Some Republican lawmakers have come up with the idea to replace FDR's picture on the dime with Ronald Reagan's. The project seems unlikely to proceed, considering that Nancy Reagan is opposed.
Nancy Reagan voiced her opposition Friday to an attempt by Republican lawmakers to put Ronald Reagan's likeness on the dime in place of Franklin Delano Roosevelt.Just because there's one face on coin now doesn't necessarily mean it should be that way forever, but I understand where Mrs. Reagan is coming from. Personally, my biggest objection would be that President Reagan isn't dead yet, and I don't think we should go to such lengths to commemorate someone who is still alive. It's unseemly."While I can understand the intentions of those seeking to place my husband's face on the dime, I do not support this proposal and I am certain Ronnie would not," the former first lady said in a statement released Friday.
"When our country chooses to honor a great President such as Franklin Roosevelt by placing his likeness on our currency, it would be wrong to remove him and replace him with another," she said. "It is my hope that the proposed legislation will be withdrawn."
My alternative proposal is to mint an entirely new 18-cent coin to bear Reagan's image. We could then phase out the dime later. A change system that used 1-cent, 5-cent, 18-cent, and 25-cent coins would be 17% more efficient than our present system. The average number of coins needed per transation would be reduced from the current 4.70 to a mere 3.89!
Ideally, we should eliminate the penny entirely and round all final figures to the nearest nickel. Unfortunately, the big zinc-mining states would never go for that (zinc is the major component of pennies).
I should have kept all those silver dollars my grandmother gave me when I was a kid.
There are several problems with the "rounding" scheme just to eliminate a coin.
First which way do you round? Round up? That essentially benefits the seller and penalizes the buyer on ever transaction -- essentially yet another tax. I'm sure lawmakers would quickly demand this dividend be passed through and paid to the government.
What if you round down? Then the buyer benefits and the seller, who makes many hundreds of similar transactions every day as opposed to a dozen per consumer, gets cleaned out and therefore raises prices or restrains growth/hiring to compensate over the long term.
If it aint broke DONT FIX IT.
France uses a rounding scheme in making change (or they did before the Euro) since there was no 1 centeme coin. Transactions which ended in either 0, 1, 2, 5, 6, or 7 centemes got truncated while transactions which ended in 3, 4, 8, or 9 centemes got rounded up.
If you used a "Eurocard" or equivalent, the transaction value was exact when being deducted from your account.
It's not nearly as complicated as all that. Sellers will tailor their prices to maximize their profit, just like they do now, based on demand. The invisible hand will take care of the details without any disruption.
Also, I believe the President would have to actually pass away before a dime could be issued anyway. I KNOW for currency that it is the law that only deceased people can be put on currency. Sort of funny, but back in the late 1800s, a bunch of people who ran the currency and printing department put THEMSELVES on currency (I find this pretty funny).
Anyway, congress passed a law stating that only deceased people can be put on currency. I assume there is something similar for coins, although I am sure our beloved ex-President won't be with us much longer based on reports I have heard about his condition.
Mitch: Past acts of Congress do not in any way restrict present acts of Congress. If Congress passed a law to put Reagan on a coin, there wouldn't be any legal problems.