Marco.org

Canada recently decided to kill its penny. The U.S. should take this idea even further: let’s eliminate the dime, half-dollar, $1 bill, $2 bill, $10 bill, and $50 bill.

People generally seem OK with denomination steps in which the larger denomination represents up to five of the next-smallest denomination. We currently have:

• 1 cent
• 5 cents (5x previous denomination)
• 10 cents (2x)
• 25 cents (2.5x)
• 50 cents (2x)
• $1 coin (2x)
• $1 bill (1x)
• $2 bill (2x): Not widespread, but still officially in circulation.
• $5 bill (2.5x, but effectively 5x since most people don’t use $2 bills)
• $10 bill (2x)
• $20 bill (2x)
• $50 bill (2.5x)
• $100 bill (2x)

By making my proposed eliminations, we’d have a much more streamlined system and no denominational jumps greater than 5x:

• 1 cent: I don’t care whether we keep these. I’ll still keep them in a bowl and eventually bring them to a Coinstar machine for Amazon credit.
• 5 cents (5x previous denomination)
• 25 cents (5x)
• $1 (4x): I don’t care whether it’s a coin or a bill. Just pick one.
• $5 (5x)
• $20 (4x)
• $100 (5x)

Much simpler.