I love thinking about problems like that. Yes it is impractical and unlikely to result in any change but it also helps illuminate relationships (like # of coins in your change) that you might not otherwise see.
Of course, as an economist Patrick (the person asking the question in the article not the author) ignores what is most important about choosing coins "Can the teller give you change quickly and accurately?" That is the important question because GDP depends on transaction flow, and anything that hinders transaction flow is a net negative on GDP[1].
Using the Suica card in Japan I was reminded again of how useful it would be if the government would just bless a pure stored value cash card. Yes, I understand the arguments against it (mostly based on surveillance IMHO) but still it would be a useful thing in terms of getting us to 0 coins per transaction. :-)
[1] Yes, I subscribe to the theory that GDP is inherently a time based numbers "value per unit time"
The other doesn't discuss the 'prices' vs 'currency' question which would relate to your sentiment. Recently visited Japan where they have a lot of different coins, 1, 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, 500 yen. We don't talk a lot about dollar coins, but they were there to replace the $1 bill which gets worn out. A $5 coin (like the the 5 L coin in the UK) would be the 'you can get a meal with one coin' coin.
Of course, as an economist Patrick (the person asking the question in the article not the author) ignores what is most important about choosing coins "Can the teller give you change quickly and accurately?" That is the important question because GDP depends on transaction flow, and anything that hinders transaction flow is a net negative on GDP[1].
Using the Suica card in Japan I was reminded again of how useful it would be if the government would just bless a pure stored value cash card. Yes, I understand the arguments against it (mostly based on surveillance IMHO) but still it would be a useful thing in terms of getting us to 0 coins per transaction. :-)
[1] Yes, I subscribe to the theory that GDP is inherently a time based numbers "value per unit time"