Quarters, Dollars, and Pennies

I'm still working on collecting all of the state quarters.

I also found out that the currently minted dollar coins are of a more convenient size than the older silver dollars, and they look cool.

I have started carry a few dollar coins with me in my diaper bag. Smiley gives them to homeless people asking for money: he learns charity and they get a small amount of financial help that is also a weather-proof conversation piece.

I also got a roll of them for my math department office. Most mornings I taught, I purchased a toasted bagel for $1 and it was nice to use the dollar coins for that. I simply find coins more pleasantly tactile than bills.

The Federal government has finally announced when it will stop minting pennies, which should have happened when I was a child. It would be nice if pennies were replaced by a $5 coin. Except for grocery shopping, most of the places I spend money I spend only a few dollars at.

UPDATE: Oops. The "stop minting pennies" was an April Fool's joke. A new trouble with doing an internet search while blogging to satisfy a random curiosity!