{"items": [{"author": "BDan", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/315701468506224?comment_id=315712131838491", "anchor": "fb-315712131838491", "service": "fb", "text": "It costs a lot to mint coins.  The U.S. government actually loses money on making pennies and nickels.  Even for the higher denomination coins, it would take a huge number to actually make a useful amount of money out of creating a surplus, and if they did presumably people actually would stop accepting them.<br><br>I'll also note from personal experience that even when a Canadian penny was worth less than 2/3 of an American penny, people in the border town where I grew up didn't bother to distinguish them.  Maybe they would have if someone had tried to spend several dollars worth of pennies, but it wasn't worth anyone's effort to try it.", "timestamp": "1337212655"}, {"author": "Andrew", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/315701468506224?comment_id=315831025159935", "anchor": "fb-315831025159935", "service": "fb", "text": "In my experience, US coins aren't useful all over the world (though I understand that they are more desirable than Ecuadorian centavos).  It's more true that US paper currency is useful all over the world.  Most non-USA banks and money changers aren't too thrilled messing with non-local coins or even small denomination bills, and if they change your small money at all, they'll take a higher proportional fee than for large bills.<br><br>And I agree with BDan, minting coins is expensive.  If you google, you'll find that the 2011 cost for minting pennies is 2.41 cents and for nickels 11.18 cents.  And they mint billions of pennies each year.  Do the math, yecch.", "timestamp": "1337227058"}, {"author": "Chris", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/315701468506224?comment_id=338437026232668", "anchor": "fb-338437026232668", "service": "fb", "text": "Where I grew up near the border in Michigan, with a similar conversion rate, I remember even quarters from Canada as being basically equal.  Sometimes people would avoid them as you suggest, but I would occasionally get Canadian change.", "timestamp": "1340659723"}]}