Funny money?

[vtk]

One of the slots in my AlumaWallet is used to hold a few dollar coins, as a kind of emergency cash reserve.

[english si]

I guess some greedy people are uncomfortable with having their rounded to the nearest 5¢.

Yep. Having to charge $3.95 for that tchotchke instead of $3.99 can start to add up after a while to a large retailer.

Where did you learn rounding? $3.99 would round to $4.00!

It works in countries throughout Europe*, and blatantly further afield (I'm pretty sure supermarkets in Indonesia put prices in Rupiah and whatever the term for hundredths is, but the smallest coin was a rarely-seen half Rupiah - so round to the nearest 50). Gas stations are happy with the .9 being unpayable, etc, etc.

*For years - they did it in France with Francs. You paid peanuts more sometimes, and peanuts less others - it balanced out and after hundreds of transactions, you'd be unlikely to be more than a few centimes off, rather than francs off. The same is the case with Euro and cents, and will be with Dollars and cents.

[Scott5114]

I found the following story on $1 coins, it sounds like it should be true.

As we know, US coins used to be really made of silver, and were proportional to one another in size.  The Mint stopped making silver dollars in the 30s, not for any political or economic reasons, but simply because there were enough in circulation to cover the demand, since it was a large coin of (then) high value. 

Eventually, many of these ended up in Nevada.  In casinos, where they were recycled over and over in the slot machines as a coin on table games.  Then, when the price of silver rose above the face value of the coins, the US started issuing the "Johnson sandwich" coins we see today.  Casinos quicky made a tidy profit by removing the silver dollar coins, but had a problem because they had all of these slot machines that needed $1 coins.  So they made their own slugs.  Which entered general circulation in Nevada.

The Mint objected and decided that it had to issue a dollar coin to prevent this.  So the Ike was chosen.  Ike was among the most popular recent presidents, Nixon (by then president) was Ike's VP, and it evened up the ratio of political parties on coins.    The coins did fairly well, serving the casino industry and other such applications.  Until the failed SBA coin, the "Carter Quarter" came out.  Today, slot machines mostly operate with bill readers and pay off in tickets, rather than a coin drop, and casinos have issued $1 chips for the tables.  You still see some table games, Pai Gow for example, where the win pay is $4.25 on a $5 bet, that use quarters and 50 cent pieces in the chip tray.

There are other reasons that were more compelling that led the casino industry to the changes it underwent. Slot machines no longer use coins because it is not economical to maintain coin-in/coin-out machines. Coin jams are a pain in the ass to clear, and require allowing access to the coin hopper by any random technician that might be tasked with doing so. With a bill acceptor, you can keep the accepted bills locked up (bill jams, when they do occur, will happen in the removable acceptor unit, not the drop box) and only have to worry about tickets going out, which are just worthless blank paper before they are printed. You also do not have to worry about the logistics of keeping jars of spare coins around when hoppers run empty–a 400-count ticket bundle is small enough you can leave it sitting inside the machine, or have your attendants carry one in their pocket.

Chips entered into play on table games because casinos realized that adding the additional abstraction layer of exchanging cash for little clay discs with no inherently perceived worth makes people gamble more. People tend to forget that a green chip is exchangeable for $25 in real money and that makes it easy to bet two or three at a time. Chips are also easier to account for than coins, since it is easy to make chips all the same size, whereas coins will naturally vary in thickness based on wear and simple manufacturing differences. This means you can easily count chips by taking a stack of a known number of chips (like 5) and then cutting out stacks of equal height from a taller stack, which will result in small stacks that contain the same number of chips as the original stack. You can also make chips of extremely high denominations–the casino I work in has purple $500 chips available, and another casino in the change has orange $1,000 chips.

[agentsteel53]

Women at least have purses they can put coins in. Men have no convenient way to carry them.

indeed.  my girlfriend always seems to have the same amount of coins in her possession - about 4 or 5 bucks, because her purse has a place for them, and she actively thinks to spend them.

on the other hand, the last time my jar filled up, I went and redeemed it and there was enough for a plane ticket to a non-trivial destination!

[Dr Frankenstein]

I think that Americans don't use their change because their coins' value are of little significance. If they made the switch to $1and $2 coins, perhaps their habits would change.

[bugo]

I'm opposed to the abolishing of dollar coins because I carry enough change around as it is, and carrying more coins is not appealing to me.  At my former workplace, the vending machines gave out $1 coins and I always carried around what seemed like 5 pounds of extra weight around all the time.

Besides, how do you put a dollar coin in a stripper's G-string?

[mcdonaat]

I'm opposed to the abolishing of dollar coins because I carry enough change around as it is, and carrying more coins is not appealing to me.  At my former workplace, the vending machines gave out $1 coins and I always carried around what seemed like 5 pounds of extra weight around all the time.

Besides, how do you put a dollar coin in a stripper's G-string?

On the first note, a dollar is about as heavy as four quarters. I prefer dollar coins, since they can be stored in a jar and spent without making too big of a dent.

Second note - no comment.

[Big John]

Besides, how do you put a dollar coin in a stripper's G-string?

I know a Canadian and he says they throw loonies at the strippers.

[triplemultiplex]

Besides, how do you put a dollar coin in a stripper's G-string?

Use the coin slot.


Technology will make all this discussion moot.  The future is cashless.  Yeah, yeah, all you old timers are going to cling to your cash because you 'like it' or are sceerd of technology, but you're going to be the jerks slowing down the checkout lines digging through your wallets for pieces of paper while the rest of us will just flash our mobile devices at a computer and be on our way.  At least we'll do most of our shopping online and only run into you troglodytes at the grocery store.

I can't wait for this technology to become ubiquitous.  And it will happen.  Those funny looks you get with Susan B. Anthony dollars and $2 notes will some day be the response to the use of any cash. Resistance is futile.

[agentsteel53]

indeed, I try to run as much as possible through a credit card.  2% back surely helps!

[mgk920]

I'm opposed to the abolishing of dollar coins because I carry enough change around as it is, and carrying more coins is not appealing to me.  At my former workplace, the vending machines gave out $1 coins and I always carried around what seemed like 5 pounds of extra weight around all the time.

Besides, how do you put a dollar coin in a stripper's G-string?

Stop being so #*@#@$% CHEAP! - use $5s, you'll be amazed at how fast and how much the quality of the shows improve!  Using $1s in the strip joint is so...

...1930s.

Ditto the $2 minimum bet at the racetrack.

Mike

[mgk920]

Besides, how do you put a dollar coin in a stripper's G-string?

Use the coin slot.


Technology will make all this discussion moot.  The future is cashless.  Yeah, yeah, all you old timers are going to cling to your cash because you 'like it' or are sceerd of technology, but you're going to be the jerks slowing down the checkout lines digging through your wallets for pieces of paper while the rest of us will just flash our mobile devices at a computer and be on our way.  At least we'll do most of our shopping online and only run into you troglodytes at the grocery store.

I can't wait for this technology to become ubiquitous.  And it will happen.  Those funny looks you get with Susan B. Anthony dollars and $2 notes will some day be the response to the use of any cash. Resistance is futile.

Until, of course, the power goes out.



Mike

[vtk]

Besides, how do you put a dollar coin in a stripper's G-string?

<TANGENT>
You've heard of throwing paper money around and calling it 'making it rain', right?  I once heard of a guy who threw fistfuls of quarters at a stripper. "I'm making it hail!" he shouted.
</TANGENT>

[Takumi]

Until, of course, the power goes out.

[formulanone]

Until, of course, the power goes out.

People don't want warm beer, so this problem will never happen. 

[Dr Frankenstein]

Besides, how do you put a dollar coin in a stripper's G-string?

We use fives.

[vdeane]

Besides, how do you put a dollar coin in a stripper's G-string?

Use the coin slot.


Technology will make all this discussion moot.  The future is cashless.  Yeah, yeah, all you old timers are going to cling to your cash because you 'like it' or are sceerd of technology, but you're going to be the jerks slowing down the checkout lines digging through your wallets for pieces of paper while the rest of us will just flash our mobile devices at a computer and be on our way.  At least we'll do most of our shopping online and only run into you troglodytes at the grocery store.

I can't wait for this technology to become ubiquitous.  And it will happen.  Those funny looks you get with Susan B. Anthony dollars and $2 notes will some day be the response to the use of any cash. Resistance is futile.

Until, of course, the power goes out.



Mike

Write down the billing info for later processing when the system is restored.  That's what places on campus do whenever the Aramark equipment gets out of whack.

[cu2010]

I sure as hell wouldn't trust a stripper with my credit card info.

[Duke87]

I guess some greedy people are uncomfortable with having their rounded to the nearest 5¢.

Yep. Having to charge $3.95 for that tchotchke instead of $3.99 can start to add up after a while to a large retailer.

Where did you learn rounding? $3.99 would round to $4.00!

But that would defeat the entire purpose of why retailers charge $3.99 instead of $4.00 in the first place - it makes the item appear less expensive than it actually is. $3.99 is basically the same as $4.00, but because the first digit is lower, mentally it seems a lot cheaper and people are more willing to spend money on it. Without pennies, you have to charge $3.95 to have the same effect.

This is taken advantage of religiously by retailers in the US. You will almost never see a number on a price tag in a store that ends in 0. They all end in 9. Is it different in Europe?

[corco]

The idea would be that $3.99 would still be the price- since tax isn't typically included in that price, it would still have to be added in and then rounded at the point of sale.

Europe doesn't work because tax is included in the posted price so the price you see is the price you pay, so calling it $3.99 when it's really $4 would be lying.

[oscar]

The idea would be that $3.99 would still be the price- since tax isn't typically included in that price, it would still have to be added in and then rounded at the point of sale.

That's the plan in Canada.  Canada's new guidelines for businesses in its post-penny world (starting early 2013) call for them to do rounding only after all items in a transaction are added together, and taxes are added to that total, just before the cashier has to make change for the customer.  Retailers can still charge $3.99 for individual items, since any rounding would take place later in the process.  And businesses can forgo rounding altogether for non-cash purchases like with credit cards, though I suspect they'll round for those anyway to avoid miserly customers deciding at the last minute whether to pay with cash or plastic depending on whether rounding saves them or does them out of a few cents. 

[Alps]

<TANGENT>
You've heard of throwing paper money around and calling it 'making it rain', right?  I once heard of a guy who threw fistfuls of quarters at a stripper. "I'm making it hail!" he shouted.
</TANGENT>

Eh. I'm Jewish. We use pennies for that.

Besides, how do you put a dollar coin in a stripper's G-string?

Use the coin slot.

You, sir, win the Internet today.

[mgk920]

Besides, how do you put a dollar coin in a stripper's G-string?

Use the coin slot.


Technology will make all this discussion moot.  The future is cashless.  Yeah, yeah, all you old timers are going to cling to your cash because you 'like it' or are sceerd of technology, but you're going to be the jerks slowing down the checkout lines digging through your wallets for pieces of paper while the rest of us will just flash our mobile devices at a computer and be on our way.  At least we'll do most of our shopping online and only run into you troglodytes at the grocery store.

I can't wait for this technology to become ubiquitous.  And it will happen.  Those funny looks you get with Susan B. Anthony dollars and $2 notes will some day be the response to the use of any cash. Resistance is futile.

Until, of course, the power goes out.



Mike

Write down the billing info for later processing when the system is restored.  That's what places on campus do whenever the Aramark equipment gets out of whack.

The credit card company where I work *prohibits* us from recording any info of that sort for processing 'later'.  If the system goes down, we're cash only.

Mike

[bugo]

Besides, how do you put a dollar coin in a stripper's G-string?

Use the coin slot.


Technology will make all this discussion moot.  The future is cashless.  Yeah, yeah, all you old timers are going to cling to your cash because you 'like it' or are sceerd of technology, but you're going to be the jerks slowing down the checkout lines digging through your wallets for pieces of paper while the rest of us will just flash our mobile devices at a computer and be on our way.  At least we'll do most of our shopping online and only run into you troglodytes at the grocery store.

I can't wait for this technology to become ubiquitous.  And it will happen.  Those funny looks you get with Susan B. Anthony dollars and $2 notes will some day be the response to the use of any cash. Resistance is futile.

How am I going to buy something from a friend?  At a yard sale?  Is everybody going to have a credit card reader?

[empirestate]

In my grandmother's collection of old bills and banknotes, I remember there being a 25-cent note, from Canada IIRC.

I definitely enjoy odd bits of currency just for their novelty and not at all for their (real or perceived) value. I should really get back into spending $2 bills...

And as for all the U.S. quarters that have been dreamed up lately...I got all the 50 states in regular pocket change with no real difficulty...but I'll be danged if I've seen more than one single National Parks quarter in my change since their inception (Hot Springs, the first one). What's the deal there?