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The last-ever penny will be minted today in Philadelphia

(www.cnn.com)
334 points andrewl | 4 comments | 12 Nov 25 16:10 UTC | HN request time: 0.236s | source
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Analemma_ ◴[12 Nov 25 16:23 UTC] No.45902070[source]▶
Honestly nickels and dimes, and maybe even quarters, should go too. It's ridiculous that we don't have $1 and $2 coins in widespread circulation in the US (we have a $1 coin but nobody uses it).
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basscomm ◴[12 Nov 25 16:36 UTC] No.45902226[source]▶
We also have a $2 bill that nobody uses for whatever reason.

I never understood the objections to the $1 coin, especially after the redesign to make it more distinct from a quarter. $1 coins are great for buying stuff out of vending machines since you don't have to fight with a dodgy bill acceptor or a mangled bill.

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orangecat ◴[12 Nov 25 16:52 UTC] No.45902443[source]▶
Yeah. My proposal would be to have 10 cent, 50 cent, and $1 coins (rounding everything to the nearest 10 cents), with $2 the smallest bill. And probably you could drop the $5 bill at that point.
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1. ianferrel ◴[12 Nov 25 17:02 UTC] No.45902607[source]▶
There's a lot of physical infrastructure that works with quarters, and it's probably not worth giving that up for slightly improved coinage. Just drop all the coins smaller than a quarter.
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2. basscomm ◴[12 Nov 25 17:42 UTC] No.45903143[source]▶
That only works if you completely reconfigure sales tax
3. orangecat ◴[12 Nov 25 18:58 UTC] No.45904387[source]▶
There's a lot of physical infrastructure that works with quarters

Very good point and I think I'm convinced.

4. toast0 ◴[12 Nov 25 20:24 UTC] No.45906008[source]▶
There's also the 3rd amendment. It would be worthless to say soldiers can't demand change for the vending machine, when nobody at all can get quarters.