New Dollar Coins- Potential Effect on SC Experience
minnow
Any place that interests me.
With the new presidential dollar coins coming out in Feb2007, what are your thoughts on it? If (admitedly a big IF) the coins supplant the paper 1$ bills (30 yr life vs 2 yrs, resp.), what effect would that have on tipping? Could it lead to swiping credit card in kiosk, and "designating" tips for stage dancers, thus making experience somewhat depersonalized? Would that lead to stressing high $$ LD's only at the expense of other aspects of the club experience? Maybe an increase in $2 circulation, and thus "expected tip"? Myself, and many others, could list many "reasons" why new coin won't gain common acceptance. Yet, consider that 1$ today has as much relevance as 2 qtrs had in the early 80's, and 2 dimes in 1970. So, what burden a single coin?
40 comments
$1000 -- Larry Flynt
$500 -- Hugh Hefner
$100 -- Belle Star (fondling Earl Long)
$50 -- Gypsy Rose Lee
$40 (a new denomination) -- Bob Guccione
$20 -- Mata Hari
$10 -- Nina Hartley, Linda Lovelace, Amber Lynn, Ginger Lynn, Annie Sprinkle, and others: collector's series
$5 -- the Sybian riding-vibrator device
$2 -- a pair of breasts
$1 -- Stevie Wonder
The most interesting challenge for the Engraving Office, will be the hologram security feature that makes the breasts on the $2 seem to jiggle when you turn the bill sideways, even though the combined images on the bill are obviously photographs of saline-enhanced breasts that would never jiggle in real life.
Each bill's obverse will include the immortal motto, "Vidi Vici Veni" (I saw, I conquered, I came) right next to "De Plenibus Unum" (Down From Plenty, One -- refers to wallet contents). The eye in the pyramid will be replaced by a disco-glitter-ball atop a chrome pole, and various models of couch, stool, chair, and bed will be featured as the central image. All serial numbers must include the digits "69" in them.
Finally, the bills will cost the direct amount ($1000 US for one Larry Flynt) and will exchange normally for any attractive female (2 $40s and a $20 for each $100, etc.) but when butt-ugly hairy older men take them to a bank, we get double the value each -- one Larry Flynt for $2000 US. :)
I personally prefer a readily accessible dollar-coin -- I'm familiar with how useful (for example) the British one-pound-coin was, despite ready availability of equivalently valued one-pound-notes, and at the time the buying power of the British Pound was in the same ballpark as that of the USA Dollar. I realize some of the detriments to a USA dollar-coin, that would annoy people whose usual method of cash storage is just, "cram it in yer pocket," and might even tempt them to undervalue, psychologically, the USA dollar merely because it is made of something "transient" (a coin) rather than something that generally used to seem more "official" or "permanent" to them (a bill).
But that's silly-thought. It's allowing unfounded psychological impulses to make monetary decisions, rather than thinking with the big head. We don't do that here. :)
My point though was that if $1 coins actually break the previous barriers and are successful this go around then the clubs might take a different tune to Funny Money. Think about it... the difference between flipping a coin on the stage and a dancer walking around like a pirate with a bag full of "Booty" vs. collecting funny money. The "ease of use" would likely be worth it on it's own.
I'll tell ya one thing, if they didn't I'd be sure to bring in coins by the tonage and sprinkle them all over the place until it got annoying enough that everyone figured out a solution. :)
The strip club's funny money had the advantage of letting businessmen hide their expenses, by offering varous receipts for the cash that faked what you were getting. If you gave them $100 cash, they'd give you three receipts for random amounts for flowers, or dinner, or shoe shines, or something. Also, if you wanted, you could use a credit card to get club money, thus again hiding the expense.
I think plenty of clubs have now allowed credit card purchases, because they can up the price with a ridiculous premium, as much as 20%, for a cash advance. This is a blip in the financial history of plastic use, I think, since ATMs have become all but ubiquitous, especially those internet-connected third-party ones like at gas stations and, ahem, in strip clubs.
The thing is, I didn't like using the funny money at the strip club. The biggest disadvantage was, that you were "socked in" to a minimum purchase after you'd made your exchange, since it wasn't made very easy at all to exchange back. So, if you got, say, $500 in club money, and then managed to enjoy spending $350 of it through the evening, what do you do with the remaining $150? Hide it in your wife's lingerie drawer? NOT!
Playing devils advocate for a moment, the easiest and fastest thing I believe clubs would do is to issue "funny money" that they tip the girls with in which the girls exchange for real money at the end of th evening.
There is actually an advantage here because "funny money" doesn't feel the same to a person as REAL money so the tendency to spend MORE is higher.
Would I use it? Maybe. I could go either way since having dollar bills isn't that much of a burden to me. But it would drastically change my stripclubbing. I stage-tip a lot, and if for some reason the U.S. government removed all dollar bills from circulation immediately, I'd probably stop tipping. I don't want to be cheap, but I really don't want to be told how much money to tip a girl, especially through passive-aggressive means, let alone because the government did something.
How about this, assuming it hasn't been brought up yet: I read an article that the two-dollar bill is getting used again. One of the hot areas of its use: strip clubs. They dispense it in change. How would you react? Me, that'd piss me off. Instead of tipping a dollar a dance, I'd just step up to the rail, give her a two, then walk back to my table -- off the rail, of course.
People collect "Canadian Tire Money" in Canada. It's a set of rather elaborate savings certificates issued by one of the largest hardware / sporting / automotive chains in the country, "Canadian Tire." The money comes in multiple denominations (.50 cents, dollar, two dollars, etc.) and nerdier folks (the Great White North's version of train spotters) actually collect and frame their series. The bills are redeemable at roughly 10% of their face value, depending on the sale that's going on.
Silly people up there. And they have polar bear outbreaks right smack downtown in midwinter Montreal and Toronto. Plus, it's awful hard to get the subway to run straight up to the igloos where the bankers are trying to do business. Never mind that, though; the outdoor ice sculpture contests bring in big tourism dollars.
As far as the rest of society, most everyone I know under 40 or so never carries any cash anyway, they pay for everything with their debit or credit cards. The $1 coin would probably accelerate that trend, which would probably increase efficiency. I don't really see any downside to the new coins.
One other upside that no one has mentioned, at least for our government. People are going to collect the new coins just like they do the state quarters. So a lot of the coins will immediately be taken out of circulation and hoarded. So the government makes money by selling coins that are never used, which is like an interest-free loan to them. Just like the Post Office, which has been successfully playing the same game for many years.
Personally, I rarely stage-tip. The only time that I do so, is when I spot a girl on the stage that I wish to get some private playtime with. If/when that happens, I am usually going to stuff a fin, rather than just a $1 bill because I'm trying to ensure that she will come visit me when her stage performance if over.
As for the $1 dances when the girls go around the room, I normally do not partake in that, either, unless I am really attracted to her. Again, if I get a $1 and it's enjoyable, I will typically give her a five spot.
Lastly, I think there is a positive. I do not like when girls go around the room asking "are you tipping?", after their turn on the stage. It's usually easier to just pull out the $1 and tuck it, rather than come up with an excuse for not tipping, however if I no longer have $1 bills, I will have a good excuse.. "No, sorry, I don't have any $1 coins - I don't like to carry them"
Stage tipping with coins can work, as Canada demonstrates, it's just a lot less appealing. If $2 bills were retained, I could live with that as the standard tip. Inflation is making a $1 tip seem flimsy anyway. Aside from strip clubs, I don't feel strongly about the issue.
I was asking more universally, how would the change (or lack thereof) be justified among transactions across American society? For me, it would be six of one, half-dozen of the other. And my general query, is addressed at the people (here on the forum? not many; in real life? lots) who get all emotional about change, but cannot justify logically their resistance to change, except in terms that essentially restate the idea that change itself is somehow inherently bad.
So, I ask again, what are the RATIONAL objections, overall, to eliminating the $1-bill in favor of a (well-designed, widely circulated, intelligently administered) $1-coin?
Weight. People think they'll have to carry heavier currency around, since a coin weighs more than a bill of the same denomination. I disagree. More $1-coins in hand, and usable at more locations (parking meters, vending machines) means FEWER 25-cent-coins in hand. So, the overall weight change could be for the better or for the worse.
Recognizability and general familiarity among the populace. Well, if the dollar-coin is designed properly (for example, NOT the Susan B. Anthony dollar, but YES to the Sacajawea) then people can easily tell the difference between it and other currency.
Utility. It's worth 100 cents. Therefore by definition it's useful as a form of currency.
Other problems / advantages? I can't think of any.
That's all we need....dancers with black eyes & bruises!
A dollar is still a dollar no matter what form it is in but one form will cost me more money if it is eliminated. I see value in keeping the same paper currency.
But for me, I don't think my patterns would change much, either way. I am a by-the-penny purchaser, always careful. Therefore, I have few psychological associations with any form of currency. They could say that a rocking chair was worth 100 cents and I'd find a way to cart THEM around in my pocket ... or a marker worth five rocking chairs ...
The oddity for me is, that STILL nobody here on this thread, or anywhere else in my experience, has been able to justify the weird psychological associations that people have in favor of either coin or bill. Why, on earth, would anyone think a paper bill was "worth more" or "more valuable" than a metal coin OF EXACTLY THE SAME DENOMINATION? That's the reasoning I just don't understand.
Sure, sure, I recognize that the people here aren't so much arguing that America's public OUGHT or OUGHT NOT have those associations; merely, that the public DOES have those associations. But what ARE the associations, and WHY is one form favored over another in those associations? That's the part I don't understand.
I'm someone who watches his expenses like a hawk -- every evening I use Quicken or Microsoft Money to tabulate all my accounts, including my pocket change, down to the last decimal. I am generally dead-accurate, too, such that at the end of a given year my "miscellaneous" expenses (money went out but I don't know where or how) add up to an average of no more than about $20. Really. I can tell you how much I spent on lap-dances (given time to look it up and tabulate it from my records), or on groceries, or how much I made in interest off my 401k. To the penny. When I find a penny on the sidewalk and then include it in my pocket coins, I record that as income in the "non-taxable" column.
So, I "pay attention" to the value of money, and am neither rich nor a carefree spender. And I support the dollar coin.
Well, no, let me rephrase. I ACCEPT the IDEA of a dollar coin. I prefer neither it, nor the paper bill, for use as a $1 denomination currency, all other things being equal. If each were equally effective, costly, cheap, useful, then I'd rather have neither since they have no emotional pull on me. It's just a marker for one hundred US cents, is all it is.
I see advantages to each, but I think so far, rationally, many more advantages for the coin have been raised, than for the bill. Therefore, all other things aren't equal. The coin has more advantages.
The advantages for the coin: lasts longer, therefore in the long run cheaper for the mint / printing house to produce; harder to counterfeit, therefore more secure; just as easy to count (who can't add by 1?) or subdivide (still has same number of cents). Disadvantages: unfamiliar; heavier and ostensibly harder to carry, but the weight issue is somewhat outweighed by the problem of carrying around lots of quarters, which many of us--myself included--must do for regular automat and parking-meter use; more $1 coins in my pocket, and accepted in machines, means fewer .25-cent coins in the same place, hence the overall weight is thereby reduced rather than increased, since four quarters weighs more than one one-dollar-coin, though the two have identical spending power.
Advantages for the bill: familiar to people who resist change for no reason other than fear of novelty. No others.
Posted by: casualguy
"I think the person who isn't thinking clear is anyone that thinks eliminating the one dollar bill would be good for the country. I guess if you're rich or a carefree spender who doesn't pay much attention to money or prices you might support this."
Sorry, I'm respectfully disagreeing. :^)
On the other hand this could be a clever but evil plot to make us use plastic everywhere and eventually do away with all currency that can't be tracked and monitored. Most people aren't going to want to carry around a heavy pocket full of one dollar coins in addition to other change so the use of plastic would increase a lot. Eventually we could have a monetary crisis and a one world paperless currency could be implemented so no one would be bothered with using currency that can't be easily tracked. Then the power that controls the currency would control the world. Brilliant plan for whoever thought of it. I'm simply trying to slow that plan down with everyone else in the US. Probably just a dumb fuck for trying to thwart that though.
In fact, by the argument that Americans hate coins, the mint should therefore make paper bills for 50-cents and the Quarter (25-cent-piece) and decommission the metal pieces of the same denomination. But that seems equally unlikely.
The argument isn't, unfortunately, either (a) what would be financially responsible and useful at the exchange counter in regular daily business transactions or (b) what would reduce minting / printing costs. Rather, like so much in America, the argument is, how to tempt uneducated dumb-fucks to think they thought it up in the first place and then convince them that the alternative is a foreign style of weak, feminine plot.
Too bad we aren't thinking clear. Again.
As far as tipping goes, I would rather tip a girl another dollar if I think her stage dance was worth it rather than be forced to use a two dollar bill for a one second undeserved stoop down to collect a tip. Maybe everyone making above say 60 or 75,000 dollars a year should only use two dollar bills or higher on their tips and then the dancers could know who makes more money. I wouldn't mind that. I just don't like all those people making a lot more than me telling me I should be tipping more.
The Sacajawea coin did catch on, there just aren't many in circulation. It's not that they aren't popular, it's that they aren't available. I happen to end up with them from Post Office vending machines because of my regular patterns of purchase etc., and I use and like them. Or, more accurately, use and don't dislike them. They're as normal as any other legal tender, to me.
The Susan B. Anthony didn't catch on because it was too easy to confuse for a quarter (the familiar US twenty-five-cent piece, duh). Same size and color, an obviously idiotic choice. In fact, I've heard a few conspiracy theorists suggest that the originally larger design was deliberately modified by reactionaries who hoped to scuttle it by making the SBA's design overly confusing.
I don't understand why people would dislike this change -- to coin-ize a denomination that had previously been paper -- or, for that matter, the opposite -- to bill-ify a previously metal denomination. Aside from the arguments based strictly on minting/printing costs (a coin lasts longer, therefore over a piece's lifetime costs less to produce), I can't see any reasonable human giving a rat's ass.
Anyone who whines about the one or the other is just pining for the good old days, which probably weren't that good for most other people, and probably weren't even that good for the whiner either, except in his rose-colored memory. Move on with rational basis, fer chrissakes! Give up the need to grip tightly to the useless!
I thought they said on here in Canada it's alright to use coins, so if they ever did, maybe we will all become Canadians.