When Canada switched to dollar coins, or "loonies," its simply took the country's dollar notes out of circulation. The GAO says the U.S. needs a similar plan.This switch could mean huge savings for the treasury. The public still has no appetite for coins but the slow switch will start.
Maybe the Government will go to Laundry Cards for everyone?
6 comments:
Hey - I am really glad to discover this. Good job!
Greetings:
In reality, the switch to coins would end up costing the public. The "net benefit" to the government comes solely from seigniorage, the difference between the cost of a coin and its face value.
Your readers can read the GAO report, along with "The Other Side of the Coin" here: http://dollarbillfacts.com
By way of disclaimer, I serve as historian for Crane & Co., the company which makes paper for US currency.
Peter Hopkins
Interesting - Thanks Peter
After visiting Canada a few times, I've come to the conclusion that using coins for low dollar denominations wouldn't be a bad thing for us.
The Canadians seem to have no problem carrying around extra change and it makes paying for things like the Laundromat, parking, or really any token based system much easier.
How would that affect us small laundromat owners? Do you think people would think the coins are worth less than paper dollars and therefore allow an increase in price? or Do you think it would just be a huge retooling expense with no additional upside? Thanks for the post, I just stumbled across your site today. Looks Good!
John - I think psychologically coins feel like less money to people (if they're looking at a stack of bills vs. coins) - take that for what its worth from the brain surgeon over here.
The dynamic changes a bit with card systems though as it's a single big bill they're usually feeding into the machine quickly and then they're off with their card.
We have a card store for that very reason as the psychology of swipe, swipe, swiping is less painful - we think - than shoving money into a machine for ten minutes (not to mention no collections drill).
As far as retooling, from what I've read & heard, a lot of the old time 'coiners' have been switching to dollar coins as they see advantages/efficiencies to that.
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