Which is it?!
This headline came up in my news feed, from a very dubious source so I decided to investigate.
Headline after headline, many from identical sources, about how Walmart and Bank of America are either going to stop taking $1 bills or keep accepting them. The headlines read like a FUD article and I refuse to click through to read the details.
I can’t find a reputable news source for this story so I’m assuming it’s fake news.
It shouldn’t be this easy to manipulate news feeds.
The actual story is that the bank will stop accepting or exchanging damaged bills.
That sounds like a bank that shouldn’t get fresh bills from the mint, then.
Their plan is to not do their job. Check.
It’s one of the jobs of a bank though. They are supposed to exchange damaged bills and then exchange them with the mint, who then destroys them.
Honestly we need to get rid of the $1 bill generally but that’s a completely different post all together.
What do you replace them with? Coins have been tried and rejected by consumers a few times now.
Add a new currency called the buck which represents 1000 dollars. Over the next~200 years of inflation abolish the cent as a fraction of a dollar. When you reach a breaking point again, reintroduce a cent as a bill that represents 1000 bucks. Rinse and repeat every new inflationary super cycle.
When the $1 coins were released, most stuff in vending machines were still within the cost of a dollar. Thought I’m not disagreeing with your comment. Coins, for the most part, are relegated to coin jars and aren’t really “spent” in the same way that bills are.
The problem is that coins generally are just so inconvenient. I only hold onto them for the rare occasion where I need to feed a meter.
Edit: This conversation reminded me of a great YouTube video on the subject of how the shape of money makes it useful
How we gonna get rid of the $1 bill? We can’t even get rid of the penny.
That would be communism!
The BEP can still accept them, but I’m curious if BofA is actually doing this and if it’ll stand up. More FAQ’s can be read here