Why do we even have physical currencies in this day and age?

[Deleted]

I never have cash (Sweden). Always pay with my VISA card.

It's a bit inconvenient at times though. For example when you wanna order pizza delivered to your door, cash is pretty much needed around where I live.

[furriusmurrius]

As long as there are drugs there will always be physical currency.

[Wrestler10307]

If it was up to me, I'd remove all electronic currency(but leave it in as a convenient alternative) and paper currency and reintroduced precious metal coins.

Why? Because that would give money a real value instead of worthless paper of a few bytes in some computer that could be gone if some decides so. With precious metal currency, the whole country can fall but money would still be valuable. This would also stop governments from being able to devalue money by printing more of it on a whim. Make more coins? Gold is still gold and silver is still silver so you wouldn't lose anything from it.

Um, What? You'd remove electronic currency but leave it? Also who is going to be in charge of making sure all coins are their pure respective metals? Gold is too soft to make into coins, you'd end up with a pile of bent/broken gold after a while. This would also require a complete restructuring of the way we value money. Gold right now is over $1,600 an ounce. This would essentially make a coin the size of a quarter worth several hundred dollars, and even one the size of a dime would be easily over 100.

[dd614]

If it was up to me, I'd remove all electronic currency(but leave it in as a convenient alternative) and paper currency and reintroduced precious metal coins.

Why? Because that would give money a real value instead of worthless paper of a few bytes in some computer that could be gone if some decides so. With precious metal currency, the whole country can fall but money would still be valuable. This would also stop governments from being able to devalue money by printing more of it on a whim. Make more coins? Gold is still gold and silver is still silver so you wouldn't lose anything from it.

We have a winner. Thank you for understanding economics.

Money, whether it be electronic or paper, is worth nothing without precious metals to back it up.

[Laize]

If it was up to me, I'd remove all electronic currency(but leave it in as a convenient alternative) and paper currency and reintroduced precious metal coins.

Why? Because that would give money a real value instead of worthless paper of a few bytes in some computer that could be gone if some decides so. With precious metal currency, the whole country can fall but money would still be valuable. This would also stop governments from being able to devalue money by printing more of it on a whim. Make more coins? Gold is still gold and silver is still silver so you wouldn't lose anything from it.

Haha... "real value".

What gives precious metals a "real value"? Think about it.

ANY commodity only has as much value as people place in it as a medium of exchange. If society collapsed, what do you think people would want more? Gold coins or food/water?

No matter how much intrinsic value you think a bar of gold has, you can't eat it or drink it. It's much more unwieldy than paper or especially bytes of data.

Currency isn't meant to be valuable when society falls into a pile of rubble. Currency is meant to be valuable as a way to prevent it from collapsing into rubble.

To that end, we can place value in paper, gold, bytes or bottle caps (One day, I hope!) and all would be a perfectly valid currency.

[Catta]

Anecdotal evidence, however, is just that.

For a physical currency to be as secure as a digital currency, you'd have to counterfeit check every single bill that came through your point of sale. Even then you wouldn't catch every single counterfeit.

Talk about slow and vulnerable?

Anecdotal evidence however that holds the general problem with the machines at the core. Of course it is anecdotal evidence whenever a machine stops working - as it is usually working per default.

Physical counterfeits, not that it is a huge problem with our currency, are traceable - im not sure bits of 0 and 1 are as well...

[Dazzy]

Coins cost a lot of money to make. A quarter (the most efficient) costs about 7.5 cents to make while a penny costs 70% more than its face value ($.017) to create. They're unwieldy, almost no one likes them and most people just throw them in a jar or can when they get home for a yearly trip to a CoinStar machine. Coins are not worth the effort it takes to make them, is what I'm saying.

On the other end of the spectrum, $50 and $100 bills are the vehicle of choice for high-end crime (a cash only business) including human trafficking, drug cartels and arms deals. Oh, and North Korea has managed to produce perfect copies of US $50 and $100 bills, so our continued use of them enriches the Kim dynasty.

That pretty much leaves the $1, $5, $10 and $20 bills as being the most common while also being in denominations too small (save, perhaps, the $20) to be used effectively for high crime.

With the prevalence of digital technology, and the far superior nature of cryptography (Both in cost and effectiveness) to currency security, I see no reason we need a physical currency anymore.

Because I can walk by you in the mall with my $60 reader, walk 10 feet to the nearest store and max out every "secure" card you own. Technology will ALWAYS be behind the criminals, because it doesn't pay the best of the best enough to employ them.

[Dreyen]

Interesting topic, i happened to hear something about this on radio not too long ago.

In quebec, we have a lot of corruption getting found out thanks to our new permanent anti-corruption unit and because of a public comission against corruption in construction. What we find a lot is that all of the corruption works with paper money, people exchanging daily 100k++ in the form of 100$ bills (Which they hide in their socks.. lol). The party of the mayor of montreal even stacked up to several millions this way. What the guy on radio said is that if paper money stopped to exist, that corruption would stop because then any transaction would have to be recorded, thus barring any sort of illegal money exchange.

Imo big yes to removing physical money, at least anything above 20$ should never exist if only for corruption.

[Laize]

We have a winner. Thank you for understanding economics.

Money, whether it be electronic or paper, is worth nothing without precious metals to back it up.

Neither of you understand economics.

[Wrestler10307]

We have a winner. Thank you for understanding economics.

Money, whether it be electronic or paper, is worth nothing without precious metals to back it up.

The USD hasn't been backed by gold in a LONG time...

[Catta]

We have a winner. Thank you for understanding economics.

Money, whether it be electronic or paper, is worth nothing without precious metals to back it up.

Have you ever played Fallout? Do you think they have a Fort Knox to back up those bottlecaps? Or do you think they all just agreed to use it as a currency.

Money is backed up by trust.

[Thimagryn]

Cash is good for budgetting daily spending. I spend what's in my wallet for that week, if I'm out of cash then I overspent to early. I use credit for bigger purchases, monthly fees/expenses. Stuff like food and snacks, movies and other 'wants' I stick with cash.

[Wrestler10307]

Cash is good for budgetting daily spending. I spend what's in my wallet for that week, if I'm out of cash then I overspent to early. I use credit for bigger purchases, monthly fees/expenses. Stuff like food and snacks, movies and other 'wants' I stick with cash.

Same here pretty much.

[SirRobin]

Why do we even have physical currencies in this day and age?

I'm not sure what the big deal is. Its pretty much all Fiat money nowadays anyway. The only backing our money, whether analog or digital, has anymore is just "confidence."

[larrakeyah]

Neither of you understand economics.

Very bright (much smarter than anyone here) economists support going back to the gold standard. Very bright economists are against it too. Economics, not a hard science.

[Chrysia]

Very bright (much smarter than anyone here) economists support going back to the gold standard. Very bright economists are against it too. Economics, not a hard science.

Yes, but the person countering the claim that money is worthless without a precious metal to back it, understands economics better than the person making that claim. The evidence is the last several decades, that's actually approaching a century I think, of the US not using the gold standard, yet still having value for the currency.

[Deleted]

I would like to go back to the days of paying with a pouch of gold :O

[Yunru]

If you were maybe watching batman beyond they had a very good way for a money. A expendeable plastic cards with cash (wich can be refiled later).

Its kinda same as the credits cards but with a limit. If you had 10 dolars and a candy bar costed 1 dolar you just give the card too and you got 9 dolars back.

[breadisfunny]

because physical currencies are needed as backup incase electronic currencies go offline.

[Djuntas]

We'll, pay with card will be much more common. Older people (Sorry to sterotype but lets be real about this) just gotta get used to it aswell.

I dont like having cash on me, besides it fills up inn my wallet...annoying. Also less safe etc.