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Message:: [QUOTE="Drago the Wolf, post: 1007371, member: 22476"]Keep in mind that it is 3AM here right now, and my brain ain't funtioning the greatest, but I figured I would get some opinions on it. Sorry if anything sounds stupid. This is mostly "paper currency" related, but mentions a few coins as well. Here goes: Dear Congressman, I am once again writing you on a couple issues to help modernize the United States currency system. I will list my suggestions, some old, some new. Redesign of the $1 and and $2 Federal Reserve Notes: The $1 and $2 Federal Reserve notes, are extremely vulnerable to counterfeiting, and even though the Treasury has stated that the $1 and $2 notes do not need to be redesigned, due to not being counterfeited as much as the $5-$100 bills, I have been reading that the counterfeiting of $1 and $2 notes is on the rise, simply because of how easy it is to pass a counterfeit $1 or $2 note without much, if any suspicion. Therefore, a redesign of the $1 and $2 Federal Reserve notes with enhanced security features should be done. I know that there is also the concern that redesigning the $1 note would cost small businesses and vendors hundreds of thousands of dollars to upgrade their dollar bill readers, but there seems to be no trouble updating for new $5 notes, which are circulated about the same as much as $1 notes, and I believe that the $1 and $2 notes should be redesigned and released in late 2011 and vendors should update their machines to accept new $1 and new $2 notes, (as most vending machines do not take $2 notes but should), and with the next currency redesign, the next redesigned $1, $2, and $5 denominations should all be released simultaneously to give vendors the opportunity to upgrade for all three denominations at once, to save money on pulling their machines apart to upgrade individually. Redesign and Increased Production and Circulation of the Half Dollar Coin: Another forgotten denomination, the half dollar, should be redesigned, and its circulation encouraged and increased. The reason is to save on the amount of quarter dollar coins needed to be minted, and also, to help all vendors and other coin-op companies to make less trips to their machines to empty coin tubes, should they be willing to upgrade. But if cashiers start handing out halves in change, the general public may create a demand for vendors and self checkout companies to retool their machines to accept and dispense halves as needed. I did talk with one self checkout company, and the President of the company told me that it would only take about one to two million dollars for him to "entertain" the idea of redoing their machines's design to accept and dispense $2 bills and halves as needed. Now, two million dollars is a lot of money to your average Joe, like me, but to a huge company, it should be no big deal.  Reissue of the $500 and $1,000 Federal Reserve Notes: These two denominations should make a return, due to the fact that a $100 note, going back to July 14, 1969, when the $500 and $1,000 notes were last issued, a $100 note was worth what a $1,000 note would be worth today. I know that there are concerns of drug dealers, money launderers and counterfeiters and the like benefiting from these larger denominations, and I also know that there are electronic methods of pay these days, such as credit, debit and checks, but seeing as Europe is issuing 200 Euro notes and 500 Euro notes, the 500 Euro being worth around $880 US$, and the European government does not seem to be too overly concerned with these issues, then why should the United States of America? We are supposed to be the greatest nation in the world, so let's have a decent sized banknote denomination of $1,000 to prove it. The U.S. $500 note would be to compete with the 200 Euro note, as will the $1,000 compete with the 500 Euro note. The $100 denomination is to puny to be the U.S.'s largest denomination of currency any longer. Issuance of a New $200 Federal Reserve Note: A new U.S. $200 Federal Reserve note would be used for the purpose of making change for a $500 and/or $1,000 note easier, and would help cut down on the number of $100 notes currently needed to make change, and to cut down on printing costs of $100 notes as the demand for the $100 note continues to steadily rise. Addition of a New Style Low-Vision Numeral to $1-$1,000 Federal Reserve Notes: All denominations of U.S. Federal Reserve notes should bear a low-vision numeral similar to the Series 2004 $100 Federal Reserve note's new enlarged, golden numeral 100 on the reverse of the new $100 note, to its right. This feature will help most of the visually impaired denominate the note, even in areas with dim lighting. Change of Composition in U.S. Federal Reserve Notes: To save money on U.S. currency printing costs, all denominations and proposed new denominations of Federal Reserve notes $1-$1,000 should be switched over from the current cotton/linen composition, which can not be recycled, and collects more germs as it wears out, to polymer plastic, which can be recycled, holds less germs and is easier to clean than cotton/linen notes, and most importantly, polymer is more durable and lasts up to four times as long as cotton/linen bills, which would mean, a $1 note, which printed on cotton/linen paper lasts about 18 months (or a year and a half) or so average, a polymer $1 note would last up to 6 years, or even longer if the government tried to get the polymer $2 bill circulating to take some of the workload off the $1 note, then the $1 notes may last 7-8 years or so. About as long as a current cotton/linen $100 note lasts. Elimination of the Dollar Coin From General Circulation: Seeing as the majority of the general public seems to reject the dollar coin, although I would support replacing both the $1 and $2 Federal Reserve notes with $1 and $2 coins, I just do not see it happening any time soon, if ever. Therefore, dollar coins should only be minted as the general public demands them for collector items, holiday gifts, collectors, and other special interests. Minting hundreds of millions of dollar coins to sit in bank vaults until most of them have been slowly put into circulation by machine, until collectors hoard them, is a wasted cause, as long as we have $1 notes and could have polymer plastic $1 and $2 notes that would already save a lot of money, although not as much as $1 and $2 coins would. But the idea of $1 and $2 coins just seems unworkable in the U.S. Therefore, the polymer banknote route is the direction that the U.S. should take. Cashiers should all have cash drawers that have five coin slots, and five bill slots, and set the till up NOTES: $1, $2, $5, $10, $20 and $50, $100, $200, $500, and $1,000 notes would likely go under the cash drawer or in a safe, to be used as needed. COINS: 1c, 5c, 10c, 25c, 50c, and $1 coins should be scrapped, as I said. All banknote denominations and proposed denominations $1-$1,000 should be redesigned with ever currency redesign. Circulation and vending and self checkout machine reprograming and retooling to accept and dispense both $2 notes and half dollar coins should be encouraged, as should self checkouts and certain vending machines that deal with highly priced items and higher ammounts of cash, should be retooled to accept new U.S. $200, $500, and $1,000 Federal Reserve notes. Once again, I thank you for taking the time to read this, and I look forward to hearing your views on these issues. Sincerely,[/QUOTE]

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