The Primary Currency Denomination

This has been added to the compound posting "Economics", November 2019.

Each country has it's denomination of currency, dollars, euros, pounds, pesos, and so on. What I mean is the one that is most-used. The dollar, for example, is the denomination of American currency but hasn't been the primary denomination in decades.

The primary denomination changes over time due to inflation. A good place to see what the primary denomination is can be found at ATMs. What is the denomination dispensed by ATMs? That is the primary denomination of that country.

The denomination of American currency is dollars, but the primary denomination is twenty dollars. In a high percentage of economic transactions involving cash the buyer will hand over the primary denomination, and get lesser denominations back as change.

The primary denomination is virtually always issued as bills, rather than as coins. A sure sign of a shifting primary denomination is for a country to switch lower denominations from bills to coins.

A long time ago in America, maybe in the 1950s, a dollar was indeed both the denomination and the primary denomination. As change there were quarters, 25 cents, dimes, ten cents, and nickels, 5 cents.

Today the primary denomination is twenty dollars. Five dollar bills are the new quarters. One dollar bills are the new nickels.

The primary denomination shows up in other ways. The total price of a meal in an ordinary restaurant, including drink and tip, tends to be right around the primary currency denomination. If adults, of ordinary economic status, bet on a sports event the amount most likely to be bet is the primary denomination. The average price of admission to a show or event for two tends to be right around the primary denomination.

But the best indicator of what the primary denomination is can be seen as the bills ordinarily dispensed from ATMs.