Well, my statement was for _cash_ transactions, and why I mentioned arbitrage. We could as easily add a 1/1000th unit to the dollar, and mandate that for cash

Well, my statement was for _cash_ transactions, and why I mentioned arbitrage. We could as easily add a 1/1000th unit to the dollar, and mandate that for cash transactions round to the 1/10th but for credit and other electronic transactions they'd be to the "iota" or some other charming term for the millidollar. I'm pretty sure that aeons ago there were half pennies, so it isn't completely absurd. Also, I'm pretty sure that in the not so distant past stocks used some weird fraction of dollars not decimals[1]. [1] https://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/why-nyse-switch-fractions-to-decimals/ https://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/why-nyse-switch-fra... [edited to add example of fractionally denominated stock prices] [edit2: ah, sorry you mentioned the fractional stock issue with the observation "precise values are good" which they are. I still retain my position that, for retail cash based commerce, precise values are less valuable than the time invested in the transaction. ]