• MimicJar@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    So I don’t know the term for it, maybe it’s just propaganda, but a quarter feels like it has value.

    The penny however doesn’t have that feeling. Vending machines often say “No Pennies” and toll booths say “No Pennies”, even though the Penny exists everyone sorta already agreed the Penny wasn’t worth the hassle.

    I think you could probably convince people the same is true for the nickel. Although eliminating just the nickel is tricky since you’d keep the dime and quarter and that divides weirdly. So you should also remove the dime but that now really starts to feel like it had value.

    But the quarter. That would be a hard sell. You’re basically eliminating all coins at that point. Unless you plan on making the half dollar wayyy more popular.

    • JackbyDev@programming.dev
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      2 days ago

      When we got rid of the half penny it was worth more than what dimes are worth now. Quarters are the only useful coin. We should be rounding all transactions to the nearest quarter.

      • MimicJar@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        Logically I completely agree. I just don’t think you could convince the US as a whole that’s the way to go.

    • Sludgeyy@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      Should just have dimes.

      $1.1 $1.2 $1.3

      There’s no reason to break our currency into thousandths. Hardly a reason to break it into hundredths.

      Could keep quarters to keep hundredths

      Transactions already need a nickel to do 5 cents. So requiring a quarter to do 5 cents isn’t crazy.

      Say you have to pay $1.05

      Dollar and 3 dimes, quarter in change.

      $1.15

      Dollar and a quarter, dime in change.

      But I think just dimes are needed

      • MimicJar@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        Just dimes would probably work logically, but it would feel too weird. If you’re going just dimes, you probably just want to go all in and say no coins.

        • Taldan@lemmy.world
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          2 days ago

          50 cent piece would be the way to go. Should then also really push $1 coins, and add in a $2 and $5 coin, although I don’t know if Americans would realistically use them. Coins are much more durable than paper currency though, which would save a lot of money long term

          • MimicJar@lemmy.world
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            2 days ago

            I mean the dollar coin never caught on. I know we still printed the dollar bill, so maybe you could force it by halting the dollar bill. But overall I don’t think new coins are the answer.

            Based on one source, Cash is only ~20% of transactions. Maybe it will always be 20% or maybe it will be smaller and smaller as time goes on.

            I think you’re better off eliminating current coins.