It's coin madness

The Mint announced recently that it will be making some changes to the penny. Unfortunately, those changes do not include getting rid of the infernal thing. The redesigned penny will be released next year.
US Mint press release.

Soul Dog

Lunch at Soul Dog (a really good hot-dog place in Poughkeepsie, if you're not familiar).

• beef dog with Soul Sauce, red onion and kraut
• chicken sausage with chipotle sauce and caramelized onion
• order of Soul Fries
• Fizzy Lizzy tangerine soda (which I didn't like)

Total: $12 even.
Tender: A 20 and 2 Good Ones, plus a Good One in the tip jar.
Cashier reaction: Confusion ... enlightenment.
ACI: 0.1 had to point out that they were dollars.

However, on Sean's purchase before mine, she really missed it and was asking him for more money.

Spreading the word, educating the masses.

I'm also down to 8 Good Ones.

Return of the Half Dime?

A member of congress recently introduced a new bill that would replace the nickel with a new half-dime. While this is unlikely to see the light of day (this year at least), it is still of interest to those of us interested in changing US coinage.

But what does this have to do with dollar coins? It turns out that the half dime is a brother of the dollar coin, being one of the original US coin denominations. Also, like the new dollar coin, the new half-dime would reduce minting costs, due to less material being required. The suggested size of the new half-dime would be smaller than the current dime.

Would the adoption of a half dime be easier than that of the new dollar coins? Hard to say. From a heavy-pants perspective, half dimes would be much lighter than nickels, the bruisers of the coin world. A half-dime smaller than a dime would allow the diameter-to-value mapping to work better; silver coins' size would be representative of their value. This also means there is a chance that the new coin might be confused for another. Vending machines would need to change too.

No luck again

Once again, the 50/50 raffle at the club meeting. Same guy too.

Tender: 2 Good Ones
Response: "Jesus Christ, not these again!"
ACI: 0.7
Amount won: $0.00 as usual

The King

Value Meal, Kids Meal at the King of Burgers.

Total: $11.20
Tender: A 20, a Good One, and 2 thin dimes
Reaction: Absolutely none, A tenner back in change.
ACI: 0.0

Dollar Coin Circulates Blazingly Fast at Chinese Restaurant

Chicken with string bean and a Dr. Pepper.

Total: $7
Tender: A five and 2 Good Ones
Cashier Response: Didn't even blink
Anti-Coin Ire: 0.0

After paying, a friend of mine received one of my dollar coins as change. He then exchanged it for a Bad One (the mad fool!) with another friend, who then turned around and found Sean wanting to exchange it once more. This works out to a rate of about 100 transactions per hour for that one dollar coin. Unfortunately, only the first two were legit; the rest were propelled by like/dislike for the dollar coin.

Dirty Bad One

Found this on the Small Dollars site; I think this shall be the official poem of the Van Buren Experiment.