Mint no more

The feds are officially stopping the minting of any more $1 coins.
Does this mean they will print more $1 bills? I hope so. We haven't had any Block X or Y bills since Series 1995.

Tony wrote:The feds are officially stopping the minting of any more $1 coins.
Does this mean they will print more $1 bills? I hope so. We haven't had any Block X or Y bills since Series 1995.

Suits me fine, but I DO wish they would continue the President Dollars until that series is supposed to end, as I have been building a collection of those...I am on order for them with The Franklin Mint.

I'd never DREAM of using them as real money, even if I didn't track currency, I'd rather a bill over a coin any day.

Part of the reason for this is that I have an aversion to spending coins. I keep them in a jar until I build up like about a thousand bucks worth, then go cash them in and it's found money I never missed, and I get to buy something cool for myself. Last year, this financed my Florida vacation, gas, theme park tickets, and hotels.

I'd have to be a rich son of a b**** to avoid spending anything other than $5's....leaving all dollar coins in a jar like my other coins....although, if I did, the dollar amount would build up faster.

Seriously, U.S. Coins do not make a whole hell of a lot of sense anyway. The whole system should be revamped...and coins should have value increments of 2 - 2.5 in each next denomination...this is what makes actual sense. In MY scenario, by the way, we get rid of quarters.

Here's MY scenario for coins/bills:

Penny
Two-cent Piece (we had them back around the Civil War) - this is 2x previous coin value
Nickel - 2.5 x previous coin value
Dime - 2 x previous coin value
Twenty-cent piece (this replaces quarters) - this is 2 x previous coin value
Half-dollars - re-introduce half-dollars, but make them a bit smaller in size - this is 2.5 x previous coin value
Dollar - choice of coin or bill, I prefer bill here, but a coin could work. This is 2 x previous value coin
Two-dollar Bill - the Tom fans will love me here, but get some more $2 bills out there. - 2 x previous value
Five-dollar Bill - 2.5 x previous value
Ten dollar Bill - 2 x previous value
Twenty Dollar Bill (notice how it's a 20 dollar bill, not a 25-dollar bill? another argument to lose the quarter) - again, this is 2 x previous value
Fifty Dollar Bill - 2.5 x previous value
Hundred Dollar Bill - 2 x previous value.

Now really think about this system. You would have the MINIMUM amount of coins from every transaction this way. the smallest number of coins possible.

For 99 cents, you would have
1 half
2 twenty-cent pieces
1 nickel
2 two-cent pieces
Total 6 coins

Old way, 99 cents is
3 quarters
2 dimes
4 pennies
Total nine coins (even if you just did 2 cent pieces, you'd still have seven coins for this transaction by keeping quarters around)

See, the way I have this set up is perfect.

You can keep the current presidents on the bills that are there now. You can even keep Lincoln on the penny, Jefferson on the nickel and FDR on the dime if you want.
Put Washington on the twenty-cent piece if you want.

Now we still have a 2-cent coin and a 50-cent coin for other presidents.

My personal choice then would be keep JFK on the new half...and you could put Teddy Roosevelt on the new two-center. Or you COULD make a case for Eisenhower.

Thoughts?

P.S. some say Americans will never go for a dollar coin unless forced to it...given a choice they will kick the coin to the curb, and I agree...but for different reasons than most think.

I think the antipathy toward dollar coins is partly their size approximately the size of a quarter. Even if they are gold-toned, they still are awful close in size to a quarter...a problem MY new coin system would eliminate, by the way.
On the other hand...stores hate the dollar coin for the same reason they hate the $2 bill - there is no place in the till for them. this could stand in the way of MY new coin system, incidentally, unless tills were re-designed.

Most tills have five slots for bills - and the last one usually is used to hold checks...so they have a slot for 1 5 10 and 20. If they just would put checks under, like they currently do 50 and 100...you could make room for $2. Or if you started putting $20 under as well. But I like putting checks under better...$20 is frequently given out in change for larger bills. so you have 1 2 5 10 20 above in slots...checks, 50 and 100 under the till.

Coins, on the other hand...

Assuming we do not use a dollar coin (if we do, then the bill slots are 2 5 10 20, checks)
Not using dollar coin, then...
Currently there are four coin slots, penny nickel dime quarter.
You make each slot a little smaller, and you can to 1 cent, 2 cent, nickel, dime, 20-cent fifty-cent.
So you need six coin slots instead of four. Most current tills actually have five coin slots already, anyway....so we need to just cram a sixth on in there. A lot of tills currently use the fifth coin drawer for rolled coin.

I say get a drawer or box under the till for that. You could even put checks in there as well as your rolled coin.

Seriously, whatever is or is not done with the coin/bill system in the U.S. people would adapt to it, given some time. and I will note that, at one time in our history we DID have 20-cent pieces as well. Any avid coin-collector could tell you this.

By the way, I currently own a Civil-War era 2-cent piece. And we also once had THREE-Cent pieces, too. Imagine how much fewer pennies would be out there if we re-intro'ed either or both of those coins!

I know of almost nobody who likes pennies. In fact, pennies may even be more hated than dollar coins!