In Australia they don't use pennies. They round up or down, unless it is a plastic transaction. They don't seem to have any problems with it at all. There are a lot more 50 cent pieces in circulation, and they have a $1 and a $2 coin as well, so no $1 bills anymore either.

I think coins are much dirtier than bills. People are dropping coins all the time, and most panhandlers and beggars are paid in coins. Coins have a lot of nooks and crannies for stuff to lodge into.

I think we should go back to shells and beads.

It will be interesting of how many of these new dollars will actually be in circulation. My understanding was that only 300 million of the first coin were minted. That is a tiny number for the mint.

By the end of the day on Thursday ebay had the coins selling for $3.95 each. The Home Shopping Network were offering mint rolls for $49.95 plus shipping and handling this weekend!

I picked up 8 rolls the first morning and my credit union ran completely out by the end of the first day. The federal reserve bank was limiting distribution of the coin.

Thats annoying, I was going to stop by the bank near my work and pick up a few, I bet they are all out too.

I like saving all coins, roll them up, store them in an ammo can, and know they are available if a hurricane shows up, or some other kind of problem, and I need to leave quickly. I call this my "up anchor" money after a comment made in the book, "Reilly's Luck" by Louis Lamour.

I went and got $30 worth today. Put the roll of $25 in the safe to hold onto. They're pretty neat. I'm going to try to use them more frequently.

Personally, I love odd money. I love the look on the faces of people when I pay in 2 dollar bills or dollar coins. And I really love it when they (mostly teens and 2 dollar bills) freak out and try to say that I am trying pass counterfeit bills.

I was only able to get one roll of the new coins from the bank but got 10 dollars worth from a friend. It has been fun spending that ten bucks

Had a chance to handle some just the other day and they feel too much like quarters, Again! Actually they Will be mistaken, or not, for quarters. I carry very little change and especially don't carry those pesky pennys that seem to get everywhere. I will Not be carrying any of the new gold quarters, I mean dollars. Now were can I get a heavier belt to hold the 511's up?

They have to be roughly the size of a quarter or smaller to fit in the coin slots we have in use today. If they made them bigger, than every machine that accepts coins would have to be redesigned (which would cost buisness owners a lot of money, it would even cost me a few grand because of the change machines in a laundry mat I own). By making them the same size it is just a matter of a simple software upgrade.

The point of the dollar coin is they are trying to catch up with inflation. Now it takes a dollar to pay for what a quarter used to do. If you go to a big arcade/boardwalk all the games are now dollar games, in the 90's the majority of them were quarter games.

"...in the 90's the majority of them were quarter games..."

I can remember when they were called "Penny Arcades" for a reason. Sometimes I feel really really old...

My grandmother told me that when she was a little girl her father would give her a quarter. That quarter was enough to ride the bus to the movie theater, buy a ticket, buy popcorn and a soda, than ride the bus back and still have change left over for penny-candy.

Today, that would cost somewhere in the neighborhood of $30.