THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, May 22, 1995 TAG: 9505180006
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A6 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: Short : 40 lines
``Small changes in coinage'' (editorial, May 11) suggests that dollar bills be replaced with dollar coins and pennies be eliminated as a cost-saving measure. You note that the Susan B. Anthony dollar coin was easily confused with a quarter and that the public was given a choice between the metal and paper dollar.
Your ideas leave something to be desired. In a government for and by the people, it is never a good idea to shove a bad decision down the public's throat just because it may be convenient for some bureaucrat.
We, as citizens, have a right to determine whether we are required to carry around a pocketful of heavy dollar coins we receive in change instead of dollar bills that will fit in the same space as bills in other denominations. During the Depression in the 1930s, there were some who insisted on coinage instead of paper because of instability of money - the coins contained real silver. This no longer applies.
As for the elimination of pennies from the money supply: Retail merchants would round fractional prices to the next higher level to gain as large a profit as possible. The most grievous harm, however, would be in the payment of sales taxes, which is now done almost everywhere with pennies on fraction-of-a-dollar balances. This would immediately raise our taxes by the amount to round up to the next nickel.
Try to multiply these pennies by the number of people paying sales tax in a single day and it adds up to many thousands of dollars - perhaps millions.
I urge our elected officials to hang tough on this matter and not stick it to the public as some would have them do.
DAVID E. BRYANT
Cape Charles, May 11, 1995 by CNB