I just returned from a vacation in Ecuador (which is spectacular) but wanted to post about a wonderful feature of their monetary system.

Ecuador does not have its own currency but instead uses the US dollar as their only currency. US dollar bills and coins are used everywhere, which is very convenient for visitors. But they do two intelligent things.

* They do not use paper $1 bills, but instead rely almost solely on the US-minted Sacagawea dollar coins for transactions.

* They generally do not use pennies but instead round transactions to the nearest nickel.

(They do mint their own Ecuadorian US-size dimes, quarters and nickels to make up for their shortage, using the same front side but a different reverse. They must have imported millions of $1 dollar coins.)

Wouldn’t be nice if the US adopted this system!