Okay, This topic has been discussed here and there, but I thought I would bring it up again, just to see if anyone else has heard anything I haven't heard. What is EVERYONE'S opinion here on the U.S. $1 denomination? Will we keep the $1 bill, and possibly just redesign it some day? Or is the $1 bill on its way out, in favor of being replaced with the brass bux? I mean, come on. There are less important or more money saving issues than this that the public would like to decide that the government does NOT let us decide, so why does the government keep on printing $1 bills, instead of just stepping in and saying "Hey, this measure of replacing $1 bills with dollar coins is going to save us hundreds of millions to billions of dollars over the next 5-10 years or so, so say good bye to your $1 bills...oh, and sorry, but for all of you people who think "I'll just use $2 bills instead" the $2 bill is being replaced with a $2 coin as well" :devil: I really think that a $2 coin should be issued NOW. Let American people get used to both $1 AND $2 coins in rare circulation, then one day, just "pull the plug" on the $1 bill and $2 bill printing presses. :devil: Having said that, the other issue I always talk about is, why not give the $1 and $2 bills a new look if we are going to keep them around? I mean, the only REAL issue I see with not redesigning the $1 and $2 bills is that, small businesses and vendors do not want to have to pay to upgrade for new $1 bills, and the $2 bill is not redesigned because of so rarely being used. Well, $5 bills circulate almost as much as $1 bills, and yet, THEY have been redesigned, and I have not heard ONE issue about problems with businesses retooling for the new design, so why should a new design $1, and $2 bill be any different? Why not give the $1 and $2 bills fresh new looks and get small businesses to program all machines to accept both new style denominations? I know they do not want to spend their money on that, but why redesign the $5-$100 bills, and keep the cruddy old $1 and $2 bill designs, when the $1 and $2 bills have such high potential when it comes to new designs? The government should be the ones who make the choices for new money. NOT small businesses. Sorry about repeating things, but I really wish the government would either change over to $1 and $2 coins, or change the designs of the $1 and $2 bills. Fat chances of either happening though, right?
Well, the UK government faced a similar issue in the very early 80's. The £1 note was becoming costly to print and maintain- it was having a life of about 9 months. So, in 1983, the £1 coin was minted for the first time. For 2 years or so, they rarely turned up in circulation, because the £1 note was also still being printed and used. The British are notoriously conservative when it comes to coins and notes ... the only country more so is the US. So, what was the government to do? Well, it stopped printing the £1 note in 1985, and very quickly, these were removed due to normal wear and tear, and they were finally demonitized in 1988. In the meantime, the public got used to using £1 coins, so that by 1986 they were more common than the notes (I was at Uni in Sheffield at the time, so can attest to this!). The £1 coin is firmly established now, and in 1997 a £2 coin was introduced, and it, too, circulates freely, The step needed was for the government to simply decide when to stop printing notes, and when to withdraw them. Note that the Bank of England will, to this day, redeem old notes (from whatever age) for face value in new coin/note, so noone loses out. I don't think, however, that the US government will do this. I think I'm right in saying that no US bill has ever been demonitized? (And I think that's why HAWAII overprints were done - so that if the island were to be invaded, only those bills would have been demonitized). Anyway, that's a Brit's 2¢ (or 2p) worth!
PS - I think it's time for the $1 coin! Let's get out there and spend these presidents (& Sacs)! Huzzah!
Here's an interesting quote from this news article of Aug 2010: If more coin collectors start avidly pursuing the presidential coins, it could have the effect of pushing down the national debt, thanks to the way the value of the coins fluctuates with their availability. And if the dollar coins were to catch on and replace paper $1 bills entirely, it could save the country between $500 and $700 million each year in printing costs. with a link to some info on seignorage: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0810/40844.html
It's not so much what people want that determines what gets used...it's what they're provided with. How often does anyone get a dollar coin in change? Almost never. Most people still don't know they exist, even though they've been around nearly continuously for over 200 years. The dollar is a change item and until customers start getting dollar coins as change, they're not going to use them simply because they don't have convenient access to them. It has little to nothing to do with dislikes or resistance to change. Guy
I 100% disagree with this one. On the few times I have seen $1 coins in cash drawers and asked about them, clerks tell me that they don't give them in change except on request to avoid ugly incidents with customers who either don't want them or don't know what they are. It is easier to throw them in the bottom of the drawer (with any half dollars that come in) and not have to waste valuable time retracting or explaining them. The only way $1 coins will ever work is to stop printing $1 paper. There is no need to demonitize them since a few years of wear will remove the trashy ones and drive the rest into collections along side the wheat cents. New vending machines will be made to accept $1 paper for a while but soon enough that will be unnecessary. While they are upsetting the conservative public, they may as well stop making pennies and nickels (a loss to make) and require states to reissue their sales tax tables appropriately. Of course the easy way to do this would be like Europe where sales tax is paid by the seller so McDonalds would have to put a couple drops less ketchup on each burger to offset the loss or admit defeat and have a dollar menu that costs $1.10. The reason this won't happen is that it would be political suicide for whoever got blamed for it. Postage stamps would have to be fifty cents when sold as singles and the world would come to an end. When the UK stopped making the Farthing there was talk about whether we really needed the one cent coin. Today a dime has the buying power of that 1956 Lincoln. In 1956 penny candy was a penny. What is a penny now? I suspect the whole thing will wait until they decide to round off all debts to the nearest dollar (as the IRS already does) and stop making coins altogether. Then you will see collectors unite behind new ideas like the George Washington $25 piece.
You're putting a lot of faith into thinking the average American consumer cares one bit about the form of their currency. Take a poll of non-collectors and see if anyone even noticed the changes over the past ten years to their paper money. Even though it completely changed ever aspect of nearly every denomination, I bet very, very few noticed one bit. People don't care as much as you or I about what form money is in as long as it spends. Only collectors have some notion the public will refuse change. Guy
