Comments on: Selling Dimes for 5 Cents

By: marque2

marque2 — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 18:13:00 +0000

Instead of getting rid of the penny, why not revalue the currency? Could come up with New Dollars, with each New Dollar equal in value to 10 old dollars. That would bring the value back to somewhere around where it was just after WWII, and solve the penny crisis.

By: marque2

marque2 — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 18:07:00 +0000

True, but there was a great example with silver coins which disappeared in a matter of just a few years.

By: Martin Eisenhardt

Martin Eisenhardt — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 15:53:00 +0000

I agree that this might become a problem - but not yet. You have to factor in the costs for collecting, transporting and actually melting the coins. Again, without having any hard data at hand, I assume that the business model you describe is not yet feasible, but it might be in the future.

By: FelineCannonball

FelineCannonball — Sat, 23 Feb 2013 16:09:00 +0000

It discourages counterfeits.

By: mesaeconoguy

mesaeconoguy — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 23:14:00 +0000

Um, wasn’t aware that we ever transacted in ha’pennies, in this country….

You are exactly correct, however, that such a move would drive adoption of all electronic transactions, if they priced to the (more accurate) penny.

I don’t think this will really make any difference at all, since all taxes are about to skyrocket, and everything is about to implode anyway.

By: MNHawk

MNHawk — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 12:07:00 +0000

You know. You can foil the evil business by using a credit card.

Exit question. Do you get this exercised at gas stations, who round to the nearest cent, despite pricing their product in tenths of a cent? Did people get this excited in 1970, when a cent was worth a nickel today?

By: mesocyclone

mesocyclone — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 01:12:00 +0000

It is not against the law in the US to destroy paper currency, and it has only recently been against the law to destroy coinage.

By: Gil

Gil — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 00:07:00 +0000

I thought it was always against the law to destroy currency.

By: mesaeconoguy

mesaeconoguy — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 23:40:00 +0000

Like jack up prices by .03, in line with competition, as long as they could?

No, I don’t think the effect would be very large, but there would be an effect. And no, there would
not be a drive to reduce prices (immediately) as you say.

The problem is doing it across all monetary transactions, and our economy is substantially larger than Canada’s (see above).

And frankly, if you’re not concerned about that in an economy as large as ours, you have economic ignorance issues.

By: mesaeconoguy

mesaeconoguy — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 23:35:00 +0000

Good for them!

1. Unsubstantiated.

2. News flash – the US ain’t
Canada.