Thoughts about the Recent Poll regarding how often you use coins.

BryceM

I recently started a poll asking how often each person uses coins for transactions. I often see threads here about people checking their pocket change, and to be honest, I never even look. Perhaps that means that I'm not a "real" collector, but I sorta, kinda doubted many of you did either. For reference, here's the poll:

https://forums.collectors.com/discussion/1090909/how-often-do-you-use-coins-for-monetary-transactions/p1

From the poll, on 5% use coins "a few times a day" and 72% use coins less than weekly. 36% can't remember the last time they paid for something using coins.

So....... a few thoughts:

• the vast majority of us don't check our change, simply because we don't use change.
• as an instrument of commerce, coins are becoming insignificant.
• either something changes like re-valuation (no pun intended), or within a few years, we won't really use coins at all, at least not for commerce.
• if coin collectors don't use change, who does?

coinbuf

@BryceM said:

• if coin collectors don't use change, who does?

As I said in the poll thread this is somewhat meaningless as most collectors do not live hand to mouth and so the poll result should come as no surprise. I mean no offense by this, but as you are a doctor your opportunity to interact with people that use cash (the type that folds and that which jingles) is likely very limited. Head down to the southern border for a few days and you will see a significant number of people that use cash. There is a Hispanic run market just a few miles from my house which I frequent, I am the token white guy in that place most of the time as the vast majority of the cliental are Hispanic. I have dubbed the area where this market is as little Mexico as the area is 90% Hispanic residents, some legal many not. And while some do use electronic payments, a very high percentage of the payments are in cash.

Drawing conclusions from such a tiny fraction of the population, limited to mostly wealthy coin collectors, is hardly scientific or a valid way to draw any conclusions on how cash is used in commerce today.

DisneyFan

@coinbuf said:

I mean no offense by this, but as you are a doctor your opportunity to interact with people that use cash (the type that folds and that which jingles) is likely very limited.
>

I recently had a serious medical situation and my wife was thanking my doctor for going out of his way for me. He quipped, "I don't take credit, only cash." For fun, on our next visit I gave him a crisp new $2 bill. He was totally surprised, tried giving it back to me and kept asking if it was real.

Tramp

Did my very first half dollar roll search today, 25 rolls. I took your poll and it made me think about my coin usage.

So, rather than turning in all the half dollars, I'm going to spend some doing my shopping e.g. groceries, dining out and even tipping. I'm going to introduce or re-introduce many people to the Kennedy half dollar. Most kids today will probably look at it and wonder if it's fake.

alaura22

Like it or not, it's a credit card world. I haven't used cash for anything except mickey dee's and I stoped going their cause I got sick!

BryceM

@coinbuf said:

@BryceM said:

• if coin collectors don't use change, who does?

As I said in the poll thread this is somewhat meaningless as most collectors do not live hand to mouth and so the poll result should come as no surprise. I mean no offense by this, but as you are a doctor your opportunity to interact with people that use cash (the type that folds and that which jingles) is likely very limited. Head down to the southern border for a few days and you will see a significant number of people that use cash. There is a Hispanic run market just a few miles from my house which I frequent, I am the token white guy in that place most of the time as the vast majority of the cliental are Hispanic. I have dubbed the area where this market is as little Mexico as the area is 90% Hispanic residents, some legal many not. And while some do use electronic payments, a very high percentage of the payments are in cash.

Drawing conclusions from such a tiny fraction of the population, limited to mostly wealthy coin collectors, is hardly scientific or a valid way to draw any conclusions on how cash is used in commerce today.

I'm not offended, but people often assume a lot of things about physicians that aren't necessarily true. I live in a rural area and plenty of folks around here are cash-only. Somewhere around 30% of the kids in the high school speak Spanish at home and the majority of their parents are farm workers. Average incomes are well below national averages. Most of my friends work in agriculture or related areas and I don't really spend time with "medical people" except at work. I spent a good bit of my day today trying to figure out how to get an undocumented visitor with a broken arm and no money the care she needs. We settled on a plan of action that they can barely afford, but it's not really the best possible care. Like most physicians, I work for a large system that requires payment for services. They do some charity work, but out of necessity they're pretty careful with it. Our independent anesthesia providers trade their services for a handful of bills quite frequently. A large percentage of our patients (even the wealthy ones) pay rather large hospital and clinic bills with cash, so your assumption that I don't interact with people that use cash is absolutely incorrect.

Your points about it being an invalid survey are of course spot-on. The people who responded probably don't even represent a valid sample of wealthy coin collectors. Also, I wasn't really asking about people who use cash. There are lots of people who carry bills around, but not coins. The majority of the people I work with take their change and just toss it in a big bucket and take it to the bank every year or two.

Most young people I spend time with use their phones (or their watch) or cards for purchases. Kids at the drive-thru window are usually slightly annoyed to accept cash. If the bill is $8.57, I sometimes give them $13.57 and they just stare at me like I'm out of my mind.

Those who responded to the poll are probably rather wealthy by most standards, but geez-all-peet, you might think coin collectors could possibly be bothered to employ the objects of their affection more than a few times a year maybe.

gumby1234

Using coins for purchasing is different than receiving coins in change everyday and checking them before throwing into a change jar. I use coins in purchases maybe a few times a month. I receive coins in change multiple times daily.

Twobitcollector

To quote, and few of you will remember ABSCAN "Money talks BS walks".
Me I like using cash, less big brother interaction.

DisneyFan

@BryceM said:

I live in a rural area and plenty of folks around here are cash-only. Somewhere around 30% of the kids in the high school speak Spanish at home and the majority of their parents are farm workers. Average incomes are well below national averages.
>
You are a good person!

ricko

I use cash almost daily... Usually in the form of bills, and receive change - which I usually check when I get it. If an inopportune time, it goes in the left pocket, if checked, it goes in the right pocket. Later I can check the change in the left pocket.... Then, when I empty my right pocket, I often recheck to some extent. Cheers, RickO

jmlanzaf

https://www.paymentsdive.com/news/three-us-cash-trends-persist-fed-report-says/623789/

I'm not sure why people tend to insist that cash usage is higher than it is. See the above link. It continues to decline nearly every year and less than 20% of payments are made in cash - and that includes poor as well as rich. [Poor do use cash more than rich.]

The move to a cashless society will not wait for cash usage to go all the way to zero on its own. The transition will come when usage AND resistance are low and they figure out how to transition the cash-addicted. Personally, I think it is ludicrous to think that it will never happen or even that it will take a very long time to get there.

jmlanzaf

https://www.insiderintelligence.com/content/snapshot-of-cash-usage-around-world

RYK

The last time I used coins for payment was the first week in April, one- and two-Euro coins in Amsterdam. The time before was last fall in France, one- and two-Euro coins again. I have not used US coins for transactions in years, and the only time I seem to use cash at all is for occasional tips for maids at hotels and for valet parking.

I worry a little bit about the future of coin collection in a world in which a substantial percentage of the population does not use coins for transactions.

VTchaser

My LCS used to give a discount when paying in cash. So that was my only supply of coins in change.

I used to use that change for air compressors or vacuums at the car wash. Now all of those take cards. I never carry a single dollar in cash so not sure when i would ever use it.

seatedlib3991

Somewhere on the internet there is a 2020 government census report I saw recently. It claimed that between 24% to 27% of transactions in the United states in are cash.

Klif50

I often get change back since I use cash a lot. I never pay for anything with change. When I get in each evening I look through the change I've accumulated during the day before I toss it in the change jar. I have quite a few gallon jars full of change and when I'm bored I'll take one out and roll everthing and take it to the bank and exchange it for one dollar bills or half dollars if they have them. Very seldom will I pull anything out for the collection other than the odd silver dime (I get a few dimes every 3 or 4 months but never silver quarters.

WCC

@RYK said:

I worry a little bit about the future of coin collection in a world in which a substantial percentage of the population does not use coins for transactions.

In more recent years (arbitrarily the 21st century) I infer that some noticeable proportion start from NCLT, presumably mostly bullion. But the anecdotal evidence I see indicates that this collector profile doesn't usually collect as wide a variety as the "traditional" collector.

If this is correct, it's likely to eventually result in a smaller collector base and one which collects the currently most widely collected series a lot less too, except for those with substantial financially related buying.

TimNH

All those auto-checkout cashier machines around me take coins, i just let my coin bowl fill up then bring it into Walmart or something and empty it out. It doesn't even take a fee like Coinstar.

jmlanzaf

@seatedlib3991 said:
Somewhere on the internet there is a 2020 government census report I saw recently. It claimed that between 24% to 27% of transactions in the United states in are cash.

It's under 20% now. See any of the links I posted.

seatedlib3991

Tim NH. don't they have small storage capacity? how much change are you talking about?

oldabeintx

I stopped checking my change around 1965. I think we can all see the trend as far as cash use. At some point in the future, the use of cash will almost be the exclusive purview of people who are very reluctant to provide a discoverable transaction record for various reasons and those who are outside of the banking system.

fathom

It will take a very long time to get to cashless. Yes tipping and such is cash.

But many people do not and will not have bank account access for a myriad of reasons. Low credit, not enough minimum balance, distrust of banks to mention a few. An industry that utilizes cash as a large percent of transactions is amusements/vending. Though many more machines increasingly take card/nfc much of the use is still plain old cash.

We are are not close to cashless, and pressures to force transition will meet social and political pushback for the foreseeable future.

TimNH

@seatedlib3991 said:
Tim NH. don't they have small storage capacity? how much change are you talking about?

I've never had the thing fill up on me, I'll pile in something like a small cereal bowl-ful, clink clink clink, coins all gone, and no fee taken!

seatedlib3991

Thanks for the answer. James