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

[Aaron Reynolds]

Forgot: I also carry my GO transit pass, which is bigger than a credit card. Grrr.

 

[Aaron Reynolds]

While I cannot tell you their relative weights off the top of my head, loonies and twonies are not much heavier than quarters.

I wasn't trying to suggest that one should replace all of the cards in one's wallet with coins -- I was pointing out that we'll put up with carrying things that are heavier, and a lot of them, and yet we cry and scream at the thought of carrying more coins. Has anyone here refused to sign up to a video store that required their customers to use a membership card (rather than a name and password or name and photo ID system)?

 

[MarkHastings]

Aaron, I think the thing (for me) is that I like to keep all my money in my wallet. Any coins I have go in my front pocket and I don't like that at all. My keys are in my front left, my cell goes in my front right and my wallet goes in my back left pocket.

When I need to pay for something, I like to open my wallet and see what I have for cash without having to go through my front pocket looking for coins. I hate to have to fish out change or coins, it's just so much easier (IMO) to hand over a single paper bill.

I also like to know that all of my cash is in one place (i.e. my wallet). So many times I've been sitting down and had change roll out of my pockets . At least I know it's only crap change and not dollars that I'm losing.

Dollar bills just make things easier for me. As you said, you've been using the coins for 15 years and you've grown accustomed to them just as I've grown accustomed to paper bills.

 

[nolesrule]

It is very particular to the US not to include the sales tax in the price. The only other country I have been to and where it is also like that is Japan. I can't quite decide what I like better.

Well, there are multiple reasons for this:

1. Tax is a percentage of the total taxable purchase (for most, if not all, sales taxes in the U.S.). If you calculate sales tax on individual items, rounding must be done, which results in collecting too much or too little tax.

For example...

You want to buy 5 25-cent items (before tax), and the tax rate is 6%. If tax is part of the total price, then the new individual price for these items is 26.5 cents. But you can't charge a half-cent, so you round to 27 cents.

.27 x 5 = $1.35

(25 x 5) X 1.06 = $1.325 ~ $1.33

It's only a 2-cent difference, but it adds up over time and results in an overcollection of taxes.

2. Not everyone has to pay tax on all taxable items. Some organizations are tax exempt.

3. Each state makes it's own rules about what is taxable, who is tax exempt, the percentage and collection procedures.

 

[Jagan Seshadri]

I didn't know that the United Statesians used dollar coins.

I'm a debit card man myself, but finding $7 worth of change by only having 4 coins still strikes me as a pleasant surprise. Makes me hate pennies even more though.

-JNS

 

[Dennis Nicholls]

United Statesians

We actually once had $5, $10, and $20 gold coins in circulation.

 

[DaveGTP]

I was always rather fond of the idea of dollar coins. Being a Michiganian (and a United-Statesian, I guess ), we visit Ontario generally at least once a year or so. I liked the Loonies and the two-dollar coins a lot. Very handy for vending machines. From what I have heard, dollar coins would also save us (as in taxpayers) money on replacing $1 bills, as they wear out too frequently...seems like a good idea to me.

 

[Devin U]

For anyone who favors $1 and $2 coins, hope you like to sew. I ruined the pockets on numerous pairs of pants having to carry around all those damn coins. You know why they call their currency the Pound? Im convinced that they call it that because each Pound coin weighs about a pound! As for the tax issue, I preffer not having the tax added to the ticketed price. How would I know how much tax I was paying if I couldnt see it on the reciept. Hell, I would have bought less stuff in the UK if I knew I was paying 17.5% tax on it, but they hide that. As far as pennies, their annoying, but not that bad. My daughter loves to put them in her piggy bank. Funny thing is, I used to work as a bank teller, and with the whole y2k thing, we stocked up on extra cash, just in case. The only thing we couldn't get was pennies. There reportedly is a nationwide shortage, and has been for some time, because some people think that pennies are going away, and if they stock up on them, someday they can sell them and be rich. I knew a woman like this who had 10 five gallon water jugs full of pennies for this reason. She wanted to cash them in, but couldnt find anyone who could lift the jugs to get them to a bank, let alone find anyone who could pour them into a counter.

 

[Aaron Reynolds]

Mark,I hear where you're coming from. By the way, everyone I know has a wallet with a zippered change pocket.

And I wear the knees out of my jeans far faster than the pockets. The only pants I have with holes in the pockets are my decade-old Levis that have holes in both knees and no hem around the bottom of the pantleg any more.

Here are the relative sizes of a quarter, a $1 coin and a $2 coin:


Not too different, but different enough to tell apart, especially since the different metals have different feels, and the edges are completely different -- the quarter is milled, the loon has flat sides, and the two has alternating milled and smooth patches.

(And I don't know about the other posters, but I started to call Americans "United Statesians" after Bush called Kosovars "Kosovoians" in a speech. )

 

[Dean Cooper]

I don't really mind the loonie or toonie, but man do I ever hate the penny. I swear the GST was implemented just to justify the penny.

Oh and the stripper comment, I find the coins much more entertaining. Its always a game, they stick a couple coins on themselves and we try to knock them off with more coins, succeed and you win a poster or something. The girls actually get more because most drunk guys are really lousy shots.

 

[MarkHastings]

Oh and the stripper comment, I find the coins much more entertaining.

Oh my! With all this talk about putting coins in vending machines, there are PLENTY of dirty comments that could be made about where the coins go on a stripper

 

[Chuck C]

Here's a little U.S. coin FYI for the participants in this thread:


The 'dollar' became the standard monetary unit of the U.S. on July, 6, 1785. The bust of Liberty kicked off the first mint issue silver dollar in 1794 -- about 39mm in diameter. The improvement of mint dies throughout the 19th century helped reduce errors and set a new standard size of 38.1mm per silver dollar. By 1904, the silver bullion supply became exhausted, and the Morgan dollar (the style at the time) was discontinued until it was brought back for one year in 1921. In late 1921, a new design was unveiled, and the 38.1mm 'Peace' dollar spanned until 1935. Then after 36 years without a dollar coin, the U.S. mint issued Eisenhower dollars of the same diameter in 1971. They were discontinued in 1978. That year, legislation was passed to honor Susan B. Anthony, and the new 26.5mm SBA dollar was minted for three years--it failed because it was confused with quarters and half dollars. The Sacagewea dollar followed the same miserable fate.

How bout coins of greater denominations?

-Quarter Eagles: $2.50 gold pieces (1796-1929)
-Three Dollar Gold Pieces: 1854-1889
-Four Dollar 'Stella' Gold Pieces: about 460 minted between 1879 and 1880
-Half Eagles: $5.00 gold pieces (1795-1929)
-Eagles: $10.00 gold pieces (1795-1933)
-Double Eagles: $20.00 gold pieces (1850-1933)

source: R.S Yeoman

 

[Rob Gillespie]

£1 coins are too heavy and have been since they were first released (years and years ago). Everyone thinks they're too heavy.

 

[Blu]

I'm glad Jay isn't in charge. I like the paper money just fine.
I would hate to think about carrying around 1, 5, and 10 dollar coins all the time. That would absolutely suck.
Economics or not, Americans are all about convenience and paper money fits the bill.

 

[MarkHastings]

fits the bill

insert Rim shot here.

 

[Jason_Els]

£1 coins are too heavy and have been since they were first released (years and years ago). Everyone thinks they're too heavy.

Except me.

I love the pound. I love its heft, the substantial sound it makes when clinked together, the different designs for the different countries and the impossibility of it being mistaken for anything else in your pocket. When I'm in the UK I use the small inner right pocket of my jeans to carry them in.

I wish we had a dollar like the pound. They may be heavy but they're dimensionally smaller than a quarter so they're not huge like silver dollars. The Sacajawea sucks. Still too similar to the quarter in feel and I keep thinking it's Canadian or some eurochange I accidentally mixed in from my dresser at home.

 

[Joseph S]

For anyone who favors $1 and $2 coins, hope you like to sew.

I don't, but if I only had to take 4-6 coins to do my laundry instead of 24 I would be quite pleased and less likely to have a need to sew my pockets.

Dollar bills pile up to quickly and overload my wallet. I'd rather the coins that could be put to use more easily. I'm sick of fighting the dollar bill acceptors on vending machining because my dollar isn't crispy enough. It's time to drop the penny and the dollar.

It may be a money saver too because no one wants to charge $100 so we'll get an additional 4 cents off at 99.95. How about we dump the nickel too and get a full 9 cents off?

 

[MarkHastings]

I keep reading repsonses about people liking change over bills because of vending machines...Is it just me, or do people still use vending machines a lot???

I can't remember the last time I used a vending machine.

 

[Philip Hamm]

I can't remember the last time I used a vending machine.

I can. This morning on the way to work when I tossed a couple quarters into the "Exact change only" bucket at a toll booth. It sure would speed up traffic on toll roads if we could do that when the toll is over $1 on a regular basis.

 

[MickeS]

I second (or third or whatever ) the idea of getting rid of the pennies. Round to the nearest 5 cents instead. Much easier.