Why are Americans so stubborn about $1 coins? (1 Viewer)

[Joel Mack]

Example: At lunch, my bill was $16. I had 4 singles and a 20. I paid with the 20 and got back 4 singles...add that to the 4 I already had, and now I have 8 singles.

Give them $21 and get back a 5.

 

[JamesHl]

Give them $21 and get back a 5.

This is the correct answer.

 

[Philip Hamm]

I suspect that gearing up the banking and retail indusrty to $1 coins is the biggest reason that the coins haven't taken off. I would circulat them if any retail places gave them out as change, but they always distribute $1 bills.

 

[Malcolm R]

1. Many people aren't quick enough with math, or even thinking about the amount of change, to see this opportunity.

2. Most cashiers, when faced with this situation, freeze up wondering what you're trying to pull. Many times they'll try and hand back the $1 and just use the $20. I usually have to explain what I'm trying to accomplish.

Re: Pennies. My family owns a convenience store. Frequently if I'm running the register, I'll just round off to the nearest $.05 if there are multiple pennies involved in giving change, regardless of the pennies in the counter tray. So my drawer is off by $0.12 at the end of the shift. What're they gonna do, fire me?

 

[Mark Hedges]

I would love to see the penny go. Just round everything to the nearest nickel. The problem is that old people would never go for it because

1) they would think they were being screwed every time they bought something

and

2) they like the penny because it reminds them of their youth when you actually could buy something for 1 cent

 

[Malcolm R]

In the family store, we sell single Tootsie Rolls and Bazooka Joe gum for 1 cent each. Gotta keep the pennies in case someone only wants 2 candies instead of 5.

 

[Glenn Overholt]

But Mark, why couldn't you have 4 $2 bills in your wallet?

Glenn

 

[Malcolm R]

I think the US $2 is used so rarely that many people think they're phony. Some places will give them out as change as a PR novelty (i.e. "I got it at the place that gives back $2 bills.") Same with 50-cent pieces (not that they're phony, but that they're more a novelty than anything else).

 

[Michael St. Clair]

The new coin is still too much like a quarter. I'm all for a $1 coin but it needs a different size (I vote for halfway between a nickel and a quarter, at the minimum thickness that is reasonable.

This doesn't happen because the vending industry lobbies for compatibility with the old Susie B.

 

[Keith Mickunas]

Steve Wozniak has a great story about how he was questioned by the Secret Service for using $2 bills in Vegas. Check out his story here.

 

[MarkHastings]

But Mark, why couldn't you have 4 $2 bills in your wallet?

As Malcolm said, we just don't use (or have) them. I honestly haven't even seen one in almost 10 years now.

 

[JamesHl]

2. Most cashiers, when faced with this situation, freeze up wondering what you're trying to pull. Many times they'll try and hand back the $1 and just use the $20. I usually have to explain what I'm trying to accomplish.

I've never had to explain myself to someone, but the people at the Wendy's I used to frequent were somewhat math deficient and made the further mistake of getting change ready based on the amount they assumed you would give them. So if you tried to make it easy it would often confuse the hell out of them and occasionally result in a small profit for the consumer.

 

[MarkHastings]

Kinda off topic, but this is something to think about:

I was watching the Discovery channel and saw a show about currency in the US. (The show was on a while ago so I don't recall every exact detail, but you'll get the point) They told a story about this guy "Joshua" (I forget his last name). A long time ago (I forget the year), they had currency in coin format. This Joshua noticed that the 5 cent coins and the 5 dollar coins looked EXACTLY the same except for the fact that the 5 cent coin was silver and the 5 dollar coin was gold.

Josh figured out that he could take a few cents worth of gold powder and coat the 5 cent piece to make it look like a $5 piece. He had gotten away with this for a while until they finally caught him.

They say this is where the phrase "Stop Joshing Me" comes from (i.e. Josh fooled the store owners into thinking the 5 cent pieces were 5 dollar pieces).

I don't know if this has any relevance, but maybe it does?

Ooo! Here's another example:
I recently threw a bachelor party for my brother and needed $500 in singles for the gambling, Dancers, and Booze tickets, etc. Can you imagine how heavy $500 in coins would be !!!!!

 

[Dan D.]

And there is a political reason for the Fed not halting production of the paper dollar ... the mill that makes the special paper used in dollar bills is inbetween Pittsfield and Dalton, Massachusetts, and is protected by the senior senator from MA.

Yup, good old Ted Kennedy and Crane Paper. I'm sure they're big campaign contributors.

 

[Aaron Reynolds]

2. Most cashiers, when faced with this situation, freeze up wondering what you're trying to pull. Many times they'll try and hand back the $1 and just use the $20. I usually have to explain what I'm trying to accomplish.

I can't say that I've ever found myself in that situation, or one like the pretzel problem described above -- so what if they can't do math, they just punch what you've given them into the register and it tells them the change. I recently had the opposite experience: a girl running a register at a concession stand at SkyDome said "Do you have a quarter? Then I can give you back $5 even."

Then again, I suppose that we're all used to it, since we've had the dollar coin for fifteen years.

But like I said, all the cards I have to carry around are much heavier than the coins. They're really not bad at all, despite their size.

 

[MikeFR]

I rarely have more than $5 in coins on me at one time. The whole concept of 1 and 2 dollar bills just seems silly now . I also rarely have 8 bills of any kind in my wallet so I dont know why you would have 8 1 dollar bills in your wallet, to each his own I guess.

Do you ever wonder where pennnies go? You always get them back but you never spend them, they just dissapear .

 

[MarkHastings]

all the cards I have to carry around are much heavier than the coins

Visa and Master Card are accepted virtually everywhere. How heavy is it to carry 2 plastic cards? I never understood why people need to carry 10 to 20 different cards. Having 2 in my wallet doesn't break my back and is much lighter than carrying coins or even cash.

In all reality, why is it perceived as Americans being stubborn about these coins, why can't we see it as others are stubborn about dollar bills?

p.s. I can't even stand the thought of change in my pocket period. I actually hate pennies and nickels so much that I'll throw them out rather than putting them in my pocket.

 

[MikeFR]

Visa and Master Card are accepted virtually everywhere. How heavy is it to carry 2 plastic cards? I never understood why people need to carry 10 to 20 different cards. Having 2 in my wallet doesn't break my back and is much lighter than carrying coins or even cash.

Why would want to you pay for everything with a credit card? I have about a dozen cards in my wallet: id, debit, credit, gas, grocery store, video store etc... its easy to accumulate cards when you use them all the time and it sucks to need a card when its sitting at home.

 

[MarkHastings]

Why would want to you pay for everything with a credit card?

Not everything. I still carry some cash, but my point was more to Aarons post about credit cards being heavier than coins. I just can't see how that is possible.

You mention ID's, Video & Grocery store cards, but those wouldn't be replaced by coins so you'd still have to carry them around with the coins. My point was that I can't imagine a credit card being heavier than a bunch of coins.

EDIT: I just weighed a credit card and a US Quarter on a scale and they weighed the same. So if I had anything larger than a quarter, it would be HEAVIER than my credit card. So I can't buy the fact that credit cards are really slowing people down by their weight.

 

[Aaron Reynolds]

Visa and Master Card are accepted virtually everywhere. How heavy is it to carry 2 plastic cards? I never understood why people need to carry 10 to 20 different cards. Having 2 in my wallet doesn't break my back and is much lighter than carrying coins or even cash.

I listed them before, Mark -- a MasterCard, a Visa, a pair of bank cards (one is my personal one, the other belongs to my business), a TTC transit pass, and an Ontario Health card, which I doubles as my basic ID. Often I also have my Toronto Blue Jays Season's Pass (it's like a season ticket to the cheap seats, and is the size of a credit card) and my Blue Jays True Fan Rewards card, which is like an AirMiles card where you get points for attending Jays games. That's eight cards. And sometimes I have ten -- I carry my wife's Season Pass and True Fan cards because she doesn't want to carry her wallet.

If I carried the business credit card, store specific credit cards, video store rental cards and all of the other points-gathering cards that I have, well, it would be insane.