Senators Continue Push To Replace Dollar Bill With $1 Coin

Another day....another story on a new bill to push to the $1 coin.

http://consumerist.com/2013/06/06/s...o-ultimately-replace-dollar-bill-with-1-coin/

 

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I don't think I'll see it in my lifetime... maybe my kids will.

 

I think folks felt this way about the switch from Silver to CnClad.

However, there are some fairly big names on that bill and it just might go through this time since all it really needs is votes from "Congress".
I also see the passage of such a bill as a positive step in some of those folks political careers since it does represent an accountable "savings" in the Federal Budget!

Most folks feel that super small changes like this are a waste of time but the reality is that, it was super small changes that bloated the budget in the first place.

 

The mood in Congress is much more acceptable to cost savings now, than in the past. I know it is only a drop in the bucket, but it sends a huge message that they are moving in the right direction. I am rooting for it to pass. The more dollars that are circulated, the more people will collect them. Maybe in my lifetime, the value of my Presidential and Sacagawea collections will be worth half of what I paid for it!

 

For this to work, several things must happen:
One, do not have more than one design each year so that collectors prevent the circulation. These will need to circulate and multiple designs are distracting. A standard design will help with electronic/machine operations. Some of the state quarters have had trouble with some high end vending machines' computer optic scanners.
Two, circulate them. The presidential coins has had obstacles getting out of vault storage, namely the Sac Dollars. You loose the public appeal for the newer coins because the Sacs are seen as a revamp of the SBA novelty dollar. The presidentials are hard to find in some locations, and the newer coins are usually found in the collectors' market.
Three, make sure every thing that takes dollar bills will accept the dollar coin. If you can't use them, why carry them.
Four, tell the banks and money delivery services to use the dollar coin when sending money to the customers. You need to get the coins into the hands of the people, and you need to make sure the people can easily use it.

 

It just may pass this time if for no other reason to give the thief's in our Government in DC a chance to steal all the money used to pay for the storage of the coins in the armour car companies warehouses across the country. I read a couple years ago that it was in the multiple billions a year in fees!

 

As I recall, the transition worked quite easily in Canada, back in 1987. Remove the dollar bill from circulation and people will use the coin.

 

This is the key. Americans will keep using the bills if they are available. When the bills go away, people will start using the coins. The paper company behind US Bills is one of the key hindrances of getting dollar coins widely accepted.

 

Three easy steps to success:

1. Produce enough $1 coins to replace the $1 bills in circulation.
2. Stop producing $1 and $2 bills.
3. Put a demonitization date on the $1 bill.

Next thing you know, people will stop using the $1 bill and start using the $1 coin.

I wouldn't mind seeing this happen to both $1's and $5's. A $5 coin would be so cool even cool people would like them!

 

Yes, but you appear to have a fully functional government.

 

I don't think it will even be necessary to put a demonetization date on the $1. Their circulation life is short enough that they'll disappear naturally in a couple of years.

 

Having been to Europe multiple times and dealing with Euro and 2 Euro coins, I hope it passes. The one/two Euro coins aren't as heavy as people think they are and are way easier to use, IMO. One side of the coin is common to every country that uses the Euro.

 

I always thought it funny how this country continues to keep pulling defeat out of the jaws of victory. We almost became the first nation on earth to adopt the metric system, now we are the last to not use it. We would have been back in 1979 one of the first to introduce a dollar coin as a replacement to the dollar bill, now we are one of the last.

Hence my "fully functional government" comment.

 

I was stationed in Germany 1990-1992 and I loved the DM 5 coin, which at the time was worth about $3.00. Taking inflation into consideration, it probably had the purchasing power of $5 today.

Just think, if we get a $5 coin, a person could pay for a beer in a bar with a single coin again! :thumb:

 

So silly. The dollar is almost dead. What we NEED are $5 and $10 dollar coins.

 

That does make sense.

What's the smallest dollar bill increment that people carry in their wallets as bulk money? For me, it's the $20 bill. I usually carry 5-10 $20 bills in my wallet. I never carry more than one $10 bill in my wallet. To me, $1's, $5's, and $10's are "change".

My only concern is that coins are a little easier to counterfeit than bills nowdays. Unless they come out with some really good anti-counterfeit measures for coins, counterfeiting $10 coins would be pretty profitable.

 

I agree with everything. I do not carry anything in my wallet under $20. Once a $20 is broken, its effectively "gone". I use $100's as "real money".

Having said that, I doubt if anyone would go so far as a $10 coin. Doing away with the cent, revamping the 5 cent, and doing away with the oversized 50 cent piece would enable $1 and $2 coins to circulate and room for them in tills. Most tills have 5 slots for coins. I would rather fight that battle, one that maybe can be won, than trying to convince the general public to have all coins under $20.

 

Our coinage system is one of the longest lived in modern history. Sizes of coins have barely changed. The cent has been the same size since 1857. The nickel five-cent piece replaced the old half dime in 1866-1873. The dime, quarter dollar and half dollar have never changed in size since the 1790s, the functional coinage workhorse is the quarter dollar. Three attempts have been made to push dollar coin circulation and have failed. The dollar coin is the most studied coin by modern mints on what NOT to do.

We have leaped from precious metal coinage, to clad, to plastic and electronic in just under 50 years. Nonetheless, the coinage system has become a partly circulating relic of days long passed.

 

Interesting to see reactions from people who love coins to begin with. People absolutely detest carrying large quantities of coins in the real world, though. When I used to work in a grocery store we had a machine that would dispense each customer's coin change at the end of their transaction. You would be surprised by how many customers walked away without taking their change. Some people were even willing to hold up an entire express line just to give exact change to prevent getting more change. I think eliminating the $1 bill would probably frustrate more people than make happy.

 

I would say the failure of the dollar coin to date isn't because of the coin itself, but rather how our government has tried to implement it.

Let's just look at the $1 coin for now. If they ramped up production of the $1 coin and stopped producing $1 bills, what would happen?

Problem: The company that produces the paper for our dollars would squeal.
Solution: Get over it.

Problem: The owners of vending machines with $1 bill readers would complain.
Solution: Most of them can also read other bills ($5, $10, $20) and most machines give change.

Problem: The owners of vending machines that accept coins would need to modify or replace their machines to accept $1 coins.
Solution: There's no immediate crisis here. They already accept nickels, dimes, quarters, sometimes halves, and many of them already accept dollar coins. (Not too many candy machines do, but most self check out kiosks do.)

Problem: The owners of vending machines that provide change would need to modify or replace existing machines to handle $1 coins so they could efficiently give change for $5 bills.
Solution: Life cycle replacements. Just replace them at the end of their useable life span with a machine that can give $1 coins in change. In the meantime, either install larger tubes to hole more quarters, or service the machine more often. (WooHoo! More jobs! If someone else can use jobs as justification for keeping the dollar bill, then jobs can also be a justification for getting rid of it!)

Problem: Tills don't have enough slots for another coin.
Solution #1: Tills in the US do have room as virtually all of them have five slots for coins. Pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters are usually in four of the five bins, and the fifth usually has rolls, rubber bands, paper clips, etc. Most tills in Canada have six bins for coins.
Solution #2: Get rid of the penny to make room for dollar coins. That way cashiers will still have their extra bin for other items and the occassional half dollar.

Problem: There are a few dollar bill readers out there that only read one dollar bills and do not offer change. Video games come to mind.
Solution#1: It would depend on how many of these are out there, but the savings in moving to the $1 coin might be sufficient to offer a tax break to those affected.
Solution #2: Provide a five year notice of the impending doom of the $1 bill.

Problem: Those automated change machines at registers aren't built to accomodate $1 coins.
Solution: I just have to ask "Why not?" The dollar coin was introduced BEFORE they were. But anyway, the older models were equipped to provide up to $0.99 in change using pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters. The newer models are equipped to provide up to $4.99 in change using pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters, and dollars.


Summary: Inflation is a necessary part of life for a fiat currency. The lower denomination bills and coins are going to go the way of the dodo. Why put off till tomorrow what already makes sense today?

Suggestion: When they start pushing the $1 bill to $1 coin transition, they might want to introduce a $5 coin so that manufacturers of coin machines can start developing their products to accomodate them. If many machines already accept the $1 coin even though it isn't popular in circulation, why not start working now on accepting $5 coins.