5 ms·

Ridiculously simple solution: Drop the hundredths place entirely. Kill pennies, nickels, quarters, bring back $.5 pieces. A tenth of a dollar is enough precisi

by jowiar 15y ago

Ridiculously simple solution: Drop the hundredths place entirely. Kill pennies, nickels, quarters, bring back $.5 pieces. A tenth of a dollar is enough precision for any realistic transaction in the United States.

ethereal 15y ago
Simple in concept, difficult in execution. How would you recommend the transition between the two systems be handled?
- philwelch 15y ago
  Stop minting pennies, nickels, and quarters; start minting 20 cent pieces and mint more 50 cent pieces; let the free market sort it out. I'm not being flippant, it would actually work, at least as far as not wasting money producing low-value coinage is concerned.
  - blahedo 15y ago
    Or, just skip the 20 cent and let 10/50 be the only subdivisions. (Currently, we get by with 1/5 and no 2.) Frankly, if we're talking radical reform I'd rather keep the quarter and ditch the dime; even 10c seems too small to fiddle with most of the time, so 25c is the smallest denomination that seems worth bothering with. (Also, it's ubiquitous in mechanical coin-op devices like laundry machines, pool tables, etc.)
    - jakejake 15y ago
      I actually wouldn't mind doing away with coins altogether and going with whole dollar amounts. I hate having to carry around change!
lukeholder 15y ago
australia did this in 1992. git rid of the 1c and 2c coins. we have 5c pieces. currently living in the US, and I cannot stand pennies.
NZ_Matt 15y ago
New Zealand removed the 5c coin form circulation in 2004, leaving us with $2 ,$1 , 50, 20c and 10c coins. Electronic card transactions are charged to the nearest cent and cash transactions are rounded to the nearest 10th. The transition was straight forward and I didn't hear any complaints.
- _delirium 15y ago
  It works like that in Denmark as well; credit/debit transactions are charged to the full 0.01 kr precision (an absurdly small amount, about 1/10 of a eurocent), but cash transactions are rounded to the nearest 0.5 kr.
philwelch 15y ago
Like dollar coins and $2 bills, 50-cent pieces never went away. People just don't spend them because they're "rare", and hence they appear to be rare.
Vadoff 15y ago
A simpler solution would be to just round every transaction to the nearest 5 cent, which is the scheme that most countries that drop the penny follow.

by jowiar 15y ago

ethereal 15y ago

Simple in concept, difficult in execution. How would you recommend the transition between the two systems be handled?

philwelch 15y ago
Stop minting pennies, nickels, and quarters; start minting 20 cent pieces and mint more 50 cent pieces; let the free market sort it out. I'm not being flippant, it would actually work, at least as far as not wasting money producing low-value coinage is concerned.
- blahedo 15y ago
  Or, just skip the 20 cent and let 10/50 be the only subdivisions. (Currently, we get by with 1/5 and no 2.) Frankly, if we're talking radical reform I'd rather keep the quarter and ditch the dime; even 10c seems too small to fiddle with most of the time, so 25c is the smallest denomination that seems worth bothering with. (Also, it's ubiquitous in mechanical coin-op devices like laundry machines, pool tables, etc.)
  - jakejake 15y ago
    I actually wouldn't mind doing away with coins altogether and going with whole dollar amounts. I hate having to carry around change!

lukeholder 15y ago

australia did this in 1992. git rid of the 1c and 2c coins. we have 5c pieces. currently living in the US, and I cannot stand pennies.

NZ_Matt 15y ago

New Zealand removed the 5c coin form circulation in 2004, leaving us with $2 ,$1 , 50, 20c and 10c coins. Electronic card transactions are charged to the nearest cent and cash transactions are rounded to the nearest 10th. The transition was straight forward and I didn't hear any complaints.

_delirium 15y ago
It works like that in Denmark as well; credit/debit transactions are charged to the full 0.01 kr precision (an absurdly small amount, about 1/10 of a eurocent), but cash transactions are rounded to the nearest 0.5 kr.

philwelch 15y ago

Like dollar coins and $2 bills, 50-cent pieces never went away. People just don't spend them because they're "rare", and hence they appear to be rare.

Vadoff 15y ago

A simpler solution would be to just round every transaction to the nearest 5 cent, which is the scheme that most countries that drop the penny follow.