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Granted I live in Japan, but I carry a coinpurse (an old camera bag) because the 10-yen, 100-yen, and 500-yen coins are so useful. Vending machines are on pract
by post_from_work 5y ago
Granted I live in Japan, but I carry a coinpurse (an old camera bag) because the 10-yen, 100-yen, and 500-yen coins are so useful. Vending machines are on practically every corner here, and the drink sizes are such that $1.20 for a drink is normal. I think most US vending machines have gigantic cans of Coca-Cola / Red Bull / Monster for $3+.
The US probably could get by with just $1 and $5 coins.
- anonporridge 5y agoWhat's the value of coins? Paper and plastic notes seems more convenient in most cases. Metal coins seem like a case of holding onto tradition despite losing the original reason for the tradition.
- toast0 5y agoDetecting quarters is a lot easier, faster, and more reliable than detecting dollar bills. Card payments really want to be made online and transaction fees are brutal for small amounts anyway, so you end up with special purpose stored value cards and all of the lost change that implies. Plus, quarters are better to flip to make decisions than bills.
- zerocount 5y agoYep, tails never fails!
- umangrathi 5y agoOn the other end here in India there are few vending machines, but mostly are now based on digital payments.
- franga2000 5y agoAs you said, in most cases. Mechanical (no electronics) vending machines are only possible with coins and even with electronics, sorting/recognising coins is far easier than notes. A basic coin also takes more effort to forge (well enough to pass at a gas station) than a basic note, although notes seeming everywhere else but the US have obvious safety features that completely beat coins. They're also much easier to handle when you need many different ones, like when you're trying to assemble an exact amount. I can just look into my wallet and pick out the coins I need, whereas with notes, I'd have to spread them out like an awkward floppy hand of cards and especially if they weren't distinct enough scanning through and finding the right ones sounds plain annoying.
- b112 5y agoCoins also last a lot longer, and are harder to accidentally damage / destroy. Canada moved to 1 and 2 dollar coins, for just this reason. (Plus, 2 dollars is like a quarter 50 years ago....)
- Robotbeat 5y agoLast vending machine I used had cans for 75¢ and bottles for $1.25.
- post_from_work 5y agoDamn a $0.75 can is cheap even by Japanese standards, and I'm assuming that's a US-standard 12FL OZ can (bigger than Japanese ones too).
- sofixa 5y agoVending machines in France usually have NFC readers to allow contactless payments by card or phone. It's so much more practical than carrying a bunch of coins.
- GuB-42 5y agoMany vending machines in Tokyo accept contactless subway cards (suica) for payment, but not all of them. The Japanese still love their cash and coins. And even though they have a variety of NFC payment options and credit cards are not as terrible as they once were, their adoption rate is slow.
- marban 5y agoCan't wait to swipe my Hello Kitty Icoca for a can of Boss Flash Brew ;)
- leppr 5y agoBut it's much much harder to acquire a privacy-respecting contactless payment setup than carry a bunch of coins.
- mdp2021 5y ago> privacy-respecting contactless payment setup Do you know any? If I could vet its security and """reasonably total""" privacy, the idea could be tempting - e.g. to buy a cheap device to only do monetary transactions. I am not sure, first of all, how you would transform cash into credit into a personal device.
- leppr 5y agoI don't know of a way that's both widespread, cheap and legal. * Country-specific: prepaid cards like Suica in Japan, purchasable with cash from ATMs. * Not that cheap: offshore bank account. * Not legal: crypto card with "borrowed" KYC. So basically unless you're lucky to be living in a country with a privacy-respecting culture, you have to act like a criminal to regain the basic right to privacy.