Alright, hear me out: with Americans talking about finally doing away with their penny coins (something Canada did over a decade ago), I think it's time Canada went a step further and got rid of our 5 cent coins. And the quarter! We should redesign our small coinage entirely: new 10, 20 & 50 cents! - ThreadSky

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markparsons.bsky.social • 14 days ago

Alright, hear me out: with Americans talking about finally doing away with their penny coins (something Canada did over a decade ago), I think it's time Canada went a step further and got rid of our 5 cent coins. And the quarter! We should redesign our small coinage entirely: new 10, 20 & 50 cents!

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markparsons.bsky.social•14 days ago

The coins are the size, shape and colouration they currently are only as a vestige of when they were made of silver. The old silver 5-cent was replaced with a larger nickel one in the 1920s, but otherwise they've been basically the same size since. Except now they're not made of precious metals.

markparsons.bsky.social•14 days ago

So why keep them, other than inertial resistance to changes? We should make new 10, 20 and 50-cent coins that people would actually use. Make them all different colours, instead of all silver: e.g. make a copper-coloured 10¢, a brass 20¢ & silver 50¢. Make the 10¢ not so teeny tiny.

markparsons.bsky.social•14 days ago

The only reasons we have 25¢ coins are 1) a vestige of using Spanish dollar coins (which were divided into eighths, hence why 25¢ = 'two bits') in colonial times, and 2) the Americans' hated that the 20¢ coin minted by the Province of Canada in 1858 was too easily confused with their quarter-dollar.

markparsons.bsky.social•14 days ago

Nowadays the coins aren't made of precious metal, & Americans despise Canadian coinage altogether, so let's stop tying our coin designs to theirs! 10-20-50¢ coins make much more sense than 5-10-25¢. All other major world currencies do it that way. Our banknotes are that way, we don't have $25 bills!

markparsons.bsky.social•14 days ago

E.g. public transit fare; $3.70 in Calgary last year. Smallest combination of coins? $2 + $1 + 25¢x2 + 10¢x2. Would've been 50¢ + 20¢ in small coins if we had them. $3.80 fare this year = $2 + $1 + 25¢x3 + 5¢; would be 50¢ + 20¢ + 10¢ instead. Make em more convenient like this & people will use them

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