This week, the US Mint released new $1 coins in the market place. This is the third attempt for the US Treasurery to get rid of the paper dollar and use something a bit more solid. With good cause too. According to this article the average life span of a dollar bill is about 2 years. The dollar bill is a frail piece of paper that get used over and over and over again. The bills are torn apart during their lifetime, and must be replaced. Any coin pretty much lasts forever.

I wonder why the dollar coin hadn't worked before. Maybe it's because it wasn't widely adopted so those with a dollar coin couldn't use it in it's most convience places, like vending machines and parking meters. There's also the psychological barrier of switching something so standard in our lives.

Well, i think about how money is generally used in Japan. Over there, they have coin currency up to 500 yen, or $5. Their standard lowest paper money is the 1000 yen note, or $10 bill. You'd think having more coins, would mean having more change to lug around all day long, but it's quite the opposite. When your coins have more value, you keep track of them a little better because of their worth, but also because you're using these coins whenever you pay for something. If you buy something for 425, you'll be reaching in your pocket for a 500 coin anyways, why not grab all your change and whiddle the excess down at the same time.

After we ran our food stand at the festival, we sold our tacos for 250 yen. An easy 3 coin purchase. So.. after we had our profits it was almost all coin. I changed up all the coinage for bills with my own money. I ended up having so many coins i couldn't even carry. But, each day i would grab a hand full, and stuff my little coin pouch and attempted to see what i could get rid of.

Very few places in Japan take credit card.. [/end of partial article]