4 ms·

That's because American coins aren't worth anything. I'd like to see $5 and $20 coins, and the elimination of the penny and nickel, which would mean I don't ha

That's because American coins aren't worth anything. I'd like to see $5 and $20 coins, and the elimination of the penny and nickel, which would mean I don't have to carry around paper money any more. Traveling to Europe I found the euro coins to be much more convenient.

saghm 9y ago
Interesting! Out of curiosity, what aspects of coins do you find more convenient than paper money?
- gozur88 9y ago
  In the US you pay in paper money and you're almost always going to get some change in coins. Pretty much that means you're always carrying around both bills and coins. The coins have so little value most people pay with bills and then just pocket the coins without counting them. At the end of the day the coins go into a jar, and eventually you have to lug that twenty pound jar to the bank or one of those coin machines. Why not carry usable amounts of cash in coins instead? You pay in coins and you get coins back in change. Of course that doesn't work if need to carry larger denominations, but if you're going to buy lunch or pop down to the liquor store it's more convenient, IMO.
  - ghaff 9y ago
    I'm the opposite. I carry a wallet-like thing anyway for cards and other misc paper. Paper currency is just a few more pieces of paper. Coins are another pouch or something that I need to carry. Although, to tell the truth, I pay cash so seldom in the US these days that it doesn't really matter.
    - Symbiote 9y ago
      My wallet includes a pouch for coins; I think that's fairly standard for a wallet sold in Europe. Coins are easier to tell apart, and I never like the grubby $1 bills I get in the USA. But, I don't often use cash either -- mostly when splitting the bill in a restaurant, since it's easier to hand the waiter 200kr than have everyone use the card terminal in turn to pay their exact 194.23kr share.
  - saghm 9y ago
    One of the issues with coins for me is weight/volume. It wouldn't be too much work for me to have $20 in $1 bills in my wallet, but carrying around $20 in quarters (or even $1 coins, to be honest) seems like it would be much more effort, since it would take up a large amount of the space in my pocket and likely be fairly uncomfortable for my leg.
    - gozur88 9y ago
      That's why I want a $5 and $20 coin.
repsilat 9y ago
"Dime and quarter" is awkward -- it's a benefit to have the smallest positive difference between any two piles of coins to be a coin value. Either get rid of the dime, or replace the quarter with a 20 and/or 50 cent piece.
- kurthr 9y ago
  If we got rid of the 1c penny and 5c nickel, then the dime would be the smallest/thinnest coin... having change in $0.1 increments seems as reasonable to me as having the current (e.g. gasoline) pricing in $0.001 mils. Just shift up an order of magnitude for physical payment. The FED is targeting 2% inflation a year so every century or so we should shift an order of magnitude in value.
ghaff 9y ago
Worthless coins is a feature, not a bug for me. I can toss them somewhere and eventually redeem them in a Coinstar machine. I don't like the bigger Euro coins. It means I actually need to be aware of spending the coins when I travel to Europe. Much prefer only bills, touchless cards/phone, credit cards.
Thiez 9y ago
Euro coins only go up to 2 euros, does that really make such a difference? Here in the Netherlands we don't really use the 1 and 2 eurocent coins anymore. It was decided that they're just annoying, so (almost?) all shops always round prices to the nearest amount that can be divided by 5 cents (Only when you pay with cash, electronic payments are not rounded. Naturally you can still pay with 1 and 2 cent coins, you'll just never get them back as change). I visit Germany a couple of times a year and it always surprises me they're still bothering with those 1 and 2 cent coins.
treehau5 9y ago
Just got back from Europe. Can't stand those 1 and 2€ pieces. The worst part is when we got back to change our leftover euros back to dollars, the bank wouldn't take the coins. Now I have a stack of them sitting on my dresser.

saghm 9y ago

Interesting! Out of curiosity, what aspects of coins do you find more convenient than paper money?

gozur88 9y ago
In the US you pay in paper money and you're almost always going to get some change in coins. Pretty much that means you're always carrying around both bills and coins. The coins have so little value most people pay with bills and then just pocket the coins without counting them. At the end of the day the coins go into a jar, and eventually you have to lug that twenty pound jar to the bank or one of those coin machines. Why not carry usable amounts of cash in coins instead? You pay in coins and you get coins back in change. Of course that doesn't work if need to carry larger denominations, but if you're going to buy lunch or pop down to the liquor store it's more convenient, IMO.
- ghaff 9y ago
  I'm the opposite. I carry a wallet-like thing anyway for cards and other misc paper. Paper currency is just a few more pieces of paper. Coins are another pouch or something that I need to carry. Although, to tell the truth, I pay cash so seldom in the US these days that it doesn't really matter.
  - Symbiote 9y ago
    My wallet includes a pouch for coins; I think that's fairly standard for a wallet sold in Europe. Coins are easier to tell apart, and I never like the grubby $1 bills I get in the USA. But, I don't often use cash either -- mostly when splitting the bill in a restaurant, since it's easier to hand the waiter 200kr than have everyone use the card terminal in turn to pay their exact 194.23kr share.
- saghm 9y ago
  One of the issues with coins for me is weight/volume. It wouldn't be too much work for me to have $20 in $1 bills in my wallet, but carrying around $20 in quarters (or even $1 coins, to be honest) seems like it would be much more effort, since it would take up a large amount of the space in my pocket and likely be fairly uncomfortable for my leg.
  - gozur88 9y ago
    That's why I want a $5 and $20 coin.

repsilat 9y ago

"Dime and quarter" is awkward -- it's a benefit to have the smallest positive difference between any two piles of coins to be a coin value. Either get rid of the dime, or replace the quarter with a 20 and/or 50 cent piece.

kurthr 9y ago
If we got rid of the 1c penny and 5c nickel, then the dime would be the smallest/thinnest coin... having change in $0.1 increments seems as reasonable to me as having the current (e.g. gasoline) pricing in $0.001 mils. Just shift up an order of magnitude for physical payment. The FED is targeting 2% inflation a year so every century or so we should shift an order of magnitude in value.

ghaff 9y ago

Worthless coins is a feature, not a bug for me. I can toss them somewhere and eventually redeem them in a Coinstar machine. I don't like the bigger Euro coins. It means I actually need to be aware of spending the coins when I travel to Europe. Much prefer only bills, touchless cards/phone, credit cards.

Thiez 9y ago

Euro coins only go up to 2 euros, does that really make such a difference? Here in the Netherlands we don't really use the 1 and 2 eurocent coins anymore. It was decided that they're just annoying, so (almost?) all shops always round prices to the nearest amount that can be divided by 5 cents (Only when you pay with cash, electronic payments are not rounded. Naturally you can still pay with 1 and 2 cent coins, you'll just never get them back as change). I visit Germany a couple of times a year and it always surprises me they're still bothering with those 1 and 2 cent coins.

treehau5 9y ago

Just got back from Europe. Can't stand those 1 and 2€ pieces. The worst part is when we got back to change our leftover euros back to dollars, the bank wouldn't take the coins. Now I have a stack of them sitting on my dresser.