Soooo...I was in at the bank last week and had a great discussion with the teller there. She has been in banking for over 20 years and despite using this bank for the past 3 years, this was the first time we had a chance to gab. This was a bank in California by the way. She said 2 things that I thought were very interesting...
First we discussed the issue of the US dollar coin which despite being issued by the government, people refuse to use. Apparently there have been millions issued over the years but they are not in circulation because people refuse to use them. In discussing all of this, I asked her why the government simply didn't make the banks exchange the notes for coin, therefore, controlling and forcing the use all at once. She told me that it's because Americans don't want to use the coin and 'we're and independent people'...at which I started chuckling away. Since the coin costs less to use, it saves money and makes sense and not using it doesn't make the people independent at all - it just makes them look foolish. In addition, with all the environmental laws that force people to reuse/recycle, the coin is in fact more environmentally friendly than the note, so from that perspective it still makes more sense to use the coin.
While we were chatting about this, my husband was withdrawing some cash and she handed him a check to fill out. He has never had to do this in the 3 years he's been using that bank so he asked her why he had to now? It wasn't a problem, he was just curious. He told her that usually the teller just filled out the check for him and he got the money. Her response was enlightening but extremely troubling - she said that the majority - 80% of the people who come into the bank - cannot fill out their own checks and deposit slips which is why the tellers automatically do it for everyone. She said that this 80% don't write or read well enough to process these requests themselves. I was apalled. I knew that according to the latest stats that illiteracy has risen dramatically over the years - with close to 70% unable to read even a simple bus schedule - but I guess I didn't think that long on it. We didn't get into the reasons why the problem exists...maybe another day. Anyway, just an interesting conversation into the workings and reality of someone in the banking industry which I thought was interesting...sammieswife.
examine the life cycle of the coin dollar and the paper dollar (note) to determine if one was better for the environment. On the economic front: the dollar note costs 4 cents to produce with an average lifetime of 18 months. The dollar coin costs 8 cents with an average lifetime of 30 years. Information was collected from the United States Federal Government through the Department of the Treasury, the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, and the United States Mint. To prevent counterfeiting, these sources did not provide all details to the process, requiring some assumptions about the process to be made. However, the most important observations include the lifetime for the coin and note, 30 years and 1.5 years respectively, and the recycling and disposal of the two types of dollars. The coin is completely recycled into the production process after leaving circulation, where 90% of the dollar note is placed in landfill after leaving circulation and the other 10% is recycled as ROOFING SHINGLES! They recommended that the one-dollar note be phased out and completely replaced by the coin dollar.“The paper note is made from 75% virgin cotton 25% linen blend of paper, and industrial oil based ink is used to produce the coloring on the paper. A reusable metal plate is used to imprint the design on the note. Only non-recycled cotton and linen may be used in the printing of the paper note. The paper dollar is bleached and shredded after circulation and only 10% is recycled as roofing shingles. The other 90% is placed in landfills The coin dollar is made from 88.5 % copper (Cu), 6% zinc (Zn), 3.5% manganese (Mn), and 2% nickel (Ni). The process allows for a complete recycle of the metal used to manufacture the coin, including the final coin when it comes out of circulation and all metal waste from the process itself.”