Americans have had it with loose change. It bursts pockets, fills piggy banks, spills from the little change bowl by the front door. By one estimate, $10.5 billion in coins just sits around in people's homes gathering dust. What with fancy purses and expensive pocketbooks, "power wrappers," and automated coin sifters, it's fair to say that a decent chunk of that do-nothing change is spent simply trying to organize it.
Loose pocket change is a heavy, hidden burden. One dollar in various denominations can weigh more than three leather wallets. Photograph by Nick Veasey
Jeffrey Shallit has a suggestion. A mathematician at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Shallit recently analyzed the average handful of change and has devised a clever way to reduce its size. Getting rid of the 1-cent coin, a plot advocated by numerous antipennyists, would certainly help, he says. But Shallit's own scheme for reducing loose change involves the creation of an entirely new coin. What the United States needs, he says, is an 18-cent piece.
