this post was submitted on 22 May 2025
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[–] empireOfLove2@lemmy.dbzer0.com 39 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (4 children)

The problem is you can't get rid of nickles without getting rid of either quarters or dimes too. Without nickles you would have a denomination (25c) that has no way to be made by lower coins (10c dimes can't equal 25c). So you either need to get rid of every coin, every coin except the quarter, or nuke the quarter and nickle concurrently and only use dimes, forcing prices to be multiples of 10.

[–] NobodyElse@sh.itjust.works 13 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Why do you need to be able to make every denomination from every other one?

[–] IamSparticles@lemmy.zip 19 points 1 day ago (1 children)

That isn't the specific problem. The problem is that you need a way to make up the difference between them. Example: If someone pays $1.00 for something that costs $0.35, how do you make change without a .05 denomination?

[–] Pyr_Pressure@lemmy.ca 16 points 1 day ago (2 children)

It's the same issue with the penny, you round up or round down.

If you have no penny, when taxes on your item make the total equal to $5.03, you pay $5.05. if the total is $5.02 you pay $5.00.

[–] HowAbt2morrow@futurology.today 13 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Turn the dime into 12.5 cents.

[–] rc__buggy@sh.itjust.works 13 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

Bring back the bit!

The more I think about it, the more I like it:

  • Eliminate the Penny, Nickel, and Dime
  • Bring back Old West nomenclature
  • IT'S AMERICAN AS FUCK!
  • Will drive the metric nerds absolutely batshit. "Of course we have an eighth* of a dollar, why would we use decimal?!"

* I think just the spelling of eighth will spin eurotrash into a tizzy

[–] Archer@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago

The problem with this proposal is that it could start circulating on Xitter and then become actual policy

[–] IamSparticles@lemmy.zip 1 points 1 day ago

Sure, but the rounding errors become a lot bigger if you get rid of the nickel.

[–] CarbonIceDragon@pawb.social 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Suppose you want to buy something that costs a quarter, and what you have is 3 dimes. If there isnt a 5 cent coin, this creates a situation where you have enough money, but making exact change isnt possible, which while not impossible to deal with is bothersome. If we moved to only dimes and no quarters or nickels, it would never make sense to make a price end in 5 cents, so any price would be a multiple of 10 cents and change can always be made. Alternatively, if you get rid of dimes and nickels but keep quarters, then it doesnt make sense to charge a price ending in something other than .00, .25, .50, or .75, and so you can always make change for those prices with the coins one would have.

[–] zkfcfbzr@lemmy.world 12 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Literally none of this matters anyways if pennies are going, because making prices end in certain amounts won't work as nice in practice as it does here for the simple reason that US prices almost never include taxes.

[–] CarbonIceDragon@pawb.social 4 points 1 day ago

I mean, presumably fractions of a dollar still exist as a concept even if the coins don't, so if you're selling something that someone might buy in cash, one could just set the sticker price so that the final price plus tax ends up as a round number, essentially including tax when deciding on price and then taking it out again when making the labels, if one wanted to do that.

[–] someguy3@lemmy.world 5 points 1 day ago

Replace the quarter with a 20¢ piece. Then you can keep getting rid of the lowest coin.

[–] Semi_Hemi_Demigod@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Just use dimes and half dollars

[–] errer@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Unfortunately half dollars are comically large

[–] the_crotch@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 day ago

They don't have to be. The old silver dollar coin was huge, but the sacagawea dollar coin is no bigger than a quarter

[–] Yawweee877h444@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Why's it a bad idea to get rid of coins at this point anyway. What can you still buy that is a fraction of a dollar that actually matters? Anything that cheap can just be sold in multiples that amount to even dollar amounts.

Getting rid of coins and rounding to nearest dollar sounds great to me but I don't know what the drawbacks are.

[–] mister_flibble@lemm.ee 7 points 1 day ago

There's still some edge cases floating around. Some laundromats, parking meters, using a shopping cart at Aldi, older vending machines, bottle deposits, probably a few more but that's off the top of my head.

[–] RowRowRowYourBot@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

"Getting rid of coins and rounding to nearest dollar sounds great to me but I don’t know what the drawbacks are."

I just want to thank you for having the best analysis that I will see today. You are correct that this would be bad and it is nice to see that you understand that you might not see this.

We would be screwing the poorest very hard by making everything round up. Should we have the person literally counting pennies suffer because you want fewer coins in your pocket or because the "it costs more to make than it's worth" people are too daft to get that we use pennies many times over?