New Dollar Coins- Potential Effect on SC Experience

40 comments

• SuperDude

  •

  18 years ago

  Damcers will carry designer coin purses and turn in coins for paper currency at the bar. Guys who feel weighted down by coins will probably stop at the bank or friendly liquor store and trade coin for currency. I put all my change in a coin sorter on my desk and deposit the filled coin wrappers in my bank account. Hope we get dollar coin wrappers
• Book Guy

  •

  18 years ago

  Suggestions for US stripper bills: $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. :)
• minnow

  •

  18 years ago

  Bones- your rec. for $$ bills lends new meaning to the term "funny money". The central issue on 1$ coin ?? is whether or not it will catch on, or they will merely be snapped up by collectors and not used that much. Logic dictates that they should catch on, namely the cost factor of minting vs printing less durable paper. But, people don't always respond logically- recall (some of us, anyway) how 50c coins were widely circulated prior to 1964, but as soon as JFK was put on 50c shortly after assasination, 50c coins were snatched up by collectors, and virtually disappeared from circulation. Commerce has also become more depersonalized- witness more widespread use of plastic. I think some clubs will go to "funny money", much the way game arcades turned to tokens, except that you'll likely be nicked a "fee" for that privilege. Gotta run now, and get another SC visit in before that happens.
• chandler

  •

  18 years ago

  I wouldn't use funny money, and I don't think it could ever catch on. My objection is that it's a dorky strip club gimmick. Tipping with coins or with larger bills would become the standard, just like it is in Canada.
• Book Guy

  •

  18 years ago

  SSE: indeed, it's true, IF the dollar-coins start to replace the dollar-bills in common usage in the USA, then strip-club tipping and strip-club funny money practices would soon change to follow suit. 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. :)
• ssewarrior

  •

  18 years ago

  BookGuy, I hear what your saying and I agree whole heartedly with your thoughts and comments on Funny Money. In today's environments it's a way to exploit the credit cards and make one PAY for hiding the dough. 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. :)
• FONDL

  •

  18 years ago

  Maybe some of the larger and fancier clubs would resort to all this stuff but the neighborhood joints would just ignore it and tips would go down. In such places most customers don't tip every girl anyway so most guys would probably tip fewer of them. So the most popular girls would make more, everyone else would make less.
• Book Guy

  •

  18 years ago

  SSEwarrior, I've been to at least one club (outside Toronto, near the airport) where they required that you exchange for "funny money," just like at most casinos, where chips are bought with dollars, and then it's against the rules to bet with dollars, and then you exchange back at the end of your evening. 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!
• ssewarrior

  •

  18 years ago

  As stated by many here already, the 2 previous coins didn't catch on and these are not likely to either. 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.
• someyoungguysomeyoungguy

  •

  18 years ago

  I understand it makes sense for the dollar coins to replace the dollar bills because they're more durable. I think putting out a line of dollars with the presidents' faces on them in order is, pardon the pun, a stroke of genius; the guy behind this idea is the same guy who thought up the state quarters, if I'm correct. 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.
• Book Guy

  •

  18 years ago

  Good point about the collectors, FONDL. Never thought of that ... 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.
• chandler

  •

  18 years ago

  The impact on strippers would be negative if only half as many customers ended up tipping. The amount they make in stage tips might be the same, but their opportunities to sell lapdances would be fewer.
• FONDL

  •

  18 years ago

  As far as impact on the girls, I think it would be a wash. In clubs where $1 is the current normal stage tip, half the customers would probably up it to $2 while the other half would stop tipping. In a lot of clubs $2 is already the norm. 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.
• DougS

  •

  18 years ago

  I don't see much of a change for me, should the dollar coins replace the dollar bill. 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"
• chandler

  •

  18 years ago

  Stage tipping is a big part of the fun for me. I'll often break a $20 bill to get all singles, because I can go through them so fast, and I don't want to be caught without any. Carrying that many dollar coins would be a pain. 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.
• casualguy

  •

  18 years ago

  If the smallest bill you could tip was a five dollar bill, I would go a long time between tipping anyone. In fact I think in my area tipping would be thought of as a city in China. I'd probably stop going to one club since I rarely ever get any dances there. It wouldn't be as fun going to strip clubs either so I might stop going to strip clubs. I would save a lot of money until I found a new hobby to spend it on. Perhaps I could figure out how to make a killing in the stock market as a new hobby. If I did, I might go back to old habits since a five would just become small change for me. Of course if I was that rich, I think the girls would be knocking on my door rather than me finding them. I'd be too busy for strip clubs.
• Book Guy

  •

  18 years ago

  PS -- sorry to go off on a tangent. The subject of this thread is "potential effect on SC experience" but I'm diverting to ask "potential effect on all purchasing experience." My own obsession, I guess. :P
• Book Guy

  •

  18 years ago

  Casualguy: agreed, the stage-tipping experience must change if dollar bills are entirely replaced with dollar coins. Potential outcomes include, a club issuing "tip bills" at five for a 5-dollar-bill, for example. Or girls accepting coins into a zippered coin purse attached to their garter. Or you getting a six-times-as-long stageside experience for your five-dollar-bill. Or, you tipping less often. Or, you tipping just as often but spending a lot more. 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.
• casualguy

  •

  18 years ago

  In case someone doesn't see how I get value out of tipping, just imagine every tip is a stage tip and just like getting a lap dance, I see value in almost every tip I give out.
• lopaw

  •

  18 years ago

  My first thought on the $1 coin issue was "what happens when some drunken fool decides to hurl a $1 coin at the stage from his back-of-the-room table?" That's all we need....dancers with black eyes & bruises!
• casualguy

  •

  18 years ago

  In terms of how I see justifying the dollar bill as being worth more to me than a one dollar coin I thought I already did that. For instance suppose I were to state that occasionally I spend $40 in one dollar tips when visiting strip clubs. I tip many girls. Then they eliminate the one dollar bill and two dollar bills are still acceptable. Either I start paying $80 in tips or else the value of my experience declines since I don't tip as often. 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.
• Book Guy

  •

  18 years ago

  I agree, stage-tipping would be quite difficult, if the dollar-bill disappeared (no, not Congressman Jefferson ... ). I also agree, it's possible that people behind the move to eliminate the dollar-bill have other agendas, knowledgeable as they may be in subtle psychological associations that the majority of the American public might have toward spending paper or spending metal. 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.
• FONDL

  •

  18 years ago

  Makes little difference to me, since stage tips are a minor part of my SC expenditures anyway, plus the girls double dip in some of the clubs I like so it wouldn't make any difference. When I go to a club where I don't have a fave (which I don't anywhere at the moment) I sit and watch until I find a girl to hook up with, then we head for a quite corner to get to know each other. So the only stage tipping I do is until I find that special girl. And if I don't find one fairly quickly I head for the door.
• casualguy

  •

  18 years ago

  meant to say coins would not be an acceptable tip
• casualguy

  •

  18 years ago

  Since strip clubs are a hobby of mine and several here, I have another reason for not supporting the elimination of the one dollar bill. I don't think coins would be acceptable tips to give to a dancer. That would mean instead of tipping a one I would have to double each tip to two or some clubs might issue temporary tip money by paying up front. Either way I seem to lose out in that deal as well. I either tip twice as much each time or possibly pay the club fees to use their temporary cash. If the one dollar bill was eliminated, I certainly don't know why the two dollar bill wouldn't be eliminated as well.
• casualguy

  •

  18 years ago

  Anyone has the right to disagree. I merely suspect if someone was trying to eliminate the one dollar bill, they might be trying to eliminate more than just that and that would cause a lot of inflation as prices adjusted upwards or the use of plastic increased so that someone could track all spending. I usually do not carry around small change but eliminating the one dollar bill would force me to either carry around a few heavier coins or start using plastic a lot more. I do not agree that increasing the governments ability to track and monitor the people is a good thing. Not for the people at least. You have to defend or support your freedoms or they'll continue to get taken bit by bit.
• Book Guy

  •

  18 years ago

  I don't follow the reasoning, for why keeping the paper-$1 or eliminating it would be "good" or "bad" for the USA. By what criteria? 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. :^)
• Mickkeyc

  •

  18 years ago

  They will make it even more like slot machines. You keep putting our money in, and every once in a while, you hit a jackpot.
• casualguy

  •

  18 years ago

  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. 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.
• Book Guy

  •

  18 years ago

  I think you can either prefer to carry coins or not; but it won't have much effect on the desirability of the US $1 coin. People will vote with their preconceptions and reject it before it hits the "marketplace" to get a fair try-out. 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.
• casualguy

  •

  18 years ago

  Requiring only the use of two dollar bills or higher for tipping would virtually or almost totally eliminate most tipping in some clubs. Dancers would lose income and leave. Customers would start leaving after that. Eventually the club management might figure it out unless they have a stupid manager and just downsize to whatever they can sustain to keep in business. Of course with inflation, eventually the two dollar bill will be worth as much as the one dollar bill of today. I tend to throw around one dollar bills as stage tips much more frequently since they aren't worth as much as they used to be.
• casualguy

  •

  18 years ago

  I'm against eliminating the penny and definitely against eliminating the dollar bill. I typically do not like to carry around change, it tends to be more cumbersome and more easily falls outs of my pocket. However I don't want prices to go up to the nearest dollar either. A paper dollar bill will fold up neatly in a wallet and is lightweight and easy to carry a bunch around. A pocket full of 20 one dollar coins would be bulky and awkward. The only reason I even have for occasionally using a one dollar coin is when the vending machines have trouble with the dollar bill I try to stick in it on occasion. I typically do not carry any change around. I prefer paper. 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.
• Yoda

  •

  18 years ago

  Most Americans go out of their way to avoid carrying change around. The 1 dollar coin will die a quick and merciful death. What idiot thought of this anyway??
• Book Guy

  •

  18 years ago

  When the dollar-coin replaced the dollar-bill in Canada, stage tipping rapidly became a $2-dollar phenomenon. Or, you bring US $1-bills with you. :) Either way, it raises the expenses and in most places it's not considerate to use a $1-coin for most payment to strippers. 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!
• Clubber

  •

  18 years ago

  minnow reminded me of some of my first clubbing times. A tip was a dime or two for the juke box.
• Varmit 363

  •

  18 years ago

  easy i would think , like some clubs wehre you buy their club money for the LD'S and then the ladies cash them in , the clubs could print tuip dollars and you could get them from the bartender ..just an idea ....kinda like stripopoly ....
• DandyDan

  •

  18 years ago

  If the Susan B Anthony and Sacajawea coins didn't catch on, why should these? 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.
• lotsoffun201

  •

  18 years ago

  As far as I am concerned, I think it gives new meaning to the term COIN SLOT!
• FONDL

  •

  18 years ago

  If the government wishes to eliminate $1 bills I think they could do so fairly easily. Those bills don't last very long; banks turn in the old worn-out ones on a regular basis so it wouldn't take very long to drastically reduce the number in circulation. I suspect it's a question of economics for the government, if it's cheaper to make the coins because they last a lot longer, I suspect that's what they'll do.
• blockbird

  •

  18 years ago

  Should be a non-issue, because there is no push to eliminate paper dollars any time soon. People will still prefer the rag dollars, as always, relegating these new dollar coins to the status of mildly interesting curiosities, nothing more. Just like that Sackies, Suzies, and Ikes that preceded them.