Pieces o' Eight

Arghh matey! Me's got myself a bag full of pieces o' eight just nigh screamin' to be spent on rum! Treasure, aye, that's what me calls these beautiful little shiners.

Ooh I just shiver my timbers to think about it - coins! Practically worthless these days, coins still get me excited when I find them all jumbled up. The heavier my purse is laden down with change, the happier I am. And, accountant that I am, they make me even happier when they are properly sorted. I love to store them in bags reminiscent of old-time leather purses (not just for women!) and those $$ bags you saw in old cartoons.

When I was in Europe I marveled at the abundance of coins. Both 1 and 2 (and maybe even 5 and 10) euro coins circulated freely. And, because I couldn't use my credit card very often because over overseas fees, I loved to transact in them. I have always liked to break my denominations down - whether it is giving a $20 for a $4 item or a $10 for a $1.80 item, I like to use up the biggest bills first. And this practice in Spain helped me break up my silly paper euros into glittering gold and silver coins.

There was a drawback. Not one to wear a purse back then, my pockets were many times heavy laden with the jingling currency. But it was worth it to reach my hand into my pocket and pull out a handful of treasure! The only sad part was that these euros represented about $1.20 each, and as such all but a few souvenir pieces had to be spent or turned back into American money before going home. So I handed in my beautiful pieces of eight to be given back a floppy, dirty piece of paper and two tiny dimes. Click clack.

Now back in the States (for many years, in case you were wondering - my Spain trip was in 2003) I mostly use my credit card - it gives me that 1 - 5% cashback discount that we happy few who pay our bill monthly so do love to see. I'm not going to lie, plastic is fun. It feels so grown up. So futuristic. And kind of silly - like being tickled - to hand someone a worthless plastic card and then make out with all kinds of treasure from their store. I feel a little mischievous.

But, to be true, my eyes glittered like the sun on the sea when I read an article the other day that combined two topics dear to my heart - cost savings and coinage. Yes, it said that the United States could save half a billion dollars (every year?) if we stopped printing paper money (well, paper $1's) and instead traded in dollar coinage. The article made perfect sense to me - bills are much more fragile and wear down easier, wheras coins last almost forever. Consumers, the article said, do not respond well to coin money. I hear them. Whenever the government issues new coins, my first impulse is to hoard. My precious! How pretty all those little Susan B. Anthony dollars look on top of a pile of quarters. How shiny are those indian dollars! Pretty pretty pretty. My motive may be different than other Americans - when I have a chance to spend a dollar and must choose between the bill and the coin, it is going to be the bill because I am holding on to that coin! But if they took the bills away (or stopped printing them and eventually let them run out) one of two things could happen. I could either start hoarding the bills (see the historic $1 bill!). Or I would spend the coins because they were less novel. Either way, the coins would be spent.

I think it's a good idea. This is one situation (a very rare one) in which I think we should follow Europe's and Canada's example and go metallic! We can issue $1, $2, and $5 coins! Little schoolchildren would love us.

Now, there is one other drawback, other than consumer response (and not having enough change receptacles in the standard cash register for these coins). That is, of course, the increasing trend towards a cashless society. As I said, I put every transaction I can on plastic. I do this because I know I am responsible with my money and will not go into huge debt or spend more than I meant to. (I say this because most money advice books tell you to use cash so you can see and feel exactly how much you are spending). And there are transactions that I cannot but use my credit card, such as purchases on the internet. My cafeteria has gone cashless in order to "speed things up." Checks are becoming a thing of the past as money transfers pay most bills and many vendors don't want to deal with the possibility of a bounced check (cash, debit, and credit are all more secure from the store's perspective). It seems to me that cash is on the verge of being outdated - something we give to children to teach them about money, or something we transfer between ourselves since most of us don't come equipped with credit card machines.

So, although I would like to once again feel my pockets laden down with coins that actually amount to something, I feel the trend in America today is one that should be followed. We can probably generate as much cost savings through the gradual phasing out of cash altogether than to begin a new coin pressing project that will spend what we saved on paper bills in the start up costs to get going. Let American capitalism determine the capital!