u/Free_Blackberry_200

i have an idea, its probably stupid, the government deflates our money by printing more of it, we all saw this with covid and were still paying for it, but what if we could actually use printing money to fight inflation instead of causing it.

The idea is simple, take a percentage of the bills you already print and make them collectible, like a shiney $20 or $50, limited run, new design every month or every year like stanley cup colours or pokemon card sets, people would hold onto them because they look cool and they know theyre scarce. Heres why it works, a pokemon card has no real value its just what someone is willing to pay, but a shiney $50 bill can never be worth less than $50, thats your floor, so theres zero downside to holding it, worst case you spend it at face value, best case a collector pays you more for it, people would naturally hoard these and that takes money out of circulation which is literally what slows down inflation. The rotating designs are key because it prevents overprinting, you cant flood the market with the january 2026 run because february is already out, the scarcity is built into the system through the design cycle not based on the governments willpower, people start wanting the full 2026 set then the 2027 set and it becomes a self sustaining collecting culture around our actual currency. This isnt like NFTs or crypto where something can crash to zero overnight, the face value is always guaranteed, thats what makes it fundamentally different from any other collectible, its the only collectible in the world where you literally cannot lose money on it. Were basically already doing this with commemorative coins but bills are actually cheaper to produce than coins and bills are what people use day to day, these wouldnt be sold from some special government store either, theyd be mixed into regular circulation so anyone could end up with one as change at tims, thats what makes it accessible for everyone not just wealthy collectors.

I know cash is less common now but thats kind of the point, this could give people a reason to engage with physical currency again, and theres no reason the concept couldnt extend to digital currency down the road, imagine a collectible digital dollar showing up in your banking app. This isnt meant to replace real monetary policy, its not going to single handedly fix inflation, but as a supplementary tool that costs almost nothing to implement and uses the same psychology that already works for sneaker drops and trading cards it just makes sense, canada could literally be the first country to do this, thoughts?

Gary Bettman should weigh my balls