Can't imagine why not? They been usin' 'em in casino's for years...why not in the biggest casino of them all...the Aussie ekono-moi They'd have to be pretty special or anyone could rip out a few backyard millions One asian country I was in (before I became interested in money) had coins made of either aluminium or magnesium...they were so light, they felt like plastic!
What I believe will happen is that our $5 and $10 plastic notes will become plastic discs, at around the same time as the 5 and 10 cent pieces are "retired". Aussies are used to these denominations being plastic. They will see the "coins" as a novelty. The current $1 and $2 coins are intrisically worthless anyhoo.
Japanese coins are very, very light. After a month there when we returned to Oz, our coins seemed so huge and unwieldy in comparison. The 50 cent especially felt like it was especially huge, like toddler toys being deliberatly oversized.
Maybe keep the commemorative 50s to get complete sets - and sell the set with one 1966 on ebay for $stupid.00
Japan aye? So that's where I was... All I can remember is waking up with a terrible hangover, an empty bank account and a bunch of wierd money in my wallet ...Oh yeah and my 20's were over
I have a normal household bucket in my bedroom that I throw all my change in after each day. If the handle breaks off when I try to lift it, I trade it all for silver Last time I did it I had about $1500 in change It took 3 trips to the bank though...
I've mentioned this above but here is a little excerpt I read that illustrates why coins are the ultimate way to hold emergency funds - say $1-2000 worth. -------------http://www.survivalblog.com/nickels.html What if Uncle Sam Decides to Drop a Zero? As previously noted in SurvivalBlog, inflation of the US dollar has been chronic, cumulative, and insidious. So much so that turns of phrase from old movies like "penny candy" and "its your nickel" (to describe the cost of a call on a pay phone) now seem quaint and outdated. When inflation goes on long enough, the number of digits required to express a price grows too large. (As has been seen with the Italian lira, the Zimbabwean dollar, and countless other currencies. One whitewash solution to chronic inflation that several other nations have chosen is dropping one, two, or even three zeros from their currency, in an overnight revaluation, with a mandatory paper currency exchange. The history of the past century has shown that when doing so, most governments re-issue only new paper currency, but leave the old coinage in circulation, at the same face value. This is because the sheer logistics of a coinage swap would be daunting. Typically, this leaves the holders of coinage as the unexpected beneficiaries of a 10X, 100X.or even 1,000X gain of the purcjasing power of their coins. Governments just assume that most citizens just have a couple of pocketfuls of coins at any given time. So if a currency swap were to happen while you are sitting on a big pile of nickels, then you would make a handsome profit. To "cash in", you could merely spend your saved nickels in the new currency regime.
Perhaps, but wouldn't you rather have a 5c that is now worth $5, $50, or even $500, Just adding some zeros ? and keep your Silver not saying it is a bad move but I know which I would rather get rid of.
I couldnt comment on the $10 coin being accepted after a revaluation. The cents are a different matter. But even here your profits are currently half those of having 5-10-20c pieces. See you can get the cent coins at face value. A $10 coin is already at 2x face to buy though you are getting metal value at that price. The problem I see with the $10 is that even after a revaluation, their silver value will exceed their face value. They retain their purchasing power anyhow.
How do you know that the Silver value will exceed the face value? Crystal Ball? If they drop two zeros, then a current $1000 debt could be paid with a $10 coin. Silver, if it has risen to $100 an ounce, will then be worth $1 an ounce in new dollars (after revaluation). Seems to me in this scenario that your $10 Sterling coin would be 10 times better than a kookaburra. If they drop more zeros, then the $10 Sterling is even more valuable relatively. If they only drop one zero, then you have a break even situation. And thats on the proviso that Silver goes to $100 before revaluation.
Your scenario is unrealistic. If two zeros have been added to currency through inflation, then an ounce of silver will more likely be $3000 an ounce or more rather than $100. Thats based on todays relative values. You are doing crystal ball gazing, whereas I'm making a realistic assumption that silver value would keep up with the inflationary zeros.
There is arguably some conditions that you might come out ahead with the shrapnel, but that is within a very limited range, and I personally wouldn't risk it. (My balls aren't crystal) But holding coins over paper is a no-brainer.
I see no harm, very little risk and potentially many benefits in having at least $2-500 in coins. Coming to notes, I dont know if Australia still has the ability to create paper notes like it used to; but that would be the first sign of tipping over into hyperinflation here. Plastic notes are more expensive than a paper note to produce, but make up for it in longevity. In hyperinflation the longevity premium is wasted. So the first sign of paper notes would mean most people are already 80-90% screwed. Anyone ignoring that sign would deserve to be totally wiped out.
Japan has been undergoing systemic high inflation for the past 30 years. So much so that most transactions have at least 4 zero's to them. They didn't reset their currency, the old notes and coins weren't recalled and are still valid... the population just got used to the larger numbers.
Their 50 coin has 4g of cupronickel and is therefore slightly less than our 10c piece. The face value in AUD is 60c so they have a fair margin till the approx 6c melt value overtakes the face value. Japan has changed its coin metals though. Prior to 1967 its 50 was nickel and 100 a silver alloy. In 1967 these became cupronickel and have remained so. Interestingly the 50 was pierced to allegedly make it more distiguishable from the 100 but the cynic in me says it was just a coin clipping exercise to reduce the nickel metal content. The Japanese have chosen their weights and materials well to minimise the problem of the coins becoming more valuable than melt. Our coinage is teetering at present. You can absolutely bet on it being changed in the coming years.
