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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Prethen, post: 25622, member: 1756&quot;]In the near future (20 years or so), I don&#039;t see cash coming out of society.&nbsp; However, 50 years or so down the line, I see it could be a very logical move to get away from currency and coins.&nbsp; It&#039;s true that a huge number of transactions (likely, a large majority) use no cash at all every day.&nbsp; There&#039;s really only one major item (and I&#039;m sure a lot of little ones can be thought of) stopping the pulling of all cash out of circulation today....personal transactions.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>Now, imagine carrying a piece of plastic (much like one of your credit cards you own today) that &quot;knew&quot; you through biometric means (say, your thumbprint).&nbsp; Assume this piece of plastic as a simple interface that allows it to &quot;communicate&quot; with other cards that other people carry.&nbsp; Voila...you&#039;ve just solved the personal transaction problem.&nbsp; To be honest, I think technically it can happen today.&nbsp; It won&#039;t.&nbsp; It will take decades of refining electronic transactions and perfecting the system.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>Trading with bits of paper and metal are somewhat inefficient in a highly efficient, digital world.&nbsp; Yes, they&#039;ll go away.&nbsp; We&#039;re already seeing some of it happen now.&nbsp; When will cash go away...it&#039;ll take time...who knows.&nbsp; But, I think it&#039;s reasonable to see it really start to occur within 50 years or so.</p><p><br /></p><p>Look at Europe.&nbsp; I understand they&#039;re doing more and more with micro-transactions (the same as we&#039;re trying to do here).</p><p><br /></p><p>As far as coin collecting goes....well, I think we&#039;re toast (just personal opinion/gut feeling) when cash is no longer in everyone&#039;s pockets.&nbsp; No, the hobby won&#039;t die instantly or completely.&nbsp; But, I think it would definitely be in trouble.&nbsp; If people don&#039;t see the item on a daily basis, they typically won&#039;t be encouraged to collect it.&nbsp; A good example of this is the odd denomination coinage of the United States like 2-3-20 cent coins.&nbsp; Yes, they are collectible and sell at a premium but when comparing their mintages and survivability against nickels, dimes, quarters, halves, and dollars the odd denominations are a serious underdog.&nbsp; Why?&nbsp; When was the last time you saw a 3-cent coin in circulation?&nbsp; Most people don&#039;t even know about these coins, much less want to collect them (except for me and a few of you!).&nbsp; A similar thing will happen when NO denominations are in circulation.</p><p><br /></p><p>I wonder if the Mint would actually still produce bullion coins if there were no more circulating coins.&nbsp; Maybe they would.&nbsp; If they did, then it might cause similar gold/silver coins from a bygone era to be highly collectible.&nbsp; Who knows?[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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