Your pet peeve, technical or otherwise.

[Sal Ammoniac]

Speaking of paying for things, years ago I had some old US red seal currency, but they were only worth very marginally over the face value. So I got kicks out of spending them at stores and seeing the reactions of the clerks. At one shop, the young clerk was probably born long after those bills vanished from circulation, and when she looked at what I handed her, she told me to wait a moment. She went to the side to speak to the manager, thinking it was counterfeit. The manager, realized what it was and whispered to her to accept it, probably thinking the bill was very valuable and he'd just made a good score by accepting it.

The U.S. Bureau of Printing and Engraving sells currency in uncut sheets (of 100, I think). I heard a show once where Steve Wozniak said he likes to pay for things in convenience stores by cutting $2 bills from a sheet of bills with scissors . In most cases, hilarity ensues because the cashier and manager think this is somehow not legal.

I've heard of one case where a guy (not the Woz) was arrested because a dumb store manager and even dumber cop thought there was no such thing as a $2 bill and hence it must be counterfeit.

[TimFox]

It is very hard to find two-dollar bills anymore.  When they were more common, some businesses made a point of paying their creditors with two-dollar bills to show the town how important they were to the local economy.

[themadhippy]

I miss the scottish pound notes,after england got rid of there pound note confused english shop keepers would occasionally  mistake them for a fiver.

[IDEngineer]

Prices that end in 0.99 e.g. $29,999.99.

Pah! That's peanuts. It would turn into $20,000 when justifying the purchase to the missus

It's simply a question of your algorithm, truncation vs. rounding. 

[james_s]

It is very hard to find two-dollar bills anymore.  When they were more common, some businesses made a point of paying their creditors with two-dollar bills to show the town how important they were to the local economy.

I have one around here somewhere. I'm not really sure WHY they exist but they certainly do.

[james_s]

I'm in the market for a new microscope, and prices are never available on any dealer websites--you always have to "request a quote". Unfortunately, requesting a quote means giving details like your email address and/or phone number to the company, which then results in a constant flurry of annoying calls/emails from sales droids. 

That is super annoying. Best to have a separate email address used just for that sort of spammy purposes.

[james_s]

It does work. Psychologically $4.99 is interpreted as significantly lower than $5. Personally I don't really care about that, but it annoys me that gasoline here is always priced with a 9/10th cent on the end, ie 2.969/gal. It shouldn't even be legal to price something in smaller increments than is possible with our currency denominations.

I bought an item in a supermarket that was marked up as 19.99 .I gave them a 20 note . And stood with my hand out . The girl said What ! . I'm waiting for my change.  She said I haven't got a 1.  I Said I'm not leaving till I get it and by law she has to comply  .
The manager turned up .
After a very heated argument I started to phone the police.  If the store takes 0.1 from 1000 customers a day . This is stealing .
In the end I got the only small coin available.  A half . So I paid 19.50 . They lost I won .
Always demand you correct change.  Every One counts 🤪

It's kind of ridiculous that it came to that. First of all they should have had a pile of pennies and other coins in the register drawer to make change. Second, if I were waiting behind some numbskull who was holding up the whole line over a penny I would happily take a penny out of my own pocket and give it to them to get the line moving.

[james_s]

Now those blasted Susan B. Anthony Dollar coins, when I tried to spend those, they'd typically think they were quarters, and ask me for more money.

On the flip side, more than once I have bought something, gotten change and then realized when I got home or sometimes days later that the clerk gave me Susan B Anthony dollars thinking they were quarters. I really don't know what they were thinking when those coins were designed though, they should have made them a different color or given them a unique shape. It's just common sense that coins should be very easy to identify, by sight, by touch and by mechanical means.

[Cubdriver]

Now those blasted Susan B. Anthony Dollar coins, when I tried to spend those, they'd typically think they were quarters, and ask me for more money.

On the flip side, more than once I have bought something, gotten change and then realized when I got home or sometimes days later that the clerk gave me Susan B Anthony dollars thinking they were quarters. I really don't know what they were thinking when those coins were designed though, they should have made them a different color or given them a unique shape. It's just common sense that coins should be very easy to identify, by sight, by touch and by mechanical means.

Bear in mind that they were designed by a government committee.  Common sense is not a requirement, and I would posit that it is actually discouraged in such an environment.

-Pat

[Labrat101]

It does work. Psychologically $4.99 is interpreted as significantly lower than $5. Personally I don't really care about that, but it annoys me that gasoline here is always priced with a 9/10th cent on the end, ie 2.969/gal. It shouldn't even be legal to price something in smaller increments than is possible with our currency denominations.

I bought an item in a supermarket that was marked up as 19.99 .I gave them a 20 note . And stood with my hand out . The girl said What ! . I'm waiting for my change.  She said I haven't got a 1.  I Said I'm not leaving till I get it and by law she has to comply  .
The manager turned up .
After a very heated argument I started to phone the police.  If the store takes 0.1 from 1000 customers a day . This is stealing .
In the end I got the only small coin available.  A half . So I paid 19.50 . They lost I won .
Always demand you correct change.  Every One counts 🤪

It's kind of ridiculous that it came to that. First of all they should have had a pile of pennies and other coins in the register drawer to make change. Second, if I were waiting behind some numbskull who was holding up the whole line over a penny I would happily take a penny out of my own pocket and give it to them to get the line moving.

Its Not the Penny its the principle  .
This is how the pyramid scam started .. Give me a Million Pennies and I will buy a new car  .   
Yes I will except your penny as well .

[TimFox]

It is very hard to find two-dollar bills anymore.  When they were more common, some businesses made a point of paying their creditors with two-dollar bills to show the town how important they were to the local economy.

I have one around here somewhere. I'm not really sure WHY they exist but they certainly do.

There is a superstition that the $2 bill is unlucky.  Years ago on TV, I saw a process server giving the recipient $2.00 as a traditional payment, but I can’t locate anything to confirm that—I thought it might have something to do with the superstition.

[DrG]

Now those blasted Susan B. Anthony Dollar coins, when I tried to spend those, they'd typically think they were quarters, and ask me for more money.

On the flip side, more than once I have bought something, gotten change and then realized when I got home or sometimes days later that the clerk gave me Susan B Anthony dollars thinking they were quarters. I really don't know what they were thinking when those coins were designed though, they should have made them a different color or given them a unique shape. It's just common sense that coins should be very easy to identify, by sight, by touch and by mechanical means.

It may only be my opinion, but they were not thinking at all when they made them because they new that they would never be used. They could have made them them with a different composition and a unique coin color like the subsequent Sacajawea and Presidential dollar coins but they are not popular either. The principle is simple, as long as you have a paper one dollar bill (lasts about 18 months) nobody wants the dollar coin (lasts about 30 years).

I have a whole set of them - stunning portrait - eh?


.. and speaking of Sacajawea, I am reminded of the line from Two and a Half Men....

Alan: Charlie, get your priorities straight; I'm trying to get him into a decent middle school! After he's accepted, he can learn that Sacajawea wasn't... [reading Jake's test answer]: "a bag full of Jawea".

[TimFox]

The difference in diameter between the “small dollar” coins and a standard quarter coin is  26.5 vs. 24.3 mm, and they were easily confused.  They were commonly used in USPS stamp vending machines, and in some public transportation (including Baltimore) systems.

[Bassman59]

It is very hard to find two-dollar bills anymore.  When they were more common, some businesses made a point of paying their creditors with two-dollar bills to show the town how important they were to the local economy.

I have one around here somewhere. I'm not really sure WHY they exist but they certainly do.

It's so our currency has denominations that match oscilloscope horizontal and vertical scale divisions: 1, 2, 5. (Which doesn't explain why we have a quarter dollar coin.)

[Bassman59]

Prices that end in 0.99 e.g. $29,999.99.

There is a local pizza joint that posts prices with oddball cents amounts. For example, a slice costs $2.76, not $2.75 or $2.99. A whole pie costs $18.40.

Sales tax in the city is 8.7%.

Do the math. The pizza guy is a genius.

[TimFox]

It is very hard to find two-dollar bills anymore.  When they were more common, some businesses made a point of paying their creditors with two-dollar bills to show the town how important they were to the local economy.

I have one around here somewhere. I'm not really sure WHY they exist but they certainly do.

It's so our currency has denominations that match oscilloscope horizontal and vertical scale divisions: 1, 2, 5. (Which doesn't explain why we have a quarter dollar coin.)

No $0.02 coin (since 1873), and $0.25 coin, but otherwise 1,2,5 up to $100 bill.  (Could be worse:  my AC voltmeters usually have 1,3,10 where 3 really means 10^1/2.)

[Sal Ammoniac]

I have a whole set of them - stunning portrait - eh?

When the U.S. mint was contemplating introducing a new dollar coin (to replace the Eisenhower dollar) they at first considered using a classical liberty design, like most U.S. coins prior to 1909. The proposed design looked like this:



The thing on the stick behind Miss Liberty is a Phrygian cap (liberty cap), which was used on many U.S. coin designs in the 1800s.

The reverse design was to look like this:


For political reasons, the liberty design was scrapped in favor of the Susan B. Anthony design. Why they chose that stern and austere portrait of her I don't know--there were many better ones they could have used. They also opted to use the same reverse design from the Eisenhower dollar.

[DrG]

It is very hard to find two-dollar bills anymore.  When they were more common, some businesses made a point of paying their creditors with two-dollar bills to show the town how important they were to the local economy.

I have one around here somewhere. I'm not really sure WHY they exist but they certainly do.

It's so our currency has denominations that match oscilloscope horizontal and vertical scale divisions: 1, 2, 5. (Which doesn't explain why we have a quarter dollar coin.)

No $0.02 coin (since 1873), and $0.25 coin, but otherwise 1,2,5 up to $100 bill.  (Could be worse:  my AC voltmeters usually have 1,3,10 where 3 really means 10^1/2.)

The US has issued 1/2 cent, 1 Cent, 2 cent, 3 cent (I like the silver ones but the nickel ones were cool also), and 20 cent pieces in addition to .25, .5 and 1. I have examples of all of them as do most US coin collectors who like type coins. I am leaving out all of the gold denominations and whatever else I forgot edit: and the five cent piece of course but also their predecessor the half dime..and the dime, so...as parts of the dollar

.005 .01 .02 .03 .05 .10 .20 .25 .50 and 1.0 what does that function  look like, what is the best fit equation for that? Why would I care?



A 4th degree polynomial fits ok but the 20 cent piece is problematic - no wonder they only made them for a few years.
Order 4

Coefficients:
b[0]   0.1375
b[1]   -0.1962082362
b[2]   0.0864495921
b[3]   -0.0140918803
b[4]   8.2604895105e-4
r ²   0.994817189

[IDEngineer]

I deeply appreciate places (like the pizza place mentioned above) that scale their prices so the end result, including tax, is a "round number" in the given context. For example, food trucks should always price things in unit dollars and adjust the amount of food given appropriately. Their lines speed up (which gives a better customer service experience), they minimize how many different denominations of change they must maintain, etc.

On the other hand, for normal retail sales I WANT the taxes listed separately. In big bold numbers. Thus reminding people every time they buy something of just how much they're losing to the government. Yes, government is necessary, but it's probably where the term "necessary evil" originated and its funding source (read: taxpayers) should be reminded of their burden each and every transaction.

Oh, and tax day should move from April 15th to the day immediately preceding Election Day.

[james_s]

It may only be my opinion, but they were not thinking at all when they made them because they new that they would never be used. They could have made them them with a different composition and a unique coin color like the subsequent Sacajawea and Presidential dollar coins but they are not popular either. The principle is simple, as long as you have a paper one dollar bill (lasts about 18 months) nobody wants the dollar coin (lasts about 30 years).

There's no real reason they couldn't be used though, if they gave them a unique look so as to not be confused with other coins and then simply stopped printing dollar bills people would use them. Most of our coins are kind of laughably worthless these days thanks to inflation. Pennies are a joke, I don't even want them and when offered change I often just leave them on the counter for someone else. I'm just old enough to remember when you could still buy a gumball from a machine for a penny but it's been years since I've seen anything that cheap and even nickels aren't worth the weight and bulk to carry around, I only bother with dimes because they're so small. A dollar coin now is probably worth about what a quarter was in the 50s or 60s.

[james_s]

I deeply appreciate places (like the pizza place mentioned above) that scale their prices so the end result, including tax, is a "round number" in the given context. For example, food trucks should always price things in unit dollars and adjust the amount of food given appropriately. Their lines speed up (which gives a better customer service experience), they minimize how many different denominations of change they must maintain, etc.

On the other hand, for normal retail sales I WANT the taxes listed separately. In big bold numbers. Thus reminding people every time they buy something of just how much they're losing to the government. Yes, government is necessary, but it's probably where the term "necessary evil" originated and its funding source (read: taxpayers) should be reminded of their burden each and every transaction.

Oh, and tax day should move from April 15th to the day immediately preceding Election Day.

IMO the tax should be listed in smaller numbers on the price tag with the main price including the tax. It makes no difference as far as people understanding how much they pay in taxes anyway, most ordinary people have a complete mental disconnect, I've even met a few otherwise fairly intelligent people who couldn't grasp the connection between the efficiency of their appliances and lighting and what they pay each month in utility bills. As far as tax goes, sales tax does not irritate me too greatly, at least I have some control over how much I pay. The one that gets me is property tax and with property values soaring this one really stings. I don't want to derail things into politics but every election it seems like there is another levy, just a few pennies on the dollar of property value to fund this or that, it doesn't sound like much and they almost invariably pass but my property taxes have increased by more than $1200 a year since last year. That's money out of my pocket, and my home value is wealth only on paper since I need a place to live. I could choose to some degree how much to spend on a house when I bought it but I have no control over what the values do after that, I would love it if they totally crashed. Even if it dropped to 1/8th the current value I still wouldn't be under water.

[DrG]

It may only be my opinion, but they were not thinking at all when they made them because they new that they would never be used. They could have made them them with a different composition and a unique coin color like the subsequent Sacajawea and Presidential dollar coins but they are not popular either. The principle is simple, as long as you have a paper one dollar bill (lasts about 18 months) nobody wants the dollar coin (lasts about 30 years).

There's no real reason they couldn't be used though, if they gave them a unique look so as to not be confused with other coins and then simply stopped printing dollar bills people would use them. Most of our coins are kind of laughably worthless these days thanks to inflation. Pennies are a joke, I don't even want them and when offered change I often just leave them on the counter for someone else. I'm just old enough to remember when you could still buy a gumball from a machine for a penny but it's been years since I've seen anything that cheap and even nickels aren't worth the weight and bulk to carry around, I only bother with dimes because they're so small. A dollar coin now is probably worth about what a quarter was in the 50s or 60s.

Absolutely we would use them (ignore the color similarity with the SBA in favor of the more recent version) if there were no bills. That's what other countries do and it would save us money, but it just is not happening. Also agree that the one cent coin is problematic, especially those times when it cost more to mint than one cent (same with the five cent piece) https://www.coinnews.net/2021/02/23/penny-costs-1-76-cents-to-make-in-2020-nickel-costs-7-42-cents-us-mint-realizes-549-9m-in-seigniorage/

Maybe the theory is to keep on cranking until nobody is using anything but electronic money - who knows? I still can't believe that pillow guy gave a cyber security symposium.

[AaronLee]

There is a local pizza joint that posts prices with oddball cents amounts. For example, a slice costs $2.76, not $2.75 or $2.99. A whole pie costs $18.40.

Sales tax in the city is 8.7%.

Do the math. The pizza guy is a genius.

When you think about it, it makes no economic sense for the U.S. to continue to use 1 cent coins, or even 5 cent coins for that matter. The 1/2 cent coins were discontinued some 160 years ago. Checking an online inflation calculator that only goes back to 1914, 1 cent in 1914 adjusted for inflation is 27 cents in 2021. If you go back to the 1850, I imagine it's even more. So eliminating (stop producing) the 1 cent, 5 cent and 10 cent coins, and make a law that all prices from here on will be rounded to the nearest 25 cents, would be comparable to the same situation back in the 1850's. Producing low denomination coins with extremely small value cost the government money to produce, and costs businesses time to deal with. Or just wait a few more years, with inflation coming back, and simply eliminate cents all together and make the dollar the lowest denomination. For me personally, I stopped using coins/currency a long time ago, except for certain cases where a credit/debit card isn't accepted, or if traveling to a foreign country. It's just a hassle to me to deal with physical money.

[james_s]

There is a local pizza joint that posts prices with oddball cents amounts. For example, a slice costs $2.76, not $2.75 or $2.99. A whole pie costs $18.40.

Sales tax in the city is 8.7%.

Do the math. The pizza guy is a genius.

When you think about it, it makes no economic sense for the U.S. to continue to use 1 cent coins, or even 5 cent coins for that matter. The 1/2 cent coins were discontinued some 160 years ago. Checking an online inflation calculator that only goes back to 1914, 1 cent in 1914 adjusted for inflation is 27 cents in 2021. If you go back to the 1850, I imagine it's even more. So eliminating (stop producing) the 1 cent, 5 cent and 10 cent coins, and make a law that all prices from here on will be rounded to the nearest 25 cents, would be comparable to the same situation back in the 1850's. Producing low denomination coins with extremely small value cost the government money to produce, and costs businesses time to deal with. Or just wait a few more years, with inflation coming back, and simply eliminate cents all together and make the dollar the lowest denomination. For me personally, I stopped using coins/currency a long time ago, except for certain cases where a credit/debit card isn't accepted, or if traveling to a foreign country. It's just a hassle to me to deal with physical money.

In principal I completely agree, but don't underestimate the power of nostalgia. They have tried to axe the penny on a few occasions but people go nuts. Personally I think the simplest thing to do is just quietly reduce the number minted to something insignificant, then technically they haven't gone anywhere but at least we aren't wasting resources making millions of them.

I rarely actually USE currency anymore but I still generally carry $30-$100 in my wallet just in case as almost everyone will accept it.

[IDEngineer]

As far as tax goes, sales tax does not irritate me too greatly, at least I have some control over how much I pay.

Oh, I completely agree. In fact, income taxes should be eliminated in favor of a National Sales Tax (NST). I am NOT talking about a VAT (Value Added Tax), that makes everyone a tax collector. I'm talking a pure NST at the point of retail sale, period. If you exempt the basics (food, shelter, medical) it becomes automatically progressive... if you're only buying necessities you pay zero tax, and as you have more disposable dollars your tax scales accordingly. This syncs up with the desire of the Left to tax the wealthy more heavily while exempting the poor.

The REAL power of the NST comes from its efficiency. No more annual "tax day", the government gets its revenue continuously throughout the year. Paperwork for individuals goes to zero - no tax returns whatsoever. Same for most businesses, except for those with a retail presence. If we're honest, "businesses" don't pay taxes anyway; their taxes are paid by their customers and the business is just an unpaid tax collector. So let tax collection ride on the existing infrastructure for sales taxes. Individuals save time and money by not having to prepare tax returns; same with most businesses.

Last I checked, "tax compliance" in the United States consumed $600B every year. Plus a whole lot of trees. Compliance is a pure waste of resources. The NST would shrink that by 95% and put all that time and money back into productive uses.

Would there be loopholes? Of course. No system is perfect. But an NST would automatically make every person a contributor to society. No more free rides. Even if you're here illegally, or you're super rich, or if you're a tourist from another country, no matter your circumstance, if you spend disposable dollars on something beyond the basics you contribute to funding the government that makes society possible. That's as fair as I can imagine, and the NST does so with zero direct paperwork for individuals. It can be made revenue neutral with respect to today's income tax simply by dialing in the national tax rate. Last I checked, the estimate was 17%. Sounds high, but "it's in there already" so why not collect it efficiently, include everyone who benefits from society, and eliminate paycheck withholding and quarterly estimates and April 15th and all the rest of it for the same number of dollars delivered to the Treasury.

The one that gets me is property tax and with property values soaring this one really stings.

Agreed. Property taxes have a lot of rotten side effects. The worst one is that a family's home can be seized by the government if they fall on hard times and cannot pay. There's something diabolical and wrong when the government can render you homeless like that. Property taxes are generally levied based on "improvements" which evilly encourages owners to demolish buildings in favor of parking lots in commercial areas. That's just bass-ackwards... is that really what we want, more "unimproved" properties with cars parked on them?

Again, I'm not an anti-tax zealot. Taxes are necessary because government is necessary. But at least in the USA we seem to have devised the most inefficient, unfair collection method imaginable. And then forced the participants to pay even more time and money in compliance. And then, in the case of property taxes, threaten to seize their homes if they cannot pay. Surely we can do better.

{/rant}