DailyDirt: Cool Coins, Unpopular Coins…
from the urls-we-dig-up dept
While digital forms of payment are becoming increasingly popular, cash probably isn’t going away anytime soon, and a lot of people still like to collect coins. For the amateur numismatists out there, here are just a few interesting coin stories.
- New Zealand is minting a series of coins with Hobbit characters on them — with the most expensive Hobbit coin made of about 28 grams of gold. The coins will be legal tender, but they’ll probably be hoarded by Hobbit fans and coins collectors for being preciousss. [url]
- The Royal Canadian Mint has a glow-in-the-dark quarter with a dinosaur on it. Canada killed its penny, but collectible glowing coins apparently have a bright future up north…. [url]
- A 1909 Lincoln penny is on Mars, as part of the Mars Hand Lens Imager (MAHLI) instrument on the Curiosity rover. This penny will serve as a calibration target, and it’s probably the most valuable penny in the universe. [url]
- The US GAO recommends replacing dollar bills with dollar coins — even though dollar coins are a hugely unpopular with people who actually spend American money. The US Treasury had to stop minting a lot of dollar coins last year because it had such a ridiculous surplus of dollar coins that weren’t making it into general circulation. If only people would use dollar coins, the government could save a bit of money when it makes money. [url]
If you’d like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post.
Filed Under: canada, coins, collectors, dinosaurs, dollar coin, glow-in-the-dark, hobbit, mars, new zealand, numismatists, penny
Comments on “DailyDirt: Cool Coins, Unpopular Coins…”
I like coins...
I put them in bags until I have a lot, then I exchange them for paper money.
I hate coins. I hate paying in cash and getting a handful of coins that I have to carry in my pocket. The second I get home they go in a bucket until the bucket is full….then it goes to the bank.
I hate coins.
Don’t give me more, bigger, heavier coins.
Find a way to make paper money cheaper to produce or longer lasting.
Coins suck.
More NFC please!!!
Re: Re:
except when just 3 coins will buy you a lunch and a coffee
and your coin jar is worth a couple hundred dollars CASH, when you take it to a bank.
Re: Re:
The argument for dollar coins in the US is based on a faulty premise: That they’ll be in circulation for enough time above dollar bills that they’re worth the added expense to make.
Listen to the Planet Money episode:
http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2012/11/30/166253822/episode-364-should-we-kill-the-dollar-bill
Our dollar bills are already cheaper to produce than coins, and longer-lasting than the small notes that all the other countries used to have. Switching to dollar coins is a bad idea for us, even if it made sense for other countries.
Re: Re:
If you hate coins so much and don’t want to carry them in your pocket, maybe you should put them in a Salvation Army kettle.
canadian govt is just mental
nuff said they shuld put harpers head on the 1 dollar coin formerly known as the looney
Dollar bills are like national health care.
Debate me! Blarglefargle!
/madeyoulook 😉
We’ve had $1 & $2 coins for years and years. They really aren’t that bad.
Re: Re:
Loonies and Toonies? Just guessing you’re Canadian. Could be wrong. 🙂
Re: Re: Re:
wrong, Australia…
Re: Re: Re: Re:
Nope, from NZ 😉
Admit it, you Americans are just afraid of change.
Re: Re:
+10
sure are!
What's a coin?
All this currency crap is a waste. Just use your M2 debit card. Really simplifies poker.
The US GAO recommends replacing dollar bills with dollar coins — even though dollar coins are a hugely unpopular with people who actually spend American money.
yea, obviously !!!!
you would not use dollar coins if you don’t have any dollar coins, in countries that do have $1 coins they are super popular.
they were not considered bad when they were first introduced either, you were just told that on a certain date coins would be issued. and you could convert your notes for coins at a bank.
they are heaps better, and your coin box really does build up value.
Australia has what is considered the best money in the world, you simply cannot counterfeit our notes, or tear them up.
and we have $1 and $2 dollar coins and have had them for probably over 20 years.
You Americans seem very slow in catching up.
“Australia was the first country in the world to have a complete system of bank notes made from plastic (polymer). These notes provide much greater security against counterfeiting. They also last four times as long as conventional paper (fibrous) notes.”
Dollar coins, but fewer coins in your pocket anyway
Dollar coins are economical. Pennies (and arguably nickels and even dimes) are uneconomical and pointless — we abolished the half-cent coin when its purchasing power was greater than that of a present-day dime.
(see C.G.P. Grey’s charming video advocating the abolition of pennies at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5UT04p5f7U)
To do it right, besides stopping production of one dollar notes, ramping up production of dollar coins, and abolishing pennies and nickels and adding rounding lines to all cash transactions, we need to introduce a two dollar coin.