more thoughts on cashless society and loss of dropped coins.

[pulltabfelix]

Some progressive European countries (the people who brought us 2 world wars) are going cashless so goodbye to dropped coins. One guy posted that he thought that the metal detector technology would advance where we could detect a Rosie at 2 feet. Hmmm, digging two feet holes?

I even see evidence of fewer dropped coins in the past two years. I used to go to Quicktrip to get my cup of coffee every morning. Quicktrip in Georgia is like Racetrack and other very high volume gas stations/food store. I would walk the parking lot and gas pumps and easily pay for half of my coffee or even more. I would find between 50 cents and sometimes more than a dollar in dropped change. walking a Quicktrip today does not even hardly produce a zinc penny.

But two things absolutely killed that. The debit/credit card and keyless ignition. Both of these relieved the man from the necessity of reaching in his pocket for his keys or change. Thus the end of dropped change everywhere.

A wise friend of mine who passed several year ago stated this.
Collect silver dimes and quarters, do not melt them down. He said when a huge calamity or economic failure occurs in the US small silver denominations will be the honest coin of the realm.

Our communications system is getting so complex and intertwined that it would not take much to destroy it. Our military has stated that an attack by EMP weapons could bring this country to its knees. Our trucking, trains, airplanes with computers needed to even start them would be rendered useless. And do we have any shade tree mechanics left who could by-pass the computers in all of these machines to even get them started. No trucks, not gas, no food, no nothing.

Goodbye Internet - hello living in the 1700's.

 

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[Professor of Engineering]

Interesting read, thank you for sharing!

 

[Holyground]

If and when they abolish cash, you will be a slave of the worst kind. You better start collecting brass.

 

[Upnorth42]

In my home country Canada) it was recently revealed that our government wanted the banks files on 500,000 "randomly selected" Canadians. Every transaction you made they wanted to know about it for statistical purposes. They also wanted the name on the accounts. Cashless society is a way of controlling you. Another recently passed law here that is almost unknown is a bank bail in rule. If the bank goes bankrupt any money you saved above $100k can be taken by the bank to pay back the banks debt. In return you will be issued stock in the bank that just went bankrupt. So that money you saved for retirement is no longer safe in a cashless society.

I think a cashless society is a ridiculous idea. How is it going to work when you are out of cell phone range and need to pay for something. Oops computer is down we can't take your money to pay for things. Come back tomorrow maybe. That will be great on a road trip.

 

[Peyton Manning]

If things go way south all that counts is food
That’s why I have like a million twinkies stashed in my basement

 

[Ammoman]

When it comes to metal detecting, let cashless come now! I'm tired of digging clad. The coins i am looking for are mostly dated before 1964 and before the 1980 when it comes to pennies. As i see it, less clad means more opportunity for jewelry.

 

[pulltabfelix]

When it comes to metal detecting, let cashless come now! I'm tired of digging clad. The coins i am looking for are mostly dated before 1964 and before the 1980 when it comes to pennies. As i see it, less clad means more opportunity for jewelry.

Yep, not having to dig clad would be great. Actually when hunting parks, I pretty much ignore all clad except qtrs and above, which basically means qtrs since I have not found a 50 cent coin in years. As far as missing silver in our metro area parks, forget it.

 

[Charlie P. (NY)]

If and when they abolish cash, you will be a slave of the worst kind. You better start collecting brass.

And powder and primers and bullets . . .

 

[cactusman]

Long live vending machines... Yes, many take debit/credit now, but I think the vending machine industry is helping to keep coins alive, and maybe from becoming steel, like many other countries have done. The past two years I have found just over $150 (per year) by eyesight alone (and am on pace for that again this year), mostly at car washes, CoinStar, drive-thru's that are closed, and any place there are vending machines or on the floor around self-check outs. I have noticed that I find less coins at convenience stores and maybe a little less in parking lots, probably for reasons that the OP mentioned.

Schools are mostly locked up these days, which is too bad, as millennials who drop change rarely seem to pick it back up. It's like they don't know that they add up, or maybe it's due to living in an age where coins don't buy anything easily. I'll pick up zinc pennies all day long, and trade them in for something that has value...

I remember as a kid when I was learning to metal detect with my dad how the finds would quickly add up to pay for gas, and a meal, with money left over. But I also remember buying soda from vending machines for a quarter. -- That's the only big downside to US clad; due to inflation over the years the coins we find buy less and less each year. If only we had the $1 and $2 coins that Canada has, and maybe even a $5. One can dream...

While there may be less coins being dropped, there are still TONS being dropped. Here's an article that shows people are still carrying (and losing) coins:

Keep the change: Travelers left behind nearly $1 million in coins, currency in airports last year

https://www.cnbc.com/2017/04/13/keep-the-change-travelers-left-behind-nearly-1-million-in-coins-currency-in-airports-last-year.html

I think it will be a while before we go to a cashless society. If you're finding less, look in different spots -- this applies to both surface finds and metal detecting. And never stop looking!

 

[Johnnybravo300]

I see change on the ground at every fast food drive up window. Most people wont even pick up change anymore.
We crackseal and spray bank parking lots all over Colorado and I do pretty good there sometimes, if your willing to dig through the chewing gum, broken ink pens and used condoms in the dirt pile at the end of the day.
One of the new guys said he wanted nickels to coin roll hunt at the hotel so he bought $50 worth and it was all he talked about the rest of the day, so excited.
That evening on the way to the hotel he was looking at the rolls and they were all brand new 2018's hehe. He looked like a kid that opened a box of sticks and rocks on christmas.
I hadn't laughed that hard in awhile but watching him try to spend them on the road was even funnier! Broke people make me laugh.

 

[Squirrel322]

You guys heard about China's social credit score? Wave of the future....

https://www.businessinsider.com/chi...anning-you-from-flying-or-getting-the-train-1

 

[Swaveab]

Pulltabfelix This is a great possibility of happening as it boils down to a game of numbers. Without the coinage being a precious metal that is all it can be is a numbers game as only precious metals will retain any worthiness or value and inflation acting upon the coinage shall make the coins too expensive for the government to mint at that face value of the coin. The only way out of it for the government is some sort of reset like a silver dollar sized coin as a $100 piece. The government won't do this for the same reason they don't make really large bills any more. They shot themselves in the foot on this point as they purposely made it impossible to have a large denomination of money in a compact size forcing a high expense in making the monies available in larger quantities and that can't go on forever.

 

[Escape]

I like debit cards. If you worry about a cashless society, you worry too much. We are heading into a technological future like a freight train on its tracks. There is no turning around. Every couple of years it pulls into a new station bring its advancements. Wait till you see what develops over the next 20 - 30 years. Believe me. You won't recognize the place. I don't think I will be around to see it. I wish I could. But the future is for the young and they are the engine of the train bringing our society forward into the future.

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

We have a politics forum for politics, politics can only be posted there, if your post is missing it was deleted for politics.

 

[chub]

The only thing I dont like about cash....is getting coins in change. They are annoying and worthless where I live. I think Euro coins and the Aussie $1 and $2 coins have some value....but how much is a can of coke ?$1.50?

Chub

 

[Dave Rishar]

Pulltabfelix This is a great possibility of happening as it boils down to a game of numbers. Without the coinage being a precious metal that is all it can be is a numbers game as only precious metals will retain any worthiness or value and inflation acting upon the coinage shall make the coins too expensive for the government to mint at that face value of the coin.

But what determines the worth of precious metal? It's largely public perception...the same thing that determines the worth of a dollar bill.

Yes, humans have placed value in gold and silver across many cultures and time periods, but we've also used fiat currency across many cultures and time periods as well; even cultures that didn't have metal sometimes (often?) figured out a currency system of some sort beyond simple barter. A dollar bill's inherent worth is only as a scratch pad or perhaps fuel for a fire, but what's the inherent value of gold or silver to the average human being? You can't eat it. You can't make good tools out of it. There are some industrial uses for both, but not the sort that an average person could take advantage of. To the average person, it's only valuable because other people consider it valuable, and those other people may have something that the first person would be willing to exchange for it.

In the end, when one considers that currency of any sort is merely a convenient method for storing and trading labor (which does have inherent value, usually), it doesn't really matter what we're using as money, just as long as we all agree on it. Either the person on the other end of the trade considers your currency valuable, or they do not. Many societies now consider 1's and 0's to be functionally equivalent to pieces of paper with numbers and pictures of dead people on them, but both of them are essentially worthless...except that we've all agreed that they're worth something, so they are worth something, and that alone is the reason - our belief in them. Both are essentially Monopoly money, and neither is more valid than the other.

The same applies to coins. As you know, a few of our coins are worth the metal that they're made of (or close to it), but most are not. This is why if the US Mint started releasing quarters in plastic instead of copper, they'd still be worth $0.25 a piece. The actual material does not matter beyond physical practicality, which is why we don't see coins made of cardboard these days, and why the US government would like us to stop using paper dollars.

The reason that you won't see countries returning to some sort of a precious metal standard is the same reason they all got off those in the first place: it's a pain in the rear end and introduces a number of uncontrollable variables into a nation's economy. Most modern countries figured this out during the Great Depression, which is how most countries got out of it more quickly than the US did.

 

[Swaveab]

Dave, you could be right, but I see too many problems going money free. Banks basically are just exchanging numbers rather than money and one wrong glitch and it could be very devastating not only to the economy, but to individuals as well so the glitches can be large or small. How does one hold onto numbers like i can hold onto cash?

 

[fistfulladirt]

The only thing I dont like about cash....is getting coins in change. They are annoying and worthless where I live. I think Euro coins and the Aussie $1 and $2 coins have some value....but how much is a can of coke ?$1.50?

Chub

I only use cash, one of the reasons is all of the old coins I get back in change. This year I received 2 silver quarters, one silver dime and a half-dozen wheats.

 

[macronova]

DON'T TAKE THE MARK OF THE BEAST!

seriously tho... no turning back after that folks.

 

[fistfulladirt]

DON'T TAKE THE MARK OF THE BEAST!

seriously tho... no turning back after that folks.

Millions of cell phone and credit card holders are wrong?