, the more bigger denomination coins you have, the more likely you are to attract counterfeits as well as the more pain one has to develop to counter such counterfeit activities.

Give me a break, I even have a counterfeit Chinese 1 yuan coin which is worth a mere 12 US cents and a Malaysian 20 sen coin which is worth even less.

 

Although I concur with your general logic, remember that some of us PREFER to use coins and currency. I pay cash for things like groceries and gas, which most people put on the card. Even my numismatic items are generally paid for in cash. Helps keep me on a budget.

 

My guess is that if the government ever completely stops production of currency and coin, something else will pop up to take its place. Maybe foreign coins, privately minted tokens, food stamps, something. Not everyone is credit-eligible and not everyone wants to use a card for every purpose. So trying to force the issue is just going to force the creation of a "black market" in currency.

 

It shouldn't have any real effect at all. In real purchasing power terms absolutely nothing has changed. You are just paying with something that has one one hundredth the face value but one hundred times the purchasing power. It cancels out and you are spending exactly the same amount in purchasing power either way.

The problem comes from the physiological errors from the people who just can't make the mental jump. Most people can't see past the number that they are receiving. If you gave most people the hypothetical choice of either having their income double but each dollar is worth as third as much, or having their income cut in half with each dollar worth three times as much, most people would probably chose to have their income double.

 

I'll go along with that as a primary reason. Around me now fewer and fewer people use money. My son does almost everything with plastic. I didn't know you could just wave a card at a gas pump until I saw him do that. There are virtually no stores left that do not take plastic around me. Ever see that Visa commercial on TV where someone holds up everything trying to use cash. I'm only surprized that gum ball machines still take coins.
Everyone should realize that due to intercontinental businesses must eventually have the ability to transact monitarily with only one system and that would be electronically. One type of monitary system is slowly being used in Europe now but eventually everywhere on Earth there has to be only one system.
As to large denomiation coins. All the vending machines would have to be modified. All conductors on trains that use a money changer would have to buy new ones for all the strange bills. I get nasty looks from them from trying to use the baby dollar coins. Cash regesters in stores would need whole new drawers for all the different type of coins.
No, it just is way to late for larger coinage.
I would still like to see some $1.99, $2.99, etc bills so that all the stores prices could be met.

 

Ok, I think everyone can agree that all the attempts the goverment has made to get the
public to accept the $1 coin have failed. The only way to do it is to be more forcefull in doing
so. At the same time you have to acknowledge public sentiment for the paper $1 bill.

I beleive there is a middle ground to make everyone happy.

1) Using government number, from 2005 - 2009, an average of 3.6 billion dollar bills we produced.
From 2007 - 2009, an average of 585,816 $1 coins were produced.
2) A great majority of $1 bills are printed to replace ones that are no longer able to be circulated
due to wear & tear.

I suspect, but have not seen any numbers, but I'm sure that there are pleny of $1 coins in storage
that the mint cant get circulated. Congress should pan a law to reduce (not eliminate) $1 bill
production. Whatever demand there is beyond what is printed would be made up by the coins.

This way you still have a paper currency bein produced, but the public is forced to also use the
coins. And remember, the estimates are that the coins save money over the long term. Not to
mention the fact that the government has already spent money to produce, advertise, and now
store these coins.

 

I truly feel the answer is in the modern printing press. The government can produce currency at a fraction of the cost of minting coinage. Include the transportation and handling costs and it really starts to add up. In short, it is just more economically advantageous to issue currency, even though coinage is more durable. When you consider the huge amount of money the government introduces into the economy each year, it is a significant savings. Add in the factor that banks request currency instead of coinage for the same reason of reducing the handling costs.

gary

 

I could be wrong, but didn't India have at one time a 1 Rupee note and a 1 rupee coin circulating at the same time? I wonder to what degree of circulation they both circulated. Did the coin get more use or the bill or both at the same time? Just curious.