Ed Zak

Don't say we can have both! Your average Wal-Mart shopper can't handle it. Shoot, there is a huge number of the populus that actually believes that SAC coins are made of gold and worth more than...well, a $1! Hence, they are hoarded and end up in dresser drawers like the IKE and SBA. Remember when the bureau of engraving spent $20 million dollars just explaining changes to the $20 bill so the public wouldn't freak out? If dollar bills ($1) were discontinued for coins, people would freak just the same...but they would get over it and move on. That's the only logical argument I can see NOT to replace $1 bill.

What does it cost us tax payers to print and engrave $1 bills...$500 million per year for this paper currency with a distribution life no longer than a year and a half before they are pulled and destroyed. We all know that coins last 50 times longer. Gee, the return on the tax payers investment would make sense. 50 years against 18 months...let's see...makes too much sense!

Okay, I'll admit it. I like dollar coins and think they would work IF the public didn't have a choice between coinage and the dollar bill. Put Lady Liberty on it, make it the color of a SAC with a size between a SAC and Kennedy and the world would be good. Don't get on to me about weight and all. Be honest, how often do you have more than four one dollar bills in your bill fold? If you do...spend them or exchange them for a $5 bill the next time you shop. Retailers are always looking for "ones" anyway. I always tip my breakfast eatery with SAC dollars whereby I am known as the "golden" tipper. They actually think they are getting more than what the SAC is worth. If it makes them feel good, so be it. It's funny watching a waitress show a SAC dollar to another thinking they struck gold.

After all, we live in a day and age of debit/credit cards where it never fails for yours truly to end up behind some moran at the grocery store that pays for a box of cereal (in the "express" line mind you) with a check/credit/debit card. Sometimes, I wonder if people carry any cash/coins at all. But, my trials and tribulations in the express line is another story in this day and age of debits and credits. I thought that if he had some dollar coins in his pocket, I wouldn't have to wait for his check to be processed. [If I had dollars coins, I would be tempted to throw it people that pay for 30 items in the express line with a bogus check.]

I travel a lot, and I have a weakness for carbonated drinks. Sure enough, I find a vending machine and the next thing I am doing is "ironing" out my paper dollars (since a 20 ounce bottle costs around $1.50 in most hotels). Afterwards, my hope is that the machine doesn't spit back the dollar at you. We all been there and thought: "I folded that last corner perfectly...it should take this time."

Canada and Europe pulled their paper $1 bills. People grumbled at first, but now it works like a charm and saved millions for their tax payers. Sure, they spend the saved money elsewhere for their socialistic programs, but it did and does work well.

Before I read the next post...I am not going after the $2, $5, $10, $20, or $100 paper bills. Matter of fact, they should discontinue the $2 bill altogether (my opinion) as most of use like numbers divisible by 5. I am just going after the paper dollar bill...ONLY.

Let's pick out a design (many I saw posted at this site were beautiful and would work just fine), and use it for YEARS to come...not a run of 5 or 10 years...but for the next 50 years like coinage should be designed.

Okay...those are my thoughts, why have a paper dollar bill when a dollar coin would work better (my opinion). What a country!

ndgoflo

And it's not just the Sacs that people think contain real gold. I often hear people saying that they "got one of them Susan B. Anthony silver dollars"

ziggy29

That they even have to educate the public about this is testimony to how old and stale our money has become, and why regular design changes are a good thing. The basic look of our paper money hasn't changed since they made it smaller in 1928. Go back and look at some of the beautiful designs before then, designs that changed frequently.

People knew to expect change, so they didn't have trouble with it. Same is true for coins. Of the four main circulating denominations, the NEWEST of them is 58 years old! The others are 66 (nickel), 72 (quarter) and 95 years old (cent).

This is what we get when we politicize our money with dead presidents.

aem4162

it's politics

jody526

I'm not sure we need to "justify" keeping the dollar bill. It has served it's purpose quite well over the years, and I would venture to say that it is still the most widely circulated denomination we have. At least it's the one that I usually have the most of in my billfold. LOL
Sure, I'd use the dollar coin, if I ever saw one. Same goes for a half dollar. The bottom line is, if it doesn't work in a vending machine, you can forget about it. The cent is an exception, in that it is needed to figure exact change.

I suppose we could critisize any of our country's coin designs with phrases like "dead presidents", but as usual, I won't jump on the bandwagon.
It seems to me that there are more important issues concerning our nation's coinage. Metalic composition, lack of relief, and the cost of US Mint products come to mind.

GDJMSP

Speaking of the cost of US Mint products, the other day another collector reminded me of something. You should remember this Jody.

It was not so long ago that about the only way to order US Mint products was over the phone or by mail. If you chose to call your order in you paid a small fortune ( in those days ) of about $8 for a 3 minute long distance call. But nobody complained. For if you wanted what they had - that's what you had to do.

There was also the other problem. You placed your order in March or April - but you never received your coins until Nov., Dec. or maybe the following year And still nobody complained.

Today - you can order your coins right from your home in seconds. Often - you receive the coins in a matter of days. Other times you might wait a few weeks. If you do - just about everybody complains. And of course - just about everybody complains about the outrageous shipping cost of $4.95.

Hmmmmm - there's something wrong with this picture

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jody526

Re: post #6

I sure do remember those days, GD.
Many things have changed since the "computer age". LOL

rbm86

Well. I guess the computer age makes everyone impatient. I remember the mint taking a month of Sundays to get your coins to you -- the thing is, you forgot about after you ordered them, and when they arrived, you were so excited they finally came (at least I was, being a kid in the 70s).

Now I never complain about the mint's customer service. I understand they outsource it, which was probably a good move for the mint --- they realized someone else can do it better and if the vendor screws up all the time they will get it right or the mint can terminate the contract.

We have exhaustive discussed the $1 coin on other threads. Bottom line: it will fail as long as the $1 bill is around, whether you like them ($1 bills) or not. It's as simple as looking at the experiences of Canada and Britain.

teajunkie

I would gladly use a $1 coin if ever I received any.
The only place I have ever recieved $1 coins in change was at the post office when I bought stamps from the vending machine.
If I hand a retailor a $20 for a $17 dollar purchase, I ALWAYS get paper $1 bills in change. Not once has anyone ever handed me $1 coins.
For that to happen, I guess the paper stuff would have to go away.
But....I still would rather carry ten $1 bills in my pocket than ten $1 coins.

And since we're on the subject of paper money, does anyone remember when the 'new' $20 bill design was being made & the govt. said they were still going to be green because colored money was too much like Monopoly money? Now we're spending lots of money to re-design again, and do another ad campaign, and what are we doing to those bills? Yep.
adding color.
go figure.

Anyway, sorry to ramble. Time for bed, I think.

v8americanpower

I enjoy the US $1 coin except for it's rediculous choice of a person to depict on it. Sacagawea was chosen so that the US mint could put both a woman AND a minority on 1 coin and make them both happy. Two birds with one stone eh? Sure she helped lead Lewis and Clark accross the Louisiana Territory, so then why not put Lewis and Clark on the coin?

Being as I live right by the US/Canada border and hop over to abuse the 19 year drinking age, I deal with dollar coins all the time. A canuck explained to me how he wasnt to fond of the dollar coins when they first came out, it's just that he and the rest of Canada weren't given any other choice. Paper dollars were revocked at the same time dollar coins were put into mass production. He said he has since gotten used to not having paper bills but he still complains about how it sucks for men because we dont carry around change purses (if some of you guys do, hey, that's your perogitive).
I on the other hand find the biggest drawback in the strip clubs over there. What are you supposed to do in canada? Cant slipp a Loonie ($1 dollar coin) or a twosie ($2 dollar coin) in a strippers G-string) and unless you really wanna go broke quick, your smallest denomination is a $5 bill.

So while I appriciate the economic point of view on the dollar coin, just imagine the alternative: walking into a Strip club with a fannie pack full of coins to throw at a stripper and hope to god you dont take out one of her eyes....

v8americanpower

BTW I posted a question about a 1928 mint error penny in the errors section if any of you have any insight into it

jody526

"...and hope to god you don't take out one of her eyes..."

Well if you do, maybe she'll "keep an eye out" for you the next time you come in.
JMHO

Jaeru

A lot of people say something like this, but how many people regularly carry ten one dollar bills in their pockets? I can't remember the last time I ever did so. I'm sure a lot of people would also rather carry ten 25-cent notes than ten quarters.

Here's an idea though: the Mint could make one dollar coins out of aluminum. If my calculations are correct, a coin made out of pure aluminum in the current one dollar size would weigh a bit less than three grams. (The current small dollar weighs about eight grams and a dollar bill weighs about one gram.) The only problem with this idea might be that vending machines would likely be unable to read the electronic signature of an aluminum coin, and so vending machines that currently accept one dollar coins would have to be replaced, not that there are that many anyway though.

Has anyone ever seen plastic or polymer money? I just recently bought a Romanian 10,000 lei banknote which is plastic. (Here's the front of it: http://www.polymernotes.org/images/pics/ROUS2R1F.jpg. The white on the left is actually clear.) Aside from the fact that plastic notes are much harder to counterfeit, they also last longer. I read from one site that while (Australian) five dollar paper bills last for six months, plastic ones last for forty months. The plastic bills last for about seven times longer, yet they cost only about twice as much to make.

JBK

This is the best reason I have heard for keeping the paper dollar. Who wants their strippers to be bruised from all those dollar coins being chucked at her? And, seeing her with a g-string full of dollar coins bulging out would not exactly be a turn-on.

JBK

We have the paper dollar because people want it, plain and simple.

I wish the dollar coin was more polular, but reality is that people prefer paer.

Some things to consider when comparing the US to Europe: when I lived in England and I used a ten to pay for something worth one or two pounds and the cashier had no 5 pound notes, I would be lookig at 8 or 9 pound coins in change, and that is about what they weighed.

As for Europe, most all men have a wallet that includes a coin purse section, so there is a cultural difference here. Also, vending machines are used more often for certain things, so coins are more relied upon.