The US Dollar Bill Just Won’t Go Away

Does the US Government want to save $13.8 Billion over the next 30 years? According to estimates by the Government Accountability Office and others, that is the potential savings if we could just scrap the paper $1 bills and use coins instead. That is a lot of money, even by Washington standards. Senator John McCain introduced the COINS Act in June, along with Democratic Senators Mark Udall of Colorado and Tom Harkin of Iowa and Republican Senators Mike Enzi of Wyoming and Tom Coburn of Oklahoma. The bill seeks to phase out the paper dollar bills over the next four years.

     Previous attempts to introduce dollar coins have not been successful. The reasons are not always clear. Maybe it is because people think the coins are too big or too small or they will weigh down their pockets. There was a gold dollar in circulation from 1849 to 1889 but it was very small and easy to lose. That was a serious problem back in the days when a dollar could be a full day's wages. In 1979 the US Mint made the Susan B. Anthony dollar coins which were easily confused with quarters and widely disliked. That coin was discontinued in 1981. It was reintroduced in 1999 but still never caught on. Later there was the Sacagawea Dollar which was also widely disliked and short lived.

     Other countries have experienced great success introducing dollar coins. Canadians love their Loonies and Toonies which are $1 and $2 coins. Canada has experienced  ten times their estimated savings in their switch to coins. Britain and Japan have had similar success with their coins. The key to these successful conversions is that in all three countries they phased out or eliminated the paper dollars. Once you phase out the paper dollars and push the dollar coins into circulation, people will love them; at least that has been the experience in Britain, Japan and Canada.

     Government figures show that the Federal Reserve depots currently hold 1.4 Billion one dollar coins and the Mint has 51 million coins. The Mint has since reduced production of the one dollar coins.  We have plenty of inventory. The US Government has been slow to act due to Intensive lobbying by the suppliers of paper and ink used in paper bill production.

     The time has come to move this effort forward. The savings will be significant and the Federal Government should always be looking for ways to save money and reduce the almost $17 Trillion national debt.

Bruce Mitchell is an expert on currency equipment and is the owner of Mitchell Enterprises, a company that distributes money handling equipment and supplies to retailers and the banking industry. For more information visit the website at money counters

Announcing our newest Currency Counter the NEW NC-1100 Mixed Bill Money Counter

Announcing Our newest currency counter the  NEW NC-1100 Portable Mixed Bill Money Counter is now available. As an introductory offer and for a limited time we are offering these machines at less than $1,000 to the general public. The suggested retail is $1399 . Imagine buying a full feature discriminating mixed bill money counter with full-featured counterfeit protection from a LEADING Manufacturer for less than $1,000.

This machine has an optional rechargeable battery pack for portable operations and also has an optional USB printer for printing out the count results. Please watch our video  and visit our currency counter website for prices and ordering information

Help for Hurricane Sandy Victims

Business owners who had damages to Money Counters or Coin Counters during Hurricane Sandy can get help here

DID your business suffer damages to their money counters or coin counters due to Hurricane Sandy ? We want to help you. We are offering FREE value appraisals and damage estimates, reduced prices on rental machines, 50% off on all written insurance appraisals, reduced prices on currency counter repairs and help sourcing needed parts or manuals. Just contact us through our website count-money.com and let us know how we can help you recover from Hurricane Sandy damage. 

New APP Helps Blind People Count Money

A new, government-funded cellphone app will help the blind and those with visual impairments count their cash.

Those with Android devices can scan a bill with their phone's camera and the app will read the bill's denomination aloud.

The Education Department and the U.S. Treasury teamed up to launch the free app. U.S. Treasurer Rosie Rios says the "IDEAL Currency Identifier" is intended to give the blind more independence.

There's already a similar free app called EyeNote for Apple devices such as iPhones and iPads. The Bureau of Engraving and Printing says that app has been downloaded more than 8,000 times since its launch last year.  For all your money counting needs visit count-money.com

How to Manage a CASH Drawer

Retailers will benefit greatly by creating a procedure to account for the store's cash. These internal controls are necessary to prevent mishandling of money and to safeguard assets against loss. Not only do strong internal controls promote operational efficiency, they also ensure reliable accounting records.

The process of counting the money, reconciling the receipts and balancing the cash drawer creates an accountability of the day's transactions. This cash management system can be created at the same time store policies are established. 

We supply a  selection of  money counters and  Coin Counters to use when balancing and counting your cash drawers. These machines are faster, easier and more accurate than hand counting.

Why Balance?

Store management or cashiers can pull a sales report at any time during a shift. By adding the beginning cash in drawer to the daily sales figure, a retailer will know exactly how much money should be in the cash register at any given time. This is extremely useful:

• To avoid holding too much cash on the sales floor.
• If the store is robbed.
• When a customer complains about too little change.
• For discovering frequent overages/shortages for particular cashiers.
• To remove temptation of taking cash without documentation from the cash drawer.

How to Balance a Cash Drawer

Balancing a cash register usually takes place at the end of the day or at the end of a cashier's shift. The cash drawer and its contents should be taken to an office or other secluded area to prepare the report. If balancing the drawer after closing, be sure the sales floor lights are off and the door is locked.

Any overages and or shortages should be investigated. Human nature should be taken into account for minor errors and small amounts. However, frequent discrepancies could be sign of employee theft or may indicate further training is required for a particular cashier.

The starting cash on-hand is put back into the cash drawer and stored for the evening, while the deposit is prepared for the bank. All credit card slips, terminal reports and other register receipts can be stapled to the Daily Cash Drawer Report and filed by date.

Separation of Duties

For more accountability, consider using two people to balance the cash register. One person will count the drawer and create the daily cash report, while the other person prepares a bank deposit. Both staff members should sign the report indicating they are responsible for the figures shown. While no system can prevent fraud, this audit trail will help discourage collusion among employees.

At the beginning of the next shift, each casher should be assigned their own cash drawer. Have the cashier recount the cash in the drawer to verify the beginning balance. If accepting checks from customers, create a system to restrictively endorse all checks promptly as received. The internal control cycle of balancing a cash register starts all over.

Counting Machines

We sell a nice selection of money counters and Coin Counters to use when balancing and counting your cash drawers. These machines are faster, easier and more accurate than hand counting.

Woman Claims Walmart Workers Tore Up Her $100 Bills

A Texas woman is suing Walmart for false imprisonment and emotional distress, claiming the store detained her for two hours over counterfeit money that wasn’t counterfeit. Store employees tore up two $100 bills, Julia Garcia contends, then tried to return them to her when a police officer finally confirmed that they were genuine. Garcia was on a Christmas shopping trip for her children in 2010 when a cashier took her $100 bill, decided it was fake and tore it in half before bothering to check it with a counterfeit detection pen, according to the lawsuit. Even then, after the test showed the bill was real and its metal strip could clearly be seen, a manager came over and destroyed a second $100 bill that Garcia offered. The manager then made Garcia wait for two hours at the front of the store for police to arrive, in full view of other customers, the suit contends. When an officer finally showed up, he quickly confirmed that the bills were real and made the manager replace her money — but not before the Walmart employee tried to return the already-torn bills instead. Now, the store has a lawsuit on its hands. “The legal remedies for false imprisonment are the recovery of actual damages such as physical injuries, medical costs, value of lost, misappropriated or damaged property, if any,” says Christopher L. Davis, a consumer litigation and personal injury attorney near Dallas. “A successful plaintiff in a false imprisonment case can also recover damages for humiliation, shame, fright, mental anguish, as well as exemplary damages, if it is proven by clear and convincing evidence that the defendant acted with malice.” The plaintiff is seeking less than $74,900.

To see a full line of counterfeit detection devices please visit our website

US Mint Stops Minting $1 Coins

Nobody Wants the $1 Coins and The US Mint Finally Stops Making Them
The Wall Street Journal
5:56 a.m. CST, December 14, 2011

The U.S. government, its vaults stuffed with 1.4 billion one-dollar coins bearing the likenesses of dead presidents, has had enough of them. It is going to curtail production. "Nobody wants them," Vice President Joe Biden said Tuesday. That is for sure: The Mint says there are enough $1 coins sitting in Federal Reserve vaults to meet demand for a decade, and the inventory was on track to hit two billion by 2016. More than 40 percent of the coins that are minted are returned to the government unwanted, the Treasury said. The rest apparently sit in vending machines -- one of the few places they are widely used -- or in the drawers of coin collectors. What the coins don't do is get around much. In fact, the Mint has never had much luck with dollar coins. The Susan B. Anthony dollar (1979-1981, revived for one year in 1999) never caught on; some people said it was too close in size to the quarter. Neither did the Sacagawea Golden Dollars (2000-2008) or its successor, the Native American $1 Coin, which has the same front but a different back. But that didn't discourage Congress. In 2005, it mandated that the Mint make $1 coins with the likenesses of the presidents, four each year between 2007 to 2016. So far, the Mint is up to James Garfield, the 20th president. Next up: Chester A. Arthur. "And as it will shock you all, the call for Chester A. Arthur coins is not there," Biden said at a Cabinet-level meeting of a campaign to cut government waste. Arthur fans needn't fret. The Mint will keep producing the presidential $1 coins on schedule, but will only make enough to meet collector demand and no longer attempt to circulate them. By law, 20 percent of all dollar coins produced have to be Native American coins, so production of them will be reduced too. The move, the Treasury said, will save taxpayers $50 million a year -- or about 15 minutes worth of the federal deficit. The decision is a milestone of sorts in a long-running battle between those think it is wasteful to keep printing dollar bills that wear out and have to be replaced frequently, and those who hate the $1 coin and see it as the real waste of money because Americans don't like them. Peter Calabrese, a Roman Catholic priest who lives near Niagara Falls, N.Y., close to the Canadian border, is in the latter camp. He noted that Canada phased out its dollar bill when it introduced the $1 "loonie" coin in 1987. "You get used to it," Father Calabrese said. Other countries, such as the United Kingdom, also phased out small-denomination paper bills when replacing them with coins. Amid debates over taxes, health care and wars, the dollar-bill and dollar-coin camps have been waging war in Washington for years. A band of House Republicans is backing the Currency Optimization, Innovation and National Savings (COINS) Act that would eliminate the dollar bill. The two senators from Massachusetts, Republican Scott Brown and Democrat John Kerrey, countered with the Currency Efficiency Act, which aimed at curtailing what they said was "massive overproduction" of "the unpopular one dollar coin." Perhaps not so coincidentally, the company that makes the paper for the U.S. currency, Crane & Co., is based in Dalton, Mass. "There is more convenience in the form factor for the paper dollar and people are quite attached to how well it works," said Doug Crane, vice president of the company. "Coins tend to be a nuisance. They end up in jars or seat cushions." Americans also appear to be sentimental about their currency. Efforts to eliminate the penny because of the costs of producing it, or its limited utility, have gone nowhere, and the Mint says it is committed to producing the one-cent pieces. Tuesday's move by the Obama administration incensed those who have been promoting use of the dollar coin. "This makes zero sense other than getting a cute little headline," said Tom Schatz, president of Citizens Against Government Waste. The anti-waste group is among several members of what is called the Dollar Coin Alliance, which includes the vending machine trade association and the steelworkers union. The other side cheered, though. "These coins are a textbook case of wasteful spending -- something Americans just don't want or need," said Sen. , Republican of Louisiana, who has introduced a bill to kill the presidential $1 coin program.