I didn't realize Monroe, Adams, and Jackson were such heavy stoners.

Those are pretty hideous.

The George Washington looks like a ghost with those orb eyes.

Where's Millard Fillmore, then?

It is easy to buy small plaster models of what you think life is like.

Fillmore?  He's scheduled for 2010.  They're going in order of service.

Tomorrow I will be sober, but you will still be ugly.

Every night I empty my pockets of coin.  I keep four quarters for the next day and pop whatever else was there into an old Jim Beam promotional bottle (we're talking jereboam-sized bottle here).  I'll count and wrap the coins every year before we go on vacation.  It's a lean year when I don't have close to $800 in wrapped coin.

I wrap them myself rather than Coinstar because, as you point out, they deduct a percentage.  I tried using a coin sorter at the Commerce Bank and it was off by a substantial amount.  I had them give me back the coin and I would have gotten stiffed close to $200 by the machine they used.  When I say I wrap the coin, I use a coin sorting machine I bought years ago and the only additional money that costs would be for the wrappers themselves.  I used to be able to cage a bunch of wrappers out of my bank manager but they've changed their philosophy on that.  So I go to the Dollar store and get 50 wrappers for a buck.

Illegitimi non carborundum.

They ought to make one like the old ten franc piece that had a silver center with a sizable gold band around it. The smooth edges and gold collor of the Sacagawea dollar distinguish it from the quarter but I still found it too large and heavy for practical daily use.

It is easy to buy small plaster models of what you think life is like.

Yes, the Sacagawea version should have worked.  I have never actually seen one, I have been out of the US for too long.

There is some technical difficulty, as you point out, in carrying around coins which are large and heavy.  I don't think that the weight is actually too much to carry.  I don't know what the average weight of an American citizen is these days, let us say 180 pounds.  If an 180 pound person had to carry an additional pound of coins (and a pound is really a lot, as coins go, usually you would have less) it would not make a real difference.  But coins do tend to fall out of your pockets if you are not careful, and don't easily fit into the tiny coin compartments that many wallets have.  I personally have a small but adequate coin purse, which is separate from the bill-fold in which I carry paper currency.  It is a little pouch, closed by a zipper.  I used to use those flat silicone ovoids that you just squeeze to open, but I find that over time they get progressively stiffer until they become unusable; also they are not quite big enough for the quantity of coinage that I often accumulate.

It is important to have some awareness of the quantity of coins that you are carrying, so that you don't just endlessly acquire more when you obtain change from purchases that you make with paper currency, without ever spending the coins.  I spend them whenever I am buying something that is within the price range of my current coin supply, so they don't accumulate.  I never have more than about $10 of coins at a time, and usually less.

Paper money has its own annoyances.  It gets folded, wrinkled, torn, stained, written upon by inconsiderate people, it absorbs moisture, etc.  It is terribly vulnerable to damage, as compared to coins.  Coins can also be damaged, but not nearly as easily.  So, I like coins.  Of course, for larger transactions, paper is still better.  Although for really large transactions we have to go to credit cards or checks.  But coins have a useful role to play.

Pennies, however, I would not miss, were they to be eliminated.  The actual value of a penny is now so small, after all these years of inflation, that it seems ridiculously petty to even bother with it.  But we still do.  If an item costs (let us say) $78.36, you have to pay every penny of that amount; $75.35 would not do.

"Paper money has its own annoyances.  It gets folded, wrinkled, torn, stained, written upon by inconsiderate people, it absorbs moisture, etc."

Oh, I'm going to be getting the misogynistic lamb-basting for this one, but...

I've seen far too many young ladies (and only young ladies) wad-up paper money and pretty much ruin it.  Men and older women stick the bills in a wallet, and it probably lasts a lot longer that way.  

OTOH, I've gotten lots of $20 bills that were stained with the dye-packs from robberies, and I'm told that many bills are tainted with cocaine residue.  

For the time being, I'll just keep using a credit card.

there's only one way to find out...

   I've worked retail for the last couple years, and part of that at the cash register (less than 30 minutes a week, but it adds up over six years.) The money crunching you describe happens with both sexes, though if you wanted to say it was more common with the young, I'd have to agree. But I've stood there and watched some dude pull wads of cash out of a front pocket to pay for a video game more than once . . .

    Worst story I've ever heard, on the "ruined money" line, was a gent who bicycled, and kept his money in his sock.

    In Tucson, Arizona.

    In the summer.

    From what I was told, they let the bills dry for two hours before even trying to put them in a register.

Ex ignorantia ad sapientiam; e luce ad tenebras

Yeah, I organize the bills in my wallet by denomination every time I have a transaction. My gf otoh will look at me like I'm crazy for doing this but then spend five minutes rooting through her wallet before pulling out a wad of crumpled up cash. As far as where they've been...Where's George? is a site that always seemed cool but could never really maintain my attention.

It is easy to buy small plaster models of what you think life is like.

"Yeah, I organize the bills in my wallet by denomination every time I have a transaction."

Well, when I have to use cash, I do the same thing.  Bills in the wallet run from singles in the front to 50s in the back.  That's the way I learned it from my dad, and I can't escape it.  That style has worked well for me for 54 years, so I see no reason to change.  ;-)

there's only one way to find out...

I can speak with some authority to this wad problem: I never had it until I recently bought the cutest little tiny red leather wallet that has these really neat, accordion-like slots for credit cards -- much easier to see them and remove them. Plus, the wallet is so small that it fits any handbag or even my pocket. And it has a picture slot for my DL on the outside...as well as a gussetted coin pocket.

But the problem, as you've already surmised, is that the only space for paper money is one in which you have to fold it. I hate that and am embarrassed when I pull out this mess of cash, dropping bills as I do so.

It's so stinking cute, though. Gosh, I love being a girl... well, okay, so no, I'm not in your demographic, sad to say. And at my age, my money might as well be wrinkled too.

"Gosh, I love being a girl... well, okay, so no, I'm not in your demographic, sad to say. And at my age, my money might as well be wrinkled too."

God bless you, Sue.  At least you're honest about it.  It's just that I saw so many 20-something women where I used to work who literally wadded-up bills (not fold) that I could scream.  It would be better if the dollar coin would catch on, though.  They'd still fit in your little leather wallet.  ;-)

there's only one way to find out...

At least you're honest about it.

Not sure whether you're referring to my wrinkled wad or my...well, anyway, thanks.