

Swapping US $1 bills to coins would save 5.5b over 30yrs - jeffepp
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2011/03/04/134276189/swapping-dollar-coins-for-bills-could-save-5-5-billion-gao-says

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justin_vanw
Or, alternatively, we could cut defense spending by 1% and save that much
money every year.

Better yet, lets cut defense spending by 50% and save $300B per year.
Honestly, other than the big defense contractors, nobody would ever notice or
care (well, people would notice that our economy suddenly had 300B of extra
cash in it every year).

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alanh
Academics love to get a taste of that defense budget via research grants, but
yeah, agreed. Lots of waste inherent in the military-industrial complex.

Plus there’s the whole killing people thing.

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melling
We already have $1 coins. There was a recent push to get people to accept
them. Didn't seem to work.

At this point, we should move to contactless cash cards that can be used like
some credit cards but without transaction fees. Reducing the need to carry
cash will also save money, and time. Wait, I've got a penny here somewhere.

~~~
dasil003
I'm not sure what's stupider, people's attachment to one dollar bills or the
idea that we need to get them to accept coins before pulling the paper ones.

I've been spending a lot of time in London recently, and it's shocking how
much better things work with coins up to £2 and paper only for £5 and above.
First of all, change suddenly is useful again, second of all, if you have
paper money it's actually worth something. It used to be this way in the US
too, I mean you actually used to buy things with a nickel or dime. Doing away
with paper ones should not be such a big deal, it should be thought of as
maintaining the status quo in light of inflation, but I guess it's a boiling
frog situation.

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rimantas
We got rid of anything paper below 10. So now 1, 2, 5 coins (and some for
cents) and bills 10 and up. We used to have paper bills for 1, 2 and 5 before,
nobody misses them.

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dasil003
Is that Euro?

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rimantas
Sadly, not yet. It's Litas. Only one of the three "Baltic sisters" (Estonia,
Latvia, Lithuania) has joined Euro zone yet: Estonia.

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siculars
Oooh. 5.5 billion /pinky raised to mouth/. Add a zero or two and cut the years
in half and you may have something. That kind of money in this kind of economy
is rather inconsequential.

Anonymous electro cash. That's the win. I am not a fan of a cashless future if
we lose our anonymity in the process.

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johnnygood
You're right. Coins are cheaper than bills, but $183M per year isn't going to
balance the budget. Basically, keeping the $1 in bill form is costing 60 cents
per American per year.

~~~
stretchwithme
It probably costs that much in gasoline carting the things around.

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citricsquid
coins work well for us here in England, might not be so great for strippers
though.

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afinlayson
If you want to save more?? switch to debit/plastic. It would be greener then
paper OR coins and harder to steal (although only slightly)

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hsmyers
Oh good--- I still have a change purse!

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stretchwithme
In 30 years, we'll be having this conversation about getting rid of the $100
bill.

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anonymoushn
We'll be in a heap of trouble, because there are no larger denominations.

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InclinedPlane
5.5 billion, that's a LOT of money, that's almost 0.2% of the annual federal
budget.

 _sigh_

~~~
astrodust
Hey, a billion here, a billion there, pretty soon it adds up to some real
money.

