Canada, we really have monopoly money now...

[SpAc3man]

Australia has had polymer notes in general circulation since '92 and here in New Zealand we have had them since '99. About time you lot got with the times. Now we just need the US to switch to polymer and get rid of their 1 cent coin.

Pennies have a valid place in our currency. That's why we keep the damned things around despite them nearly costing more than they're worth. Wonder what metals they'll switch to next once the current alloy starts costing more than a cent per penny to produce...

The US 1 cent piece already costs 1.79 cents to make. Too many Americans don't like it when things change which prevents the US government from doing something about it.

EDIT: New Zealand's lowest value coin is the 10 cent. We got rid of the 5 cent piece in 2006 and the 1 and 2 cent pieces in 1990. The reason being they had little value compared to when they were introduced so there was no point having them any more. Most retailers have prices to the nearest 10 cents or round the price to the nearest 10 cents when paying cash. All supermarkets round down.

 

[Mekado]

Plastic money is used in Australia and other places as mentioned before. To my knowledge it's partially so the humidity wont ruin the notes.

Well, up here there's not that much humidity but yeah the plastic bills can withstand the "wear and tear" much better than paper money, Bank of Canada says 5 times the paper bill lifetime.

So Canadians can't show me the green?

Aw

(It's weird that people have experienced counterfeiting before, never had a bill rejected)

~American

Well, the 20$ bill is green

 

[Some_weirdGuy]

On a side note -- I had heard that the government here in the US was threatening to release yet another $1 coin in an attempt to get rid of $1 bills altogether. That's wonderful. While they're at it, I wonder if they could (a) PLEASE try not to make them look almost exactly like quarters (AGAIN!) this time around, and (b) get rid of the damn pennies? >_<

So what happens when you pay cash for a total of $4.48? Do you just eat the two cents? Does the retailer eat three?

Heaven forbid its rounded to the nearest reasonable value?

For Australia we have:
In coins:
5c, 10c, 20c, 50c, $1, $2
and bills:
5$, 10$, 20$, $50, $100

which I think is a fairly sensible set up.

If we pay $4.48 it gets rounded to 4.50.
If we pay 4.47, it gets rounded to 4.45.

you 'win' some, you 'lose' some. Our currency range gives you enough freedom, without going over the top splitting hairs and added redundant values (like $30, or 70c, or 1 and 2 cents)

You could even argue that 5c isn't necessary, and that it could be rounded to the nearest ten. (though I wouldn't push it further than that)

Its kinda silly to cling to tiny values in coins. Is there even anything that costs 1 or 2 cents?

 

[Dr.Susse]

I've had the plastic notes all my life. (Australian)

All I can say about it is you'll love it when the washing machine doesn't kill pocket money any more.

 

[Powereaver]

i always thought the european euro's looked fake or a hippie came up with the colours after seeing them the few times its like WHOA SO BRIGHT!

 

[infohippie]

You could even argue that 5c isn't necessary, and that it could be rounded to the nearest ten. (though I wouldn't push it further than that)

And an awful lot of vending machines don't accept 5c coins any more, so I find them building up unspent. It wouldn't surprise me if we did get rid of them before too much longer.

 

[Legit101]

................

 

[enzilewulf]

Am I the only one who thinks thats ducking awesome? I mean I've grown up with green backs my whole life. I want some colorful moneys! With transparent windows in them! and secret codes!

 

[Prince Regent]

Monopoly or not, I think your new money looks awesome. ^^

 

[88chaz88]

Clearly you're not from Calgary. They've had their own plastic notes for a while now.

 

[chstens]

To be honest, I think the "bias against coloured and/or plastic money" is childish. It's easier to differentiate bills if they're coloured.

 

[Aurgelmir]

why is it always Canadian money that's compared to monopoly?

Because the US is probably the only country in the world who thought having all their bills the same size and color was a cool thing. But in Monopoly there are colored money

Canada is next to the US, and the foreign country the US has the most contact with, ergo the Americans see color on money and think "hey just like monopoly".

So it is just association by proximity I think.

PS: I like colored money, makes it easier to see what moneys you have.

 

[Waaghpowa]

Ok, kind of makes sense, but since the difference is half a centimeter between each, its hard to see how someone could tell them apart without the other bills there.
maybe its technique... *goes off to play with his bills.*

Bear in mind that people who are blind tend to have their other senses amplified, they can feel the minute difference.

Not every vision impaired person is Daredevil you know.

Well yeah, but if you couldn't see you would probably learn to compensate. Have you ever tried to feel the difference in brail letters, I can't tell the difference yet blind people can.

 

[VladG]

We've had plastic money here too for quite some time, and I must say It's awesome. Every time I have to handle Euro bills I get really pissed off at how fragile they are.

Plastic money doesn't rip, get damaged by water (or a lot of other substances in fact, since you can wash them off if you, for example, spill ink all over them), you can basically shove a fistful of bills in your pocket without having to worry about pulling out only fragments, they say they are much harder to counterfeit, and they seem to have a longer lifespan than paper money (and by that I mean the time an average bill can be in circulation before it deteriorates past the point of being usable). Other than that, they handle exactly like paper money.

As for the "monopoly money", well, it's much more useful to have different sizes and colors, since it makes differentiating the money that much easier. I never read the number on the bill, I just recognize them by color. Also I think very few countries actually have monochrome money (Except for the US, and that's probably where all of this is coming from)


Honestly I'm very much surprised that so few countries use them.

 

[EricKei]

If we pay $4.48 it gets rounded to 4.50.
If we pay 4.47, it gets rounded to 4.45.

you 'win' some, you 'lose' some. Our currency range gives you enough freedom, without going over the top splitting hairs and added redundant values (like $30, or 70c, or 1 and 2 cents)

This is exactly what I had in mind; I would think that, most of the time, things will even out, or at least be close enough not to matter. Even if they always round up, it's a little bit more tax revenue for the locality/state. I'd rather it go there than into my coin jar, to be dumped into the CoinStar machine (at a 8.5% loss, no less!), giving me enough money to buy two whole gallons of milk once a year.... On small purchases, say, $10 or less, the "rounding loss" is only marginally noticeable. On large ones, such as, say, the cost of a videogame, it's not even noteworthy. I don't think nickels will last much longer than pennies, either, should the government ever get around to dropping them. Might as well kill two birds with one stone.

US pennies have cost more than one cent to make -- it's been that way for a loooooong time -- the earlier poster has the details.

 

[Wintermoot]

they look really cool kinda like future money.

 

[Nalgas D. Lemur]

I don't see the problem with plasticised money personally. Aussies have had it a long, long time, though I always thought that was so it didn't get messed up when you went to the beach. As for US currency, it's ridiculous. All the same colour, all the same size. Got to be tough on blind people.

Also, there are good safety reasons not to stand around anywhere with a bundle of currency trying to work out the denomination of the notes you're holding, many of which apply to large swathes of the US.

It's amazing how resistant people here are to change of any kind when it comes to money, so we only get minor adjustments once in a while that are minimally effective. We desperately need to stop pretending that it's a good idea to stick with the same old crap and switch to something modern, but there's an enormous outcry when anyone even talks about minor changes to the layout, much less different sizes and colors and materials. By the time we have plastic bills and dollar coins and get rid of pennies, it'll probably be because no one cares anymore because they don't pay for anything with cash at that point, not because they came to their senses. Heh.