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Great metaphor for the inefficiency and irrationality of the government thought process. Who hasn't been stuck behind the old lady that insists on paying with exact change after using several coupons?
The opportunity cost of utilizing pennies far out-weighs the benefits.
I believe that the same is true for the nickel and even the dime. In fact I think the lowest denomination coin that isn't minted at loss is the quarter. Honestly, we could probably do without metal coins altogether. They're heavy, expensive, and wasteful. There aren't many things you can buy for less than a dollar anyway, so I don't see much use in dividing a single dollar into near worthless fractions which tend to get lost between couch cushions or eternally stowed in glove-boxes.
But since we've waited so long to do it, it won't be easy to phase them out. There's a lot of existing machinery and infrastructure which rely partially or completely on coins -- parking meters, laundromats, public transportation, etc. So perhaps a good intermediate step would be to cease minting every coin except the quarter, which is really the only useful coin in circulation anyway.
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Quarter? I guess you haven't heard of the presidential dollar coins. We're up to President Garfield!
https://www.npr.org/2011/06/28/137394348/-1-billion-that-nob...
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thenewgreen · 4733 days ago · link ·
Great... when China comes calling for what we owe them, we can start by dumping a billion dollars worth of presidential coins at their doorstep.
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