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Comment by torgoguys | Hacker News Reader

That would probably be illegal in most jurisdictions in the US.

I don't understand the big fuss over rounding in the discussion of eliminating the penny. Rounding happens. We already round sales tax up or down to the nearest penny--this would just round up or down to the nearest nickel.

But while we are on the subject, I think we should eliminate nickels and quarters at the same time as the penny and just round to the nearest dime. (Let's put the 50 cent piece of of its misery while we are at it too--just dollars and dimes). Rounding to the nearest ten cents is plenty specific enough given the accumulated inflation/devaluation of currency over the years and you basically get to simply knock off one decimal digit of precision for each transaction which makes things more straightforward. Also, US dimes are small and lightweight, making them easy to carry relative to other coins.

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> Let's put the 50 cent piece of of its misery while we are at it too--just dollars and dimes

You forgot quarters, which are perhaps the most common coin. How about we eliminate pennies, nickles, dimes, half-dollars, and dollar bills, and just use quarters and dollars?

just dollars and dimes

Making change would require an average of 4.5 dimes, with a maximum of 9 that happens 10% of the time. Currently 9 coins are required only for 99 and 94 cents. (That's without half dollars, if you use them then it's only 8). If you have dimes and half dollars, it's an average of 2.5 and a max of 5.

Also, US dimes are small and lightweight

I find them to be too small. I like the simplicity of removing a decimal place, but I'd prefer penny-sized dimes and quarter-sized half dollars.

What ludicrous talk! You may as well suggest something equally as insane, like converting to metric units! /s

Then how do I know when my Mustang hits 88 bald eagle wingspan per Budweisercan?

Because I found it entertaining -

If we assume it takes about 15 seconds to chug a bud, and that an eagle's wingspan is about 6ft, this leads to 528ft/15s, or ~24Mph.

Either you need a faster car, you chug your beer quickly, or you grow some oversized eagles.

15 seconds to chug a bud is an eternity.

I choose to assume the man meant what he said, has a slowish car that can only hit 75mph, but can chug a beer in a respectable 5 seconds.

I was going to say, imagine no more sorting coins since we'd only have one kind - but then I realized I never do that anyway, the Coinstar machine does it for me.

And if you get a gift card instead of cash it's typically free. I did that and walked away with an 80$ Starbucks card. The other time, the machine had an issue connecting and a normal checkout clerk gave me cash directly, again no fee.

I've never understood why people use coinstar. I take a jar of coins to the bank and if I have an account with them, they throw it in their big coin counter and do it for free. Is this not a common service banks provide? I've only banked with a couple of banks (I'm in Wisconsin, USA) but they both do this.

Yes, but then I'd have to go to the bank just for that. The Coinstar machines are conveniently located in grocery stores and big box stores. And as dlhavema said, if you get your money as a gift card, it's free. Different Coinstar machines have different cards, but they all seem to have Amazon or Walmart.

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