Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think you may be overestimating how many bellhops and valets the average person interacts with in a year...
GP specified 15 years.
15 x 0 is 0.
Why do U.S. coins seem to be in short supply?
191–200 of 222 posts
Re: Why do U.S. coins seem to be in short supply?
#192Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why don't Americans use half dollars? I think everywhere else I've travelled, someone (or a machine) giving change will optimize it to the fewest coins. £3.85 would be £2, £1, 50p, 20p, 10p, 5p. The only exception is something like a food stall that's set all their prices to multiples of €1 (I've seen this several times in Germany), they might keep plenty of €1 and €2 coins for change. If someone pays with smaller co…
Better yet, why don’t Americans use dollar coins? Having lived in Japan, I was a big fan of larger denomination coins. In Japan, the smallest bill is worth about $10 USD, and they have coins worth about $1 and $5. Having a pocket full of change could actually get you something nice! I actually treated two of my friends to a night out at our local izakaya for ~$100 with 20 coins. In an effort to promote the use of dif…
On the contrary I wish the 2€ (and maybe 1€) coins would be replaced by bills. It's a lot less annoying to carry around some folded bills.
Re: Why do U.S. coins seem to be in short supply?
#193Earlier quoted context omitted.
Well, there’s the issue. I’m a middle class person who has never (in nearly 50 years) interacted with coat check, valet, bellhops, delivery runners, etc. As for grease/bribes... I’ve definitely never even considered doing such a thing. I think you live an entirely different lifestyle than us poor peons.
Tipping sustenance wage earners (bartenders, wait staff in restaurants, et c) in anything but cash in the US is also quite a dick move. Sure, cards are convenient, but you are in effect tipping 15% less for your own convenience. Additionally, most of the big food delivery apps have a history of skimming or outright stealing in-app tips, so it’s best to always tip delivery drivers in cash, too. Always tip in cash. It’…
> you are in effect tipping 15% less for your own convenience.
It's not convenience, it's preventing fraud.
Re: Why do U.S. coins seem to be in short supply?
#194Earlier quoted context omitted.
The small apartment building I live in is set up this way. I don't really mind, but I wish they would find a way to accept cards (credit and/or reloadable) rather than only coins because as it stands right now, I have to go to the bank and get $50 worth of "laundry tokens" (quarters) every few months, since I don't spend enough cash day-to-day to naturally collect enough change for the laundry.
I just did this 2 weeks ago at a chase in SF. Usually I get $50 but I was restricted to only $20. Didn't really this shortage was the reason
I complained when they would only give me twenty last week in Chicago since I always got fifty before and was told this was the reason
Re: Why do U.S. coins seem to be in short supply?
#195If the Fed would put Coinstar type machines in Post Offices without charging a fee or taking a cut, I think they would find a lot more people who are willing to get their coins back into circulation. It would have to be cheaper on an ongoing basis than constantly minting coins. Wrapping coins and exchanging them at a bank is just too tedious and time consuming.
Can’t you use self checkout? Also who the hell uses cash.
> Also who the hell uses cash.
Who uses cash? The unbanked and underbanked, about 55 million adults in the USA, approximately 22% of the US households, according to the US Federal Reserve. In the USA that often includes folks like the homeless, or people from drastically lower socioeconomic classes, as well as undocumented workers, those who don't trust the banking system, and those without government IDs. [1]
This also includes anyone with strong needs for transactional anonymity, such as the Hong Kong protesters who bought transit tickets with cash so the police wouldn't be able to trace their ticket purchases/rides and arrest them based on their having gone to the protest location. [2]
Then there are other countries, such as Germany and India, where the majority of transactions are cash---though the past few years it would seem governments are increasingly trying to eliminate cash or cast suspicion on those who prefer Cash's anonymity. [3]
[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unbanked
[2] https://qz.com/1642441/extradition-law-why-hong-kong-protest...
[3] https://www.corbettreport.com/the-war-on-cash-a-country-by-c...
Re: Why do U.S. coins seem to be in short supply?
#196Earlier quoted context omitted.
In Europe it is generally cheaper as a merchant to take credit vs cash, because they have low credit processing fees. Because of this they take credit for pretty much any transaction. In the US, it's not uncommon to see places only take credit for purchases over $20, especially restaurants.
> In the US, it's not uncommon to see places only take credit for purchases over $20, especially restaurants. This must be semi-regional because it's definitely not the case in the Minneapolis area (or the Midwest in general as far as I've seen). Even mom and pop restaurants will gladly take your credit card. If it exists at all, the minimum I've seen is $5, I've never seen a $20 minimum (not saying it doesn't exist,…
I've seen a few $20 minimums in Wisconsin, but its certainly not the norm. Usually if there's a minimum it's $10 around here.
Re: Why do U.S. coins seem to be in short supply?
#197Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not anymore since many got sued a few years ago for being inaccurate or simply costing too much to maintain. Your bank should provide coin sleeves for free, though rolling them manually can be a hassle. See here for more info: https://www.mybanktracker.com/news/coin-counting-machines-ba...
It really comes down to cost. Managing change, and cash in general is a huge time and risk bucket, so some banks eat the cost, and some pass it on to you directly through fees or hoops to jump. Most branches removed individual branch coin counters for the larger banks, using centralized processing places to manage coins. Smaller banks may distribute more load to branches by having machines in larger branches or makin…
Yes, stealing money is bad, even if a corporation does it.
Re: Why do U.S. coins seem to be in short supply?
#198Re: Why do U.S. coins seem to be in short supply?
#199Earlier quoted context omitted.
At my grocery store today there was a large sign at the checkout informing you they don’t have coins to make change, please use electronic payment. If you pay cash and don’t have the exact amount the total will be rounded up and the excess donated to a charity.
As long as that charity isn't the owner of the grocery store's yacht club I like this idea. In practice, though, the types of charities usually offered are a) the business themselves like Goodwill, or b) controversial at best (say, a Komen-eqsue figure). If there was a way to make this choice with less friction I'd be much more willing to give up change entirely.
IIRC it was a local food bank.
Re: Why do U.S. coins seem to be in short supply?
#200Earlier quoted context omitted.
lb is a unit of force, not volume.
On earth they readily convert. The size (historically) was determined by the volume needed to get that much mass. At one time payment was measured in weight as you could never trust the other person (or the person who fooled them) to not mix some less valuable metal on with their coins. Those days are mostly gone but the history is weight (which on earth is the same as mass) is important not volume.
> You could never trust the other person (or the person who fooled them) to not mix some less valuable metal on with their coins
Another major problem was people taking shavings from the edge of coins and trying to pass them off as unaltered; it's the reason many coins have some kind of pattern imprinted around the edge.