If we can’t even get rid of the cent (like Canada) or get rid of the dollar in lieu of a dollar coin (like Canada, UK, Euro etc). The there is no way we get rid of coins or cash. The US is very stuck in its old ways
@3stars said:
If we can’t even get rid of the cent (like Canada) or get rid of the dollar in lieu of a dollar coin (like Canada, UK, Euro etc). The there is no way we get rid of coins or cash. The US is very stuck in its old ways
There is a way. It's just a question of how far they want to go to facilitate the conversion.
the lack of circulating coins brought out banks seeking change. this is because there is a large enough population of a "cash society."
during the last FOMC q&a session, chair powell acknowledged the shortage problems and stated the need for change due to the segment of the population still using cash.
This is an often discussed topic in other venues as well as here. I do not believe a cashless society will become reality in the near future.... perhaps in the next century it will be close. We will have to sacrifice a basic belief (and jealously guarded) in freedom for this to take place. Watch any drama production (TV, movie, books) and you can see how tracking is done through transactions....total dependence on plastic/digital will mean total control. Cheers, RickO
@ricko said:
This is an often discussed topic in other venues as well as here. I do not believe a cashless society will become reality in the near future.... perhaps in the next century it will be close. We will have to sacrifice a basic belief (and jealously guarded) in freedom for this to take place. Watch any drama production (TV, movie, books) and you can see how tracking is done through transactions....total dependence on plastic/digital will mean total control. Cheers, RickO
I clicked 'like' but with caveat (hope Im not heading too far into the realm of politics, but...) IM wondering who gets to decide what beliefs are sacrificed and which are kept. If tracking transactions is a benefit to the powerful (eg government & silicon valley) then that's what we'll get, like it or not.
Yes and I guarantee (expired) credit cards will be highly collectible, graded and encapsulated. Cards owned by famous personages will command extremely high prices. So.....keep your cards in good condition and keep them instead of the scissors treatment.
Wow... What a great idea @ambro51... I will immediately start to seek old credit cards from Hollywood stars, politicians, sports stars etc.. I am sure they will give them to me if I just tell them I am a collector and they are not for any nefarious purposes. So in fifty years I will have a 'hoard' slabbed and make a fortune. Yeah, right, as if I will be around in fifty years... Cheers, RickO
I don't think we will be cashless anytime soon, but it might be closer than we think.. Coinless maybe, The Wind Creek Casino in Bethlehem, Pa. has stopped giving out the coins for vouchers. IF you have a voucher for $32.43 you get the paper $32.00 and a voucher for the 43 cents which you can donate to charity or cash in at the window. But I do not see many people cashing them in at the window. Most people just put them in the charity donation box. I save mine for next time. I do not know if they will revert back to giving change when the "coin shortage" is over.
Politicians ain't stupid, They know that if they stop making cents, it will cost jobs and jobs mean votes.
Ever think how many jobs would be lost if we stopped printing paper money and minting coins?
@ricko said:
Wow... What a great idea @ambro51... I will immediately start to seek old credit cards from Hollywood stars, politicians, sports stars etc.. I am sure they will give them to me if I just tell them I am a collector and they are not for any nefarious purposes. So in fifty years I will have a 'hoard' slabbed and make a fortune. Yeah, right, as if I will be around in fifty years... Cheers, RickO
It’s not that far fetched. What would Neil Armstrong’s Diners Club card from 1975 be worth? Michael Jackson’s 1997 MasterCard?
What will the black market do without cash especially if the government were to crack down on crypto and precious metals? What will the drug dealers and other criminals due to transfer value?
Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value. Zero. Voltaire. Ebay coinbowlllc
@privatecoin said:
What will the black market do without cash especially if the government were to crack down on crypto and precious metals? What will the drug dealers and other criminals due to transfer value?
same thing they do now - launder illicit activity through apparently legitimate enterprises. Most illegal activity is carried out using good old greenbacks now, not crypto or precious metals.
It's really not that hard. We could go cashless starting this year if there were the political will in Washington to do so. There's no practical impediment to it. But there simply isn't the political will or the necessity.
The metric system is a different story which still has impediments. With money, there is no need to retool production of anything to a different standard. The hardest part of any conversion to cashless is creating a governmental program to provide some form of banking to those who don't currently have any. Reaching those people will require some effort. Those people, however, will have a vested interest in reaching out to the government, so it won't be like people hiding from the census.
Apps like Venmo already handle person to person transactions. My students don't carry cash and don't really ever need cash. They swipe their ID or phones for just about everything.
Admittedly, it seems impossible to all us old folks because we weren't raised that way. But the fact is that we are rapidly heading that way just naturally. All it would take is a little governmental push - a demonetization date - and we'd be there in a hurry.
I never use cash unless I go to a small business that has one of those old slow credit card readers, or mom and pop type places and don’t want to burden them with the fee. Otherwise my credit cards pay too good of rewards to use cash. As a coin collector this is unfortunate but I think we are going this way. Also the pandemic has sped up the process I think. Is all it would take as said above is a government push. A fee free prepaid card for example that anyone can get, maybe like a transit card type thing.
The first American Express Cards from the 1959 time frame are still highly sought after. 20-25 years ago they could fetch up to $300. Not sure what they bring today. What Ambro suggested is not far fetched and I suspect a Hollywood star credit card for a Department Store that no longer exists would likely have value.
I am curious what vintage restaurant menus might fetch... The Brown Derby or Chason's and there was another cool place on Wilshire Blvd not that far from the Wiltern Theatre- Perano's.
Experience the World through Numismatics...it's more than you can imagine.
Thanks for the words of encouragement Ambro51 ;-)
I just threw out 40 plus years of old bank cards downsizing in the mid- pandemic move....
Maybe I should throw some quotes of wisdom in too then.
As my wise and loving mother used to say.
“Don’t ever cry over anything that can’t cry over you.”
(I wasn’t close to crying by the way) :-) on the contrary-happy to be alive!!!
Happy, humble, honored and proud recipient of the “You Suck” award 10/22/2014
Cashless is open even more to fraud and theft. Dallas Tollway uses window stickers for cashless collection of tolls. They found employees erasing the money owed and electronically adding to accounts for friends.
Collector of Modern Silver Proofs 1950-1964 -- PCGS Registry as Elite Cameo
Comments
If we can’t even get rid of the cent (like Canada) or get rid of the dollar in lieu of a dollar coin (like Canada, UK, Euro etc). The there is no way we get rid of coins or cash. The US is very stuck in its old ways
There is a way. It's just a question of how far they want to go to facilitate the conversion.
Get rid of the Un Federal Reserve first...
Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value. Zero. Voltaire. Ebay coinbowlllc
Its difficult to develop a long-term analysis of cashless behavior during a pandemic.
Another useless NY Times article.
I can remember having a school assembly where the speaker talked about a cashless society. I graduated in 1968!
the lack of circulating coins brought out banks seeking change. this is because there is a large enough population of a "cash society."
during the last FOMC q&a session, chair powell acknowledged the shortage problems and stated the need for change due to the segment of the population still using cash.
We can't even adopt the metric system.
“In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock." - Thomas Jefferson
My digital cameo album 1950-64 Cameos - take a look!
I actually wonder if not adopting the metric system is a form of protectionism.
Maybe the socket wrench lobby wants to keep everybody locked into buying both sets?
I find it funny most cars these days, if not all are now metric. Does any manufacturer still use standard bolts any more?
This is an often discussed topic in other venues as well as here. I do not believe a cashless society will become reality in the near future.... perhaps in the next century it will be close. We will have to sacrifice a basic belief (and jealously guarded) in freedom for this to take place. Watch any drama production (TV, movie, books) and you can see how tracking is done through transactions....total dependence on plastic/digital will mean total control. Cheers, RickO
I clicked 'like' but with caveat (hope Im not heading too far into the realm of politics, but...) IM wondering who gets to decide what beliefs are sacrificed and which are kept. If tracking transactions is a benefit to the powerful (eg government & silicon valley) then that's what we'll get, like it or not.
Yes and I guarantee (expired) credit cards will be highly collectible, graded and encapsulated. Cards owned by famous personages will command extremely high prices. So.....keep your cards in good condition and keep them instead of the scissors treatment.
Wow... What a great idea @ambro51... I will immediately start to seek old credit cards from Hollywood stars, politicians, sports stars etc.. I am sure they will give them to me if I just tell them I am a collector and they are not for any nefarious purposes.
So in fifty years I will have a 'hoard' slabbed and make a fortune. 
Yeah, right, as if I will be around in fifty years... 
Cheers, RickO
I don't think we will be cashless anytime soon, but it might be closer than we think.. Coinless maybe, The Wind Creek Casino in Bethlehem, Pa. has stopped giving out the coins for vouchers. IF you have a voucher for $32.43 you get the paper $32.00 and a voucher for the 43 cents which you can donate to charity or cash in at the window. But I do not see many people cashing them in at the window. Most people just put them in the charity donation box. I save mine for next time. I do not know if they will revert back to giving change when the "coin shortage" is over.
Politicians ain't stupid, They know that if they stop making cents, it will cost jobs and jobs mean votes.
Ever think how many jobs would be lost if we stopped printing paper money and minting coins?
It’s not that far fetched. What would Neil Armstrong’s Diners Club card from 1975 be worth? Michael Jackson’s 1997 MasterCard?
If we can move to metric for coin diameters, we can do it for gas and milk
What will the black market do without cash especially if the government were to crack down on crypto and precious metals? What will the drug dealers and other criminals due to transfer value?
Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value. Zero. Voltaire. Ebay coinbowlllc
same thing they do now - launder illicit activity through apparently legitimate enterprises. Most illegal activity is carried out using good old greenbacks now, not crypto or precious metals.
Leave it to journalists.
So they can sell it per liter, like Europe. Not sure Europe is on the right track, except with electric trains.
It's really not that hard. We could go cashless starting this year if there were the political will in Washington to do so. There's no practical impediment to it. But there simply isn't the political will or the necessity.
The metric system is a different story which still has impediments. With money, there is no need to retool production of anything to a different standard. The hardest part of any conversion to cashless is creating a governmental program to provide some form of banking to those who don't currently have any. Reaching those people will require some effort. Those people, however, will have a vested interest in reaching out to the government, so it won't be like people hiding from the census.
Apps like Venmo already handle person to person transactions. My students don't carry cash and don't really ever need cash. They swipe their ID or phones for just about everything.
Admittedly, it seems impossible to all us old folks because we weren't raised that way. But the fact is that we are rapidly heading that way just naturally. All it would take is a little governmental push - a demonetization date - and we'd be there in a hurry.
I never use cash unless I go to a small business that has one of those old slow credit card readers, or mom and pop type places and don’t want to burden them with the fee. Otherwise my credit cards pay too good of rewards to use cash. As a coin collector this is unfortunate but I think we are going this way. Also the pandemic has sped up the process I think. Is all it would take as said above is a government push. A fee free prepaid card for example that anyone can get, maybe like a transit card type thing.
The first American Express Cards from the 1959 time frame are still highly sought after. 20-25 years ago they could fetch up to $300. Not sure what they bring today. What Ambro suggested is not far fetched and I suspect a Hollywood star credit card for a Department Store that no longer exists would likely have value.
I am curious what vintage restaurant menus might fetch... The Brown Derby or Chason's and there was another cool place on Wilshire Blvd not that far from the Wiltern Theatre- Perano's.
Experience the World through Numismatics...it's more than you can imagine.
A cashless society is one of the core goals of the "powers that be".
"Money is coined liberty"
(Fjodor Dostojewski)
Money is a tool. Similar to the writers. Cash is just a synonym. Cashless is moneyless. No tools-No Work.
"The urge to save humanity is almost always a false-face for the urge to rule it." -- H.L. Mencken
Thanks for the words of encouragement Ambro51 ;-)
I just threw out 40 plus years of old bank cards downsizing in the mid- pandemic move....
Maybe I should throw some quotes of wisdom in too then.
As my wise and loving mother used to say.
“Don’t ever cry over anything that can’t cry over you.”
(I wasn’t close to crying by the way) :-) on the contrary-happy to be alive!!!
Happy, humble, honored and proud recipient of the “You Suck” award 10/22/2014
Cashless is open even more to fraud and theft. Dallas Tollway uses window stickers for cashless collection of tolls. They found employees erasing the money owed and electronically adding to accounts for friends.
Link to 1950 - 1964 Proof Registry Set
1938 - 1964 Proof Jeffersons w/ Varieties