Today’s news chum all has to do with money and coins, in one way or another:
- From the “C Note” Department: With the introduction of yet another redesign of the $100 bill, the LA Times has a nice photo-gallery of how the $100 bill has changed between 1860 and now.
- From the “A Penny For Your Thoughts” Department: Of course, the real goal of printing money is to make money. Ideally, a coin or bill should cost significantly less than its face value in raw materials and printing costs (the design cost is divided over the millions printed). This is clearly true for paper money, and most coins… except for the nickle and the penny. The nickle costs 5.79 cents, and the penny costs 1.62 cents to make. President Obama is looking to address this by making coins from cheaper material (such as an aluminum alloy or industrial porcelein), which has coin-operated vending machine operators upset that they might have to retool their machines. Note that this time, for now, they aren’t calling for the elimination of the penny, for fear of the inflation due to rounding up.
- From the “Rent Control” Department: Speaking of coins, Wired noted a significant 75th anniversary: the coin-operated parking meter. Of course, coin-operated meters may soon be a thing of the past. Los Angeles is installing meters with individual credit card readers—and what’s more interesting is that these are smart meters that will adjust the rate based on the time of day, how many meters in the vicinity are in use, and how long you have been parking in the space.
