Poll: How do Americans view change?

[RevRaptor]

So I was reading this article about how the USA is having major troubles storing a massive amount of dollar coins that they have to mint according to law but no one uses. Apparently the public has no idea what to do with the coins. They won't use them because they think the shops won't take them and shops won't use them because they are afraid the customers won't accept them and this is not the only example of such difficulty's. Like when the US government tried to introduce the metric system.

So I'm kinda curious, what is it about American's that makes you so resistant to change and what do you think of dollar coins?

As a citizen of NZ I've been through 6 major changes of currency, first we phased out the one and two cent pieces We replaced the paper bills with bills with little metal strips in them, then we phased out the one dollar note and brought in one and two dollar coins, then we replaced the paper notes with plastic ones and we also did away with the 5 cent piece, lastly we changed all our coins to smaller ones.
It really was no big deal and was very simple and easy. Yet in the USA the introduction of one dollar coins has lead to a massive and very silly problem.

link to article I was reading - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-10783019

 

[LobsterFeng]

I once got my change back from a vending machine with four dollar coins ( I put a $5 in) I didn't think anything of it, and when I bought some stuff at a store they accepted it with no weird looks. This was just a couple of months ago too.

 

[AlexNora]

I hate coins there noisy and heavy and leave a metallic scent on your hands that's tree strikes!

 

[viranimus]

Well thing of it is coin money is impractical. Its not out of fear of lack of usability. A perfect example in the US was the Sacajawea 1$ coins. In the early 2000s we saw vending machines set up to take them and they quickly fell out of use when, well we realized strippers had no where to put them (I kid I kid)

I think its more how a coin purse runs contrary to a wallet and with the way things like credit cards, receipts etc are paper/plastic & flat, they are more conducive to a billfold/wallet than a coin sack.

Perhaps we could have higher dollar amounts in coin format, like 50s or 100s, but having 1s as change is simply weighty and impractical.

Besides physical currency is sort of a dying form anyway in favor of credit/debit card transactions so its not as if were exactly adverse to modification of old methods.

 

[Mr. Grey]

By the sounds of it your country phased out your paper notes. While mine still produces them.

So really, it's a matter of familiarity than adaptation given that there's no reason for the latter. Plus those coins would be a ***** to fit in my wallet.

 

[AlexNora]

Well thing of it is coin money is impractical. Its not out of fear of lack of usability. A perfect example in the US was the Sacajawea 1$ coins. In the early 2000s we saw vending machines set up to take them and they quickly fell out of use when, well we realized strippers had no where to put them (I kid I kid)

I think its more how a coin purse runs contrary to a wallet and with the way things like credit cards, receipts etc are paper/plastic & flat, they are more conducive to a billfold/wallet than a coin sack.

Perhaps we could have higher dollar amounts in coin format, like 50s or 100s, but having 1s as change is simply weighty and impractical.

Besides physical currency is sort of a dying form anyway in favor of credit/debit card transactions.

i hate credit cards even more then coins

 

[Filiecs]

But...But...
Dollar coins are awesome!

 

[viranimus]

i hate credit cards even more

Really? Well to each their own. I personally cannot understand why anyone anywhere still writes checks and has their money tied up for 5-7 days at a time left to wonder if they kept your register accurate, but thats my own PoV. Honestly I couldnt live without cards.

 

[AlexNora]

i hate credit cards even more

Really? Well to each their own. I personally cannot understand why anyone anywhere still writes checks and has their money tied up for 5-7 days at a time left to wonder if they kept your register accurate, but thats my own PoV. Honestly I couldnt live without cards.

I don't like checks either I pay in cash whenever possible.

 

[RevRaptor]

Another kiwi. Love that we did away with the damn 5c coins. Btw we also had 1c & 2c but they went quite a while ago.
Also love that we shrunk coins (though I do still have a few old 50c coins just for the sole purpose of flipping like Two Face...)

Americans just tend to view any change as against GOD! The govt need to whip out a new version of the damn bible if they want to change anything.
What I dont get is why american dollars are all so similar. Would it really hurt them to change the colour and size of each amount to make it easier for folks?

Spoiler: Look how prettiful our monies is. And different sizes to help the blind.

LoL oops I totally forget to include them. I still remember the 1 and 2 cent coins from when I was a kid. Not that you could buy much with them even back then

 

[Merkavar]

lol the US mint actually makes $1 coins? and just stores them. that is stupid. change the law and stop minting coins that have no value.

i think we all need to get rid of plactic, paper, linen, metal currency and just have cards like credit cards but with out the security of a credit card. so you put money on it and can use it like a credit card, but no signing things or entering pins. no need to cancel it if it gets lost cause it doesnt have access to your bank account.

so essentially its cash money in the form of one card that you charge up. abit off topic.

Change is unamerican. Any change someone tries to bring in, no matter how beneficial is socialist or communist or un christian.

Spoiler: Look how prettiful our monies is. And different sizes to help the blind.

[/quote]

Spoiler: Aussie money is better

 

[Midnight Crossroads]

It's not an aversion to change, but an aversion to change which doesn't really offer much in practicality.

Dollar coins look too much like quarters or amusement park tokens. They're impractical to store in accordance with current American fashion. No one carries a change purse (especially men,) and many men just use clips for their money and cards now. It's ridiculous to carry around a pocket full of noisy coins.

My dad sometimes gives me a few because his company has a machine which dispenses them. I really don't see any benefit to them over paper money or my cards aside from vending machines being less likely to spit them out.

As for change in general? I don't like to carry it around. Pennies are the absolute worst. They're virtually worthless and take up too much space. I've just got into the habit of refusing any pennies which might come back with my change. Nickles and dimes aren't too much better, and quarters are alright for vending machines. It's embarrassing to buy something with change though, but sometimes I just have a lot of lying around. My car's ashtray is filled to the brim with the damn things.

I wish stores would commit to making their prices more likely to fall along clean lines. Getting prices like 4.96 is annoying. It doesn't help that few stores actually list the real price, but the price before taxes are applied.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

I hate dollar coins. They're massive and make your wallet fat as hell. There's a reason we've switched to paper currency, it's more convenient, so I really don't see why they keep the dollar coins around.

 

[LarenzoAOG]

Their are only 3 uses for coins in my book.

1- So a blind person can give the casheir 4 quarters without worrying if the one dollar bill he's giving is actually a hundred.

2- So you don't waste any real money when your friends ask for gas money for driving you around.

3- For putting a bunch of pennies in a sock and defending yourself from robbers.

 

[arsenicCatnip]

It's not an aversion to change, but an aversion to change which doesn't really offer much in practicality.

Dollar coins aren't practical for certain businesses either. When I get dollar coins in my till at work, I swap them out for bills from the tip jar because they're not countable by the machine my bosses use to count down the tills at night. They always use the machines, so it's impractical to keep the coins in a till and it throws off the count if they're in a hurry. At least with the tip jar, the bank counts it and gives us back paper money which folds and lies flat.

 

[orangeapples]

I always saw dollar coins to be some rich people thing. probably because of Scrooge McDuck. paper bills just fit nicely in a wallet and we don't have to carry around a change pouch. When we get change it disappears into a mysterious void that only opens for us to throw more money into or when we are desperate and need to take money out. It's kinda like an emergency bank I know that one day I won't have any paper money but I will know I've got at least $5 is change floating around at almost any given time and depending on the last time I had to go to the void to get money for toothpaste or food or something, I could have almost $12. Some people don't make a withdrawal from the bank of void until the 5 gallon jug is full. Those people have an entire minimum wage worker's 2 months pay sitting in a jug for emergencies.

Few years ago my cousin had a 5 gallon jug full. That was awesome. He had his job for quite some time and decided he was going to cash in his emergency money. Turns out he had enough for the PS3 (original $600) and a few games (what few games there were), bunch of PS2 games, an extra controller, all of the PS3 accessories to convert save files form the memory cards to the PS3 drive, lunch for us and pizza for dinner and still had enough leftover to put in the bank. Then he started the jug all over again.

too bad the jug takes years to fill.

[edit]

and for the stripper thing.

Some of us have practice from the "insert coin" system of the old arcades. put 4 quarters in there in a single motion. Don't even have to check to make sure they're in properly.

And that has got to be the worst thing I have ever typed.

 

[Neverhoodian]

CHAAAAAANGE! Ya got CHAAAAAANGE?!

Spoiler

I don't have a problem with dollar coins per se, it's just that the ones that have been minted are pretty much the same size as the quarter, leading to some confusion at times. Also, carrying around a bunch of coins can be a bit inconvenient, especially since I use a wallet instead of a coin purse.

I do wish that we would have color-coordinated paper bills though. All those greenbacks start to blur together after a while.

 

[Ogargd]

I'm sorry but the last answer is clearly the only one worth choosing. I'm Australian and personally I think the idea of 1 dollar notes is bizarre and I couldn't imagine not having 1 dollar as a coin.

 

[Kapol]

I like dollar coins to a degree. For vending machines, I'd much rather get back dollar coins rather then 10 dimes, or 20 nickles, as I normally seem to. But the problem is that coins don't work well with wallets. I can store hundreds of dollars in my wallet, but coins ruin everything in it. Carrying coins in my pocket is similarly annoying, as then you jingle with each step. Not to mention how dirty and heavy coins are.

So really, it's less about being different and more about how practical it all is.