[Vision2020] New American binary money

[Kenneth Marcy]

     While thinking about other things, it just occurred to me that 
American money could be improved by replacing the coins and bills with 
binary-denominated amounts.  There would be five coins, starting with a 
two-penny coin, and each subsequent coin would be worth four times its 
predecessor.  So, 2 cents, 8 cents, 32 cents, 128 cents, and 512 cents.  
The bills would follow a similar pattern, with 2, 8, 32, 128, and 512 
dollar bills.  And, yes, the value of the smallest bill is four times 
the largest coin.  Five coins and five bills should fit into the usual 
cash register configurations for those who decline to do business with a 
hand-wavy electronic device picking up a product bar code and then 
extracting monetary bits from a customer account.

    The idea of an almost five-dollar coin should make the vending 
machine community perk up, and the idea of receiving a single-bill 
compensation rate per week, and not being below the poverty level, is a 
novelty not recently experienced in this country.


Ken