Would You Support a "Coin and Currency Modernization Act" That Says ...

[astrostu]

A friend and I were having a conversation about this today. Wee were trying to come up with a wish list of circulating coin/currency modernization things (as in we're not talking about commemoratives, bullion, etc.) and this is what we came up with:

 

(1) Remove all $1, $2, and $5 bills from circulation.

 

(2) Remove 1¢ and 5¢ coins from circulation.

 

(3) Round all purchases to nearest dime. We considered going for nickel, but to us scientists (we're both astronomy grad students), it seems to make more sense just to lop off a decimal point than to go to the nearest nickel.

 

(1-3*) As in the coins in circulation would be 10¢, 20¢, 50¢, $1, $2, $5. The currency in circulation would be $10, $20, $50, $100.

 

(4) Change what can be depicted on coins and currency, removing ALL likenesses of real present or past historic figures. As in no more old dead men (and Sac.).

 

(5) Require all coins and currency to bear their denomination in numerals (as in $1 or 10¢ as opposed to "ONE DOLLAR" or "TEN CENTS").

 

(6) Require currency of different denominations to be cut in different sizes (larger denomination larger size).

 

(7) We had some ideas for what the coins/currency should actually show, but we think that with the sans-old-dead-men/women piece in there, the default would be returning to something artistic and emblematic of Liberty in an allegorical sense. That's our intent, anyway, though we didn't know how to really specify that for everything.

 

(8) Move all required legends/mottos to the edges of coins (the "third side"). Keep date and mintmark small and on the obverse or reverse, along the edge, much like we have on the Presidential dollars now with what presidency it is and years served. Justification - reduce clutter and increase room for design. (We would also prefer to remove a particular item, but as I don't want to start a war over that on these boards, I'll remain mum on it.)

 

(9) Only one motif per coin/bill can be minted in any one calendar year. Justification - This is getting ridiculous with the quarter programs and the pres./sac. stuff, and most people haven't even seen the first Lincoln cent for 2009 (in-hand) yet the second is being released in just a few weeks.

 

 

I'm curious as to what you folks think. Hence I made the poll below, though I'd be interested in actual comments, too.

 

Edited to add ... Note - this is a "wish list" and should be considered based on what you think makes sense rather than its chances of ever passing an elected body.

[okbustchaser]

I agree with step 4 only.

[jtryka]

If you are going to round to the dime, then we need to add a $500 and $1,000 note as well (after all, a $100 bill is about as much money now as a $10 bill was when I was a kid). I absolutely hate the idea of $1 or 10c and that as a denomination, it should be written in English for 2 reasons: 1) having $1 like the new pres coins makes them look like Chuck E Cheese tokens (no offense to that fine establishment) and 2) if you are going to impose all different sizes and shapes, that should accomodate the insufficiently_thoughtful_persons that choose not to learn to read English. Next, I hate the lettered edge coins of today, Americans already are stupendously ignorant of our national mottos (witness Albert Gore and his "One out of many" snafu), and putting them where you need a visual aid to see them won't help. And finally, for pragmatism you'll never get the insufficiently_thoughtful_persons in Congress to agree to the no dead people thing, so that being the case, I would propose adding an image of the kid from that movie, "the Sixth Sense" onto the $5 coin with the caption, "I see dead people" on it.

[L1ncolnF4n]

as for killing the $1 bill ok...the $5 WILL NOT DIE, a $5 coin must be larger in nature than the current $1's and people already don't like those. people don't carry half dollars, so if a $5 is that size it will never catch on. $2 bills are a joke... I don't like the different sizes for different denom of bills either...I also HATE the current edge lettering...

[bartlesvilleok]

I am for the getting rid of the $1 and $2 bills.

 

With as many people that are against getting rid of the penny why would you want to get rid of the nickel also? I think there are a lot of people that would go for the penny and that might pass but not the nickel or the quarter. Instead of getting rid of the nickel keep that one and get rid of the half dollar instead.

 

So to modify. get rid of the 1cent, 50 cent, $1 bill, $2 bill.

 

#6 is the worst ideal I have heard of. I for one like that fact that every thing is the same size.

[just-john]

1 no thanks

2 no thanks

3 no thanks

4 no thanks

5 no thanks

6 maybe

7 no thanks old dead men are part of our history and emblematic of Liberty

8 no thanks

9 no thanks

 

10 do away with all currency bills and coins go do a cash less society issue everybody and National ID / Debit Card .Your employer would add pay by week or hr or day taxes would be taken purchases could be made.The right people could have lines of credit built into their cards and the goverment could cancel your account when you die .You Trust the Goverment Right

 

\Think we should leave the coinage and bills alone its about one of the only thing that shows there once waa a country names United State of America .Guess to many people are staring into space. But I'm usually wrong

BUT WHAT I REALLY WANT IS PLUTO BACK

 

[bsshog40]

I voted no for just one reason. The way taxes are changed so often, so then would the price of things. And in most cases prices always go up and not down. I actually like the way things are right now. I'm not even against the Cent. I would like to see less dollar coins though.

[Schatzy]

I want to kill the dollar bill and start using the dollar coin. I lived in Italy for over 2

years and like the euro system!! I would also like to see a 2 dollar coin!!

 

Loose the cent and start a new 2 cent!!

 

 

 

 

[Didz]

1 no thanks

2 no thanks

3 no thanks

4 no thanks

5 no thanks

6 maybe

7 no thanks old dead men are part of our history and emblematic of Liberty

8 no thanks

9 no thanks

 

10 do away with all currency bills and coins go do a cash less society issue everybody and National ID / Debit Card .Your employer would add pay by week or hr or day taxes would be taken purchases could be made.The right people could have lines of credit built into their cards and the goverment could cancel your account when you die .You Trust the Goverment Right

 

\Think we should leave the coinage and bills alone its about one of the only thing that shows there once waa a country names United State of America .Guess to many people are staring into space. But I'm usually wrong

BUT WHAT I REALLY WANT IS PLUTO BACK

 

I agree. Our currency is not just money its our history. Something we need to remember. As for losing the $1 dollar bill If we remove the one dollar bill what do we stuff in the panties of strippers? Unless she is smoking hot she gets a buck. coins don't work. Plus.. tips? I'm not carrying a bunch of change to leave a tip or leave a 5 dollar tip... Losing the 1 is not a good idea. The $2 is a waste of time. No one uses it.

[Barndog]

a certain industry would die without the $1 bill

[L1ncolnF4n]

never thought about the adult entertainment industry...*sigh*

 

but if the cent was killed...I could say that I finished my set in my lifetime, but then again I would be very sad that I couldn't find some huge error in the future...oh well

[cladking]

It would cost a huge amount of money to melt the quarters and mint 20c pieces just to fit a wish list.

 

Make the nickel out of aluminum and round off purchases until retailers start pricing to the nickel and taxes are collected by the nickel. This would actually pay for itself since the value of the metal in the existing pennies and nickels would more than offset the cost of the changes.

[PerryHall]

It would cost a huge amount of money to melt the quarters and mint 20c pieces just to fit a wish list.

 

Agree. Keep the nickel but make it out of steel or aluminum. There are too many vending machines designed for the quarter and nickel and too many of these coins currently in circulation to just make them obsolete. Also, the $5 coin should be bimetalic (copper ring with a nickel center) or it will heavily counterfeited.

[TJ'S Coins]

You have given us a lot of thought provoking ideas. I could live with almost all of them. Good job compiling the list!

[Rex Merdinus-migration]

, yeah, and it's a good industry. And (at least in Texas) some of those places give change for beverage purchases in $2 bills, probably hoping some addled patrons will begin to tip "entertainers" with them as well!

 

I question some of the provisions of the proposal. Why, for example, would you advocate removing likenesses of historical figures from American money? Heck, why not just do away with all traces of America from our currency all together...and if we're going there, it's only another small step to a single North American currency, and a further step to "the chip." Of course, that's just the conspiracy theorist in me talking.

 

Other provisions make some sense. Multiple sizes for different denominations is a good idea. I might also add using a different material to print the paper money. Australia, for example, has multiple sizes, and makes their currency out of a plastic material that is much more durable than our paper...of course, if you get a tiny nick in the edge of the bill, it tears apart with virtually no effort. But the concept is rooted in a good idea.

 

While we're on Australia, they round to the nearest nickel, and their $2 coin is actually smaller in size than the $1, which actually works pretty well. One of the arguments I've heard many times against the $1 coin here in the US is the size and weight, even in its current incarnation as a smaller-sized coin...A lot of things we buy in daily life are around 1 or two dollars and nobody wants to walk around with the heavy coins in their pockets for those purchases, or the change from a $5, so if we're talking about $2 and $5 coins being bigger still than the current $1, count me out. Plus, it's one thing to toss some spare change in a jar and forget about it, or not worry about losing a few nickels and dimes in the cracks of the sofa, but when that change includes full dollars it changes things for some folks.

 

By the way, smart call on the provision you chose to leave out. That, of all things, needs to STAY on our money. If you don't like it, use a credit card so you don't have to see it!

[World Colonial]

I voted "NO" to almost all of them because there is a far better idea and that is to repeal the legal tender laws and introduce currency competition. Then anyone could make any design and denominaiton they please and everyone else would be free to accept or reject it. There is no more reason to have a monopoly in money than there is in anything else.

 

Using your current,proposal, I do not believe that most of them make sense. #4 and #6 are fine but not the others. I'm indifferent to #9 but I do not think it should be a requirement. Its irrelevant from an economic standpoint whether there is one design or more as we've had with State Quarters and the like.

[zrlevin]

I agree with step 4 only.

 

I do as well.

[RWB]

Should Brussels sprouts be legal, if tender? Hmmmmm....

[bartlesvilleok]

a certain industry would die without the $1 bill

 

I am sure they would find someone to take your money. They would make up paper tokens were you have to buy what you want at the door and like tokens you can't cash them in so it keeps you coming back so you can use up the rest of them

[astrostu]

I thought I would add a little bit more justification to the points I made. I should also note that I had not considered the strip club industry, but I'm sure they would find a way to cope with any change such as what I outlined above.

 

Points 1-3, summarized as:

 

(1-3*) As in the coins in circulation would be 10¢, 20¢, 50¢, $1, $2, $5. The currency in circulation would be $10, $20, $50, $100.

 

Justification: As I said, I'm not a fan of rounding to the nearest nickel, though I know that is more popular. The reason is simple, as I initially stated: It makes more mathematic sense just to lop off a decimal point than to keep the hundredths place but only round it to the closest 5 or 10. I should also point out that I in no way meant to imply that all the cents, nickels, and quarters should be melted down and everyone has to change over right now. It would just be a phase out where no new ones would be made, and after maybe 5-10 years they would no longer have a place due to the rounding to the 10ths.

 

(4) Change what can be depicted on coins and currency, removing ALL likenesses of real present or past historic figures. As in no more old dead men (and Sac.).

 

Justification: I mentioned this thread to my friend (who helped come up with this list) and he actually questioned me on this. The justification is that once you have any form of political or historic figure, you simply can't get them off very easily. Honestly, what do you think would happen to the senator or congressperson who stood up one day and said that we need to get rid of Lincoln from the cent and $5? They would be decried as "unAmerican" or against whatever that person stood for. As opposed to an allegorical representation of America or Liberty is much easier to change or update because you're just switching designs to represent the same thing, only in a different way.

 

(5) Require all coins and currency to bear their denomination in numerals (as in $1 or 10¢ as opposed to "ONE DOLLAR" or "TEN CENTS").

 

I'm perhaps not surprised with the sentiment of jtryka thinking that people should just learn to read our money. But I simply disagree. For example, I have some foreign currency. Two of the bills are written entirely in Arabic, and I have no idea what they say. But, they both have regular numerals in the corner, so I know how much they're worth. It just doesn't make sense why we WOULDN'T change such a minor design element to help facilitate the use of our money in commerce for international travelers who are not well-versed in English. I think you can argue that "we shouldn't have to," but I don't think it makes logical sense to not do it if it's something so easy.

 

(6) Require currency of different denominations to be cut in different sizes (larger denomination larger size).

 

Justification: Same as #5, also for the blind or "vision-challenged." When I was in Italy last year, it was SO MUCH EASIER to know how much each bill was worth simply by the size and by the color. I realize it would be a pain to switch over machines to read them, but if you ignore that, I think that this makes much more logical sense and greatly facilitates our currency's usage.

 

(7) We had some ideas for what the coins/currency should actually show, but we think that with the sans-old-dead-men/women piece in there, the default would be returning to something artistic and emblematic of Liberty in an allegorical sense. That's our intent, anyway, though we didn't know how to really specify that for everything.

 

See justification to #4.

 

(8) Move all required legends/mottos to the edges of coins (the "third side"). Keep date and mintmark small and on the obverse or reverse, along the edge, much like we have on the Presidential dollars now with what presidency it is and years served. Justification - reduce clutter and increase room for design. (We would also prefer to remove a particular item, but as I don't want to start a war over that on these boards, I'll remain mum on it.)

 

Justification is just that I posted originally - it will reduce the clutter of this stuff and leave more room for the design. I'm thinking Apple packaging versus Microsoft packaging here.

 

(9) Only one motif per coin/bill can be minted in any one calendar year. Justification - This is getting ridiculous with the quarter programs and the pres./sac. stuff, and most people haven't even seen the first Lincoln cent for 2009 (in-hand) yet the second is being released in just a few weeks.

 

Justification: This is really personal preference, but I also had thought folks here would agree with me more than you have. Personally, I'm just sick of it. I like the new designs, and the State Quarters was a novel idea and well-received. But, this year we have more rotating reverse or obverse designs than we have static ... and it's just silly. Design over-kill, especially since I personally think that many are lacking in artistic talent.

[World Colonial]

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but my standards, the only modern US ciculating coinage that has any artistic appeal is the Lincoln cent and the Kennedy half dollar. I also like the reverse of the bi-centennial coinage.

 

Classified as mediocre would be the Jefferson NickeL Washington quarter, Eisenhower dollar and the Sac dollar, though on this last coin I do not particularly care for the size or the color. One of the things I do like about the Eisenhower dollar is that it is the size of a traditional dollar coin. I admit its not practical as a circulating issue but I consider that irrelevant since the public has rejected dollar coins anyway by a landslide.

 

In the "butt-ugly" and absolutely awful category are the Roosevelt Dime, SBA dollar and the presidential dollars. The Roosevelt dime looks decent in BU but loses all of its appeal to me without the original luster and I still rate it the worst looking US coin ever of the widely circulating issues. I have not seen or handled all of the presidential dollar coins, only the images for most. But I do not care for the designs or the color of the coins at all. And in my opinion, they do not look like circulating coinage either.

 

I also think that the majority of the State Quarter reverse designs were either mediocre or awful as well. Some I liked such as the Massachusetts Minuteman but not too many.

 

And though this post is about US coins, I share similar sentiments about most modern world coinage also.

 

Aside from many of the US classics, if someone wants to see what a real artistic piece looks like, they can look to issues such as the Spanish colonial pillar dollar, Japanese Meiji restoration issues or European Rennaisance medals. Even the portrait coinage of Queen Victoria "Young Head' and King George V crowned bust looks infinitely better than most modern designs.

[Oldtrader3]

The Fed is more concerned with counterfieters and drug dealers than they are with 300 million American people's convenience. The reason that these bills were removed from circulation in the first place was to inhibit drug dealers from carrying large amounts of cash. We have all seen how successful that logic was. Duh! Drug dealers just pay cash for a Hum Vee to carry their money around.