Coin Composition Changes Proposed Yet Again, but Now in Obama’s Budget

I get what you're saying, Doug, but if we're supposedly comfortable with weird numbers in pricing that end in 9's, if we do away with cents and nickels, wouldn't they have to round to the nearest half dollar, thus eliminating the 9's alltogether? Then we're back to saying $5.00 instead of $4.99 and consumers won't buy it. Personally, I could care less. I don't balance my budget to the cent anyways. I guess I round to the nearest 100 for convenience.
Guy~

 

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Yes, you could get rid of the nickel and round to the nearest dime but that makes 50 billion quarters that cost 4 billion dollars to make obsolete and superfluous. They have to be destroyed at ab loss to the economy.

You could round to the nearest quarter but people would jump al;l over this to take advantage of sellers or customers since it's not fine enough and it would make 50 billion dimes obsolete.

To not waste all this money we need a nickel. But we need one that costs far less.

Maybe I should have phrased it differently. You seem to imply in your first post that there are decades old stashes of clad sitting in people's houses and this simply isn't true. There are billions of coins sitting in peoples' homes but about 99.5% of each of of these has been sitting there for less than three years. Almost all the rest have been there less than ten years. If people normally keep 10 billion coins around the house then when things slow down many people will turn in their coins more frequently and there will be only five billion quarters around peoples' houses. But these coins are still all less than three years old. They are what was circulating three years ago. There aren't the kind of unworn quarters like were circulating 10, 20, 30, or 40 years ago. They aren't decades old hoards, they are three year old hoards and less.

 

The problem with that is nobody wants to carry them around. Back in the days of the Morgan and Peace Dollar...$1 was a lot of money. Today, it's not. Having 10 $1 bills in a wallet is not an uncommon thing. Imagine having 10 full sized dollar coins...it would be a pain. But, producing the bill is a drain on resources. I think the dollar coin is the answer, but a small dollar is the way to go. I would like to see us have a $1 and $2 coin like in Canada...both small sized. For the half dollar, get rid of them. They haven't even been released into circulation since 2002 or so but they are still being produced.

 

Absolutely, its a form of brainwashing that millions upon millions of americans are totally clueless. This is the exact same thing the fast talking salesman uses when he rants on about something selling for under a $100. $99.99 plus tax. And soooo many people are suckers for the #9 at the end of a pricetag. People are brainwashed by numbers, here's an example; if an item was on sale for $6.66 would people buy it? Or would they prefer the $6.99?

 

I can only speak for myself but the amount of coinage and paper money I use in day to day transactions is far less than I used just a few short years ago. With mandatory direct deposit imposed by employer and the use of credit and debit cards, I seldom use cash in any form other than a few vending machine purchases.

It may just me but does anyone suspect the demand for coins for commercial use is down from years past.

 

Dont forget the lack of funds coming in from the economy, No one
Spending money demand drops!!

 

They would have to round state taxes too. My state charges 7% so if your getting rid of cents they'd probably raise it to 10%

 

For years I have been putting my change in a box daily that I acquire. Granted it has decreased over the years because I use my credit card more to get the rebate. Each year I roll the change and take it to the bank. Quarters and cents have always outnumbered dimes and nickels by quite alot.

My concept I would thin best is to away with the cent and dollar bill using the dollar coin. The two dollar bill can help reduce the number of dollar coins one would have to carry around.

Doing away with quarter and dime also might work having a 5 cent and 20 cent, but like Doug said getting everyone to agree is not going to happen. Noone is going to take the lead on this, not enough potential for political gain while political heat would definitely be present.

 

but if everything is rounded to the nearest dime, how would totals of 25, 35, etc. even be possible? that would make the quarter obsolete. we would need to bring the 20¢ back, or create a new 30¢ piece.

 

which is then counterproductive. get rid of one coin to introduce another

i say get rid of the one cent and the $1 bill and stop there

 

"They prices things to make you buy them. It's all a psychological game. That price of $4.99, $3.29, $8.79, $99.99 - haven't you ever wondered why they all end in 9 ? You ever see one that said $3.67 ? Once in a while, a great while, you will see one that says $7.95 - but you ever see one that says $X.55 ?"

I agree with you, but I can think of Walmart as an exception to this. I don't go there often (rarely), but when I have been in there before.. I did notice oddball prices like $2.63 and such.

 

so you're saying round prices to the nearest dime, right?

so, again, i ask HOW ARE TOTALS LIKE 35, 45, 65, ETC., POSSIBLE IF YOU ROUND TO THE NEAREST DIME? by rounding to the nearest dime, you eliminate ALL totals that end in 5, such as 35, 45, 65, etc., thus making the quarter obsolete.

 

No!

You don't have to round off the sales tax. You can charge 7% on the total or 11.1% on the total. You just have to round off the total to within the closest nickel.

 

but you have to remember that you i and this board can round that easy...most other people can not

 

I can not reconcile the logic here. People are advocating a return to the gold standard yet screaming to get rid of the money (coinage) whose intrinsic value closely represents face value.