ideas for a new form of U.S. currency?

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I think it's more of a fun little thing than a serious discussion. Still, I can;t think of anything wrong with the current US $, besides all the different denominations having the same dimensions.
 
U.S. money is pretty unstable...the Fed tends to err on the side of inflation, devaluing everyone's bank accounts, silently, stealthily. Until you get to the gas pump and wonder why it's doubled in price.

A hard gold currency would be more inflation proof. The price of a gallon of milk hasn't really changed much with respect to gold in the last fifty years.
 
alternate_currency.png
 
A serious reply:

There are a number of problems with our current currency, or things that could be improved.

1. We need to get rid of the penny. It has become completely worthless in this day and age. Transactions should be rounded off to the nearest 5 cents. This would make businesses more efficient, because cashiers wouldn't have to constantly count out pennies.

2. Get rid of the dime. I mean seriously, why do we need a 10 cent coin?
- 5 pennies make a nickel
- 2 nickels make a dime
- 2.5 dimes make a quarter... wait, wut?
- 5 nickels make a quarter
- 4 quarters make a dollar
If you take away the dime, it still only takes 5 nickels to reach the next largest denomination. This will make counting out change easier and faster, and reduces the number of different coins that you have to keep track of.

3. The dollar coin needs to be pushed into circulation. We have dollar coins, and they are quite cool, but no one uses the damn things. If the government could get wal-mart to give them as change in place of $1 bills, problem would be solved overnight.
I never really understood the appeal of a $1 coin until I took a trip to Japan last year, where their coins go up to the equivalent of US $5. There is a reason that they have more vending machines per capita than anywhere else in the world.
Some people say $1 coins would suck because you'd just have more change in your pocket, but those people are wrong. They've probably never used a $1 coin, so they don't even know wtf they are talking about. $1 paper bills suck because they take up lots of room in your wallet, and makes it harder to count out your money. It's no longer possible to really buy much for a single dollar, so it makes sense for it to be a coin.

4. Our paper bills should be different colors, so we can tell them apart more easily.

5. Make the paper bills differentiable to blind people.
 
Zarxrax said:
A serious reply:

There are a number of problems with our current currency, or things that could be improved.

1. We need to get rid of the penny. It has become completely worthless in this day and age. Transactions should be rounded off to the nearest 5 cents. This would make businesses more efficient, because cashiers wouldn't have to constantly count out pennies.

2. Get rid of the dime. I mean seriously, why do we need a 10 cent coin?
- 5 pennies make a nickel
- 2 nickels make a dime
- 2.5 dimes make a quarter... wait, wut?
- 5 nickels make a quarter
- 4 quarters make a dollar
If you take away the dime, it still only takes 5 nickels to reach the next largest denomination. This will make counting out change easier and faster, and reduces the number of different coins that you have to keep track of.

3. The dollar coin needs to be pushed into circulation. We have dollar coins, and they are quite cool, but no one uses the damn things. If the government could get wal-mart to give them as change in place of $1 bills, problem would be solved overnight.
I never really understood the appeal of a $1 coin until I took a trip to Japan last year, where their coins go up to the equivalent of US $5. There is a reason that they have more vending machines per capita than anywhere else in the world.
Some people say $1 coins would suck because you'd just have more change in your pocket, but those people are wrong. They've probably never used a $1 coin, so they don't even know wtf they are talking about. $1 paper bills suck because they take up lots of room in your wallet, and makes it harder to count out your money. It's no longer possible to really buy much for a single dollar, so it makes sense for it to be a coin.

4. Our paper bills should be different colors, so we can tell them apart more easily.

5. Make the paper bills differentiable to blind people.
Click to expand...
+2
 
Credit card implants. Implant credit cards in your wrist. Swipe your wrist.

Do you have to make a drawing or are you using your words on this assignments?
 
PEZenfuego said:
Credit card implants. Implant credit cards in your wrist. Swipe your wrist.

Do you have to make a drawing or are you using your words on this assignments?
Click to expand...

What if you were an amputee, or emo?

off topic: You would have to Slit/cut off a person's arm to rob them. Good AND bad. 1. Less roberies (most likely) and 2. more deaths...
 
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Zarxrax said:
1. We need to get rid of the penny. It has become completely worthless in this day and age. Transactions should be rounded off to the nearest 5 cents. This would make businesses more efficient, because cashiers wouldn't have to constantly count out pennies.
Click to expand...
Except that in real life cashiers don't "constantly count out pennies". No transaction never needs more than four and many cashiers will happily ignore one or two cents. I do agree it should be removed from currency, though - it costs more to make than it's worth, and a penny buys nothing.

Zarxrax said:
3. The dollar coin needs to be pushed into circulation. We have dollar coins, and they are quite cool, but no one uses the damn things. If the government could get wal-mart to give them as change in place of $1 bills, problem would be solved overnight.
[...]
$1 paper bills suck because they take up lots of room in your wallet, and makes it harder to count out your money.
Click to expand...
First: as you've said, we DO have a dollar coin (several types, in fact), and people don't like them. Some train stations such as Grand Central will in fact give out dollar coins as change instead of bills when you buy tickets. Most people hate this. Coins are bulky and heavy (far more than bills, I don't know what you're talking about with them being big). One of the biggest reasons dollar coins aren't used (aside from the size/weight) is simply that things don't cost increments of a dollar. If you buy something at a store it's going to end up something like $8.29 and most people would rather carry around a few $20 bills than a ton of coins of various denominations. If you could go to a store and buy some food or something for $2 or $3 flat, like you can in some places in Europe, a lot more people would carry dollar coins around.

Zarxrax said:
4. Our paper bills should be different colors, so we can tell them apart more easily.
5. Make the paper bills differentiable to blind people.
Click to expand...
I don't think many Americans have a problem telling US bills apart. The numbers are pretty big and are listed in many places on the bill. I agree about making them differentiable to blind people (like how Euro bills are all different sizes) but this is a little more expensive for no obvious gain, so I doubt the government would ever do it.
 
qqwref said:
First: as you've said, we DO have a dollar coin (several types, in fact), and people don't like them. Some train stations such as Grand Central will in fact give out dollar coins as change instead of bills when you buy tickets. Most people hate this. Coins are bulky and heavy (far more than bills, I don't know what you're talking about with them being big). One of the biggest reasons dollar coins aren't used (aside from the size/weight) is simply that things don't cost increments of a dollar. If you buy something at a store it's going to end up something like $8.29 and most people would rather carry around a few $20 bills than a ton of coins of various denominations. If you could go to a store and buy some food or something for $2 or $3 flat, like you can in some places in Europe, a lot more people would carry dollar coins around.
Click to expand...

I didn't say $1 bills were big, I said they take up a lot of room in your wallet. What I meant is like, it's not uncommon for me to have something like 10 $1 bills in my wallet. Then I pull up at the fast food drive through and I'm trying to count it all to see how much money I have. I have to look at each bill individually to see what it is.
I couldn't really follow your argument about people preferring to carry a $20 rather than coins. If you have $20 bills, then you wouldn't have to carry around $1 bills either, would you? So whether the $1 is a coin or a bill is irrelevant in that case.

I don't really understand why anyone would find $1 coins annoying to carry around. I mean, I never hear anyone whining about all the quarters that they get everyday. What's the difference? People are just prejudiced against it because its different from what they know.
You know whats REALLY annoying? When you are trying to put your $1 bills into the bill reader in the vending machine or at the self-checkout aisle. Takes forever to put in multiple bills, and half the time it rejects them.
 
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