Getting the Public to Use Half Dollars and Dollars

Bruce Remick wrote:

SNIP
As it is now, most clerks give a customer the once
over if they offer to pay for something with a couple hundreds.

I have very few problems using a hundred dollar bill. But then
again, I would not go to Bills Dairy Queen and get a milk shake and
try to pay with a hundred.....

SNIP
they give you a paper trail for your records.

There are some times that I do not want a paper trail. No, I do not
use drugs, I just do not like paper trails for everything that I do.

================================================== =============
Roscoe. Email: Ebay- 1Wheeler,
ICQ- 876749, Yahoo Messenger: Wheeler72512
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Wheeler wrote:
You will be getting hate
mail if those people talking about rounding to the nickel sees this
post ;-)

I appreciate the warning, Wheeler, but I'll take my chances! Treasury
employees, people in the CoinStar business, metals miners, and others
with a major stake in making or handling cents, halves, and nickels
might hate me, but the vast majority of us should love the idea. The
reason minting unnecessary coins is quietly accepted is that is robs a
small number of dollars a year from hundreds of millions of people,
rather than millions of dollars from small numbers of people. "A
billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you're talking real
money."

The "keep the cent" crowd relies on faulty economics. The purpose for
cents and nickels is the same as that of any currency--to facilitate
transactions that wouldn't happen without them. Few people would walk
away from event the smallest purchase if it were rounded to a
dime--fewer still if it were to a nickel. Not so with quarters or
dollars.

Have you ever been mad at someone you had to pay a few dollars to? Get
even--pay in unrolled cents. Your force him or her to take an instant
discount, not just in bank/CoinStar fees, but also in labor.

Merchants wouldn't be able to cheat the public because competition
would prevent it. Even if retailers could manipulate profits based on
rounding, those profits would be tiny compared to the savings they and
their competitors would realize from not having to handle mountains of
small coins. Sure, in the end, merchants would profit, but free
markets would force them to share those profits with their customers.
Again, the only losers would be those who profit from making or
handling unnecessary coins.

The argument that US "makes a profit" on cents is wildly fallacious.
The losses to the economy from handling cents dwarf the manufacturing
profit margin, which I suspect is both the result of phony accounting
and the errant notion that being worth more than the cost to make it
is the reason to retain a currency to begin with. If that were the
case, bring back half cents: make them the size of confetti, so the
mint makes huge profit, and pass a law that says all transactions must
be priced to the nearest half cent. Why does this sound ridiculous?
See above.

Chris

Andrew W Applegarth wrote:

Padraic Brown wrote in
:


On Wed, 19 Nov 2003 19:38:08 -0500, Bruce Remick
wrote:



Using cash is fine, as long as they're careful where they flash those
wallets with the hundreds packed in there.

Sensible advice regardless of one's payment method. Flashing an ATM
card is practically advertising "force me to go with you to the ATM
and withdraw wads of cash!"

Padraic.

la cieurgeourea provoer mal trasfu
ast meiyoer ke 'l andrext ben trasfu.



1) You can't tell by looking at the ATM card how much money is in the
account. Besides the daily withdrawl limit, which may already have been
hit, you might pick somebody like me who spent all their money on diapers
and has about $40 in the account until payday (or another diaper run
drops it lower).

2) ATM machines have cameras in them. Also, they are often in areas
with additional security or cameras.

3) It means traveling with the victim to another location to retrieve
the money.


I'm sure there are many more, but these jumped right out at me when I
read your post.


And why would anyone be "flashing an ATM card" in the first place in a
store? So many people have them anyway now that noticing one in a
wallet shouldn't shouldn't encourage thievery any more than the typical
nest of credit cards.

Bruce

Padraic Brown wrote:

On Wed, 19 Nov 2003 19:53:10 -0500, Bruce Remick
wrote:


Of course. I don't carry around a load of quarters unless I'm carting
them to a handy vending machine. I'm more likely to carry several
dollars in $1 coins. They aren't heavy, contrary to the old canard. I
wouldn't carry a wad of dollar notes either. To bulky and too much of
a mess to sort out. That's what fivers and tenners are for.


You like fives and tens, but don't like ones? How do you sort your
ones?


I don't. They usually end up in a wad somewhere until I've got enough
to buy a bond or deposit or do something else with them. They often
end up in the same bowl as all that loose change. A number of them
float around in the bottom of my bag for use at work, where the
machines don't take dollar coins.


If you carry both dollar coins and dollar bills, would you resist
using the bills if you were paying for a two dollar item?


I'd use a fiver. Maybe a deuce if I had one to hand. Maybe a couple
brass bux if had them to hand.


If yes, doesn't that mean you prefer to get rid of those dollar coins in your
pocket?


No, it doesn't mean that at all. If the answer were "yes" it would
mean that I'd prefer to use dollar coins.


If no, why bother with the dollar coins at all?


The dollar coins are certainly easier to handle. For both purchaser
and merchant. I'd prefer using them and never seeing another $1 note
in ciruclation. Except perhaps the odd silver cert comming my way!


So it appears this is simply your personal distaste for the dollar bill,
and you don't seem to recognize the fact that the majority of consumers
disagree with you. Fortunately, we all have freedom of choice.

Bruce

On Tue, 25 Nov 2003 23:02:06 -0500, Bruce Remick
wrote:


So it appears this is simply your personal distaste for the dollar bill

Whoever said ány of this discussion was anything other than our
opinions?

Padraic.

la cieurgeourea provoer mal trasfu
ast meiyoer ke 'l andrext ben trasfu.

Bruce Remick wrote:
Padraic Brown wrote:
The dollar coins are certainly easier to handle. For both purchaser
and merchant. I'd prefer using them and never seeing another $1 note
in ciruclation. Except perhaps the odd silver cert comming my way!


So it appears this is simply your personal distaste for the dollar bill,
and you don't seem to recognize the fact that the majority of consumers
disagree with you. Fortunately, we all have freedom of choice.

Wasn't there a study done in which people indicated a preference for
$1 bills, until they were told how much money dollar coins would save
the taxpayers, at which point the respondents said they favored $1
coins?

--Chris

Bruce Remick scribed upon the newsgroup scroll
:


So it appears this is simply your personal distaste for the dollar
bill, and you don't seem to recognize the fact that the majority of
consumers disagree with you. Fortunately, we all have freedom of
choice.

I have no distaste for bills at all. I'd rather carry 25 bills than
25 coins any day. However, for small change, the dollar coins are cool and
fun to pass out. Favoring one doesn't mean one must disdain the other,
they both are useful and have their place in commerce, My customers really
enjoy getting the Sac dollars in change.

--
Allen McBroom
Remove WOOF when replying by email

(Chris S) wrote:
Wasn't there a study done in which people indicated a preference for
$1 bills, until they were told how much money dollar coins would save
the taxpayers, at which point the respondents said they favored $1
coins?
--Chris

And how much was that cost, less than $2 per person?

I spent 4 SACs and 3 SBAs today, but if I was not wearing
a coat or jacket to keep the slugs in, I would pay $10 a year to
be able to use dollar bills.

This efficiency thing is getting out of hand, the post office
in my town closes for lunch between 12:30 and 1:00 and it burns
me to see the woman sitting on the loading dock smoking while
I have to figure out a way to come back or go to a different
post office (that has a register receipt with the destination
zip code and city printed on it).

Then I really was ****** today when I went to Walmart
to pick up a prescription, and the pharmacy was closed from
1:30 to 2:00 for lunch because only one pharmacist was on
duty (like management doesn't have time to hand out filled
prescriptions).

If this kind of nonsense was practiced by small
businesses they would lose customers by the dozens,
and that last dozen customers may represent _ALL_
the profit.

If NO dollar bills were printed, all security costs
at the BEP would be the same, facility costs would be
the same, management costs would be the same, and
the government would have to pay unemployment
to half the employees for a year, and the treasury
would lose the income taxes paid by those employees.

The cost of printing dollars is a bogus excuse
to impose the will of government on a free people.

Joe Fischer

On Wed, 26 Nov 2003 16:03:14 -0500, Joe Fischer
wrote:

(Chris S) wrote:
Wasn't there a study done in which people indicated a preference for
$1 bills, until they were told how much money dollar coins would save
the taxpayers, at which point the respondents said they favored $1
coins?
--Chris

And how much was that cost, less than $2 per person?

I spent 4 SACs and 3 SBAs today, but if I was not wearing
a coat or jacket to keep the slugs in, I would pay $10 a year to
be able to use dollar bills.

This efficiency thing is getting out of hand, the post office
in my town closes for lunch between 12:30 and 1:00 and it burns
me to see the woman sitting on the loading dock smoking while
I have to figure out a way to come back or go to a different
post office (that has a register receipt with the destination
zip code and city printed on it).

Then I really was ****** today when I went to Walmart
to pick up a prescription, and the pharmacy was closed from
1:30 to 2:00 for lunch because only one pharmacist was on
duty (like management doesn't have time to hand out filled
prescriptions).

If this kind of nonsense was practiced by small
businesses they would lose customers by the dozens,
and that last dozen customers may represent _ALL_
the profit.

If NO dollar bills were printed, all security costs
at the BEP would be the same, facility costs would be
the same, management costs would be the same, and
the government would have to pay unemployment
to half the employees for a year, and the treasury
would lose the income taxes paid by those employees.

The cost of printing dollars is a bogus excuse
to impose the will of government on a free people.

Joe Fischer

Sure your last name isn't Limbaugh?

On Wed, 26 Nov 2003 22:15:39 -0600, Vector wrote:

Sure your last name isn't Limbaugh?

No, I am not a liberal.

Joe Fischer