Exiled in Express

seigniorage is the correct spelling. I only had to Google 3 times to find it.

tjbrooks

Yes it is, and according to the GAO, taking seigniorage into account is the ONLY way the dollar coins can actually save money.
The $5B savings over 30 years is accounting magic. Another nice quote from the GAO report?
It looks like a new poorly researched article has hit a major syndicator, promising billions in savings, when those savings are questionable at best, and it packs a front-loaded cost of ~$1B over the first five years. God forbid they link to the report, or confuse people with the term "seigniorage".

JohnnyColombia

As a frequent visitor to the USA can I suggest some other improvements too so as not to confuse the tourists?

1) Call your Nickel a 5 cents coin please and make it smaller than a dime for god's sake
2) Call your dime a 10 cents coin, write 10 CENTS on it and make it bigger than a nickel
3) Abolish the quarter, it is proven that the fewest number of coins required to make up any sum are 0.01, 0.02, 0.05, 0.10, 0.20, 0.50, 1, 2, 5 etc.
4) Intruduce the 20 cents coin
5) See 3, introduce the $2 coin too
6) Not hard really, but please try and make your paper money not look all the same too. How about some different sizes and colours please?

Marathon Man

I feel your pain I really do, but here are two secrets to the USA being so wealthy:

1) quarters ARE the most valuable currency and are found in abundance in nearly everyone's car and in every college student's dorm room - or, should I say, everyone hopes they have enough on hand. Why? Because every city parking meter and every laundry machine takes them. This is changing so some take dollar coins or even credit cards, but I would say 90% take them.

2) The confusing money and same sized/coloured currency is that way to, well, confuse everyone world wide. Sorta like the standard measure vs metric thing.

Confuse people into submission.
Simple.

I will of course agree that the English invented time. We did everything else

MM

JohnnyColombia

Re the quarters, I am sure the confused visitors wouldn't mind if the new 20˘ coin were the same size as a quarter so that it still worked in vending machines for a transitional and unworkable period.

Whilst I am inclined to agree that most things in the USA are bigger and better. Whilst we are on the subject, what are those "16oz hairdressers' pints" that are consumed in the USA? At what point did one of the pilgrims say "hmmm that beer was delicious, but there was simply 4oz too much of it?"

The ramifications are of course widespread, given that there are 8 lady pints in a US gallon and 8 man pints in an imperial gallon, it makes it virtually impossible to compare the prices of industrial sealants

Marathon Man

You would have to refit every machine.
That's a lot of money wasted

as for the pint, yah I agree mate with that one

Ambraciot

$.26? A $.20 coin is not intrinsically more efficient than the current $.25 coin. Adding a $.02 coin would reduce the number of coins required for some combinations, but adding another coin worth so little seems ill advised. The $.01 cent coin was on its way out before the great depression in the 1930s, as soon as we are out of the current slump it will be gone.

DCBob

And when is the current slump going to end? Probably in 5-10 years. And no, the 1 cent coin is not going away, just like the metric system is not going to be adopted fully in the United States (though it's been predicted since the 70's). This is not Australia. Even Canada and the UK still have 1 cent and 1 penny coins, respectively. And we surely know American politicians are even more resistant to implementing common sense changes.

JohnnyColombia

Not at all, you could simply devalue the quarter by 20% in the same way the pint was devalued by 20%

JohnnyColombia

Sorry "any sum" was a stupid thing to say, of course 25˘ can be easily made up of one quarter rather than a 20˘ and a "nickel"

I am sure someone figured this out but I am not mathematician. One does wonder though why there is no $25 note

oliver2002

Considering the inflation thats coming, the dime could quickly rechristened to be worth a dollar, the quarter 5$ and a dollar coin 10$ @:-)

That would drive acceptance...

opus2002

In fact, we should have $5, $10, $20, $50 and $100 coins. Imagine, carrying them would be a lot easier, than rolls of $1 coins.

fti

LOL. You do know that John Kerry supports keeping the $1 bill, don't you? Of course it is mainly political - the paper is manufactured in his home state.

bowdenj

Letter sent to Senator (Lugar/Coats)/Congressman (Carson):

I'm in a bit of shock that the Congress may actually do something that makes sense:

Getting rid of the dollar bill and replacing it with the dollar coin.

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/business...s-5-6-billion/

[I maybe pushing my luck thinking Congress will do something right - but I'll venture to say next up: get rid of the penny (I know, I know, I'm pushing my luck in thinking Congress will do something that makes sense)]

benmaller

Here are the details:

Current (.01,.05,.1,.25):
Total coins required to make all amounts between 0.01 and 0.99 = 470
Max coins required to make any given amount: 9

Suggested (.01,.05,.1,.2)
Total coins required to make all amounts between 0.01 and 0.99 = 500
Max coins required to make any given amount: 10

Number of amounts better in suggested case: 10
Number of amounts worse in suggested case: 35

The current system is more efficient.