$1 coins: Unwanted, unloved and out of currency

http://www.cnn.com/2013/11/28/us/one-dollar-coins/index.html?hpt=hp_c2

 

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It just shows that the human mind though intelligent, doesn't necessarily use all intelligence in a logical way.

 

"Minting $1 coins that ultimately end up sitting in Federal Reserve Bank vaults -- and serve no useful purpose for businesses, financial institutions and consumers -- is simply not a prudent use of taxpayer resources," the Treasury Department said when it stopped production of the coins.

This is the part that to me is unbelievable and sticks in my craw. They have the ability to change that, to make the coins relevant and save even more taxpayer money by phasing out the $1 bill. They could force the circulation of those coins, get them out of storage and useful, and cost us less in the long run.

 

But that would make sense, why would they do such a thing?

 

I don't think doing away with the dollar bill would help the dollar coin's cause at all.

 

Guess it would have helped if the US government had decided, back when the "Golden Dollar" was introduced, to phase the corresponding bill out. That is what other countries have done in the case of such a switch. Anyway, these days the $1 coin is a collectors item, and that's pretty much it ...

Christian

 

How so? If there's no more $1 bill, and the denomination is still needed, something has to be around to take it's place, hence the coin.

Apparently the trains here in the NYC area take the coins at least, much easier than the bill. Not sure why these couldn't replace tokens for that matter altogether.

 

No one has the guts to yank the dollar bill.

 

Because people just don't like dollar coins, and they haven't liked them since the Morgan dollars.

NFN, but the hoard in the vaults of the sacs and POTUS dollar coins, is reliving the 19th & 20th centuries all over again.

 

I have the guts.

 

They didn't like the Morgan either. The only time that the US silver dollar may have actually worked in this country was from 1840 to 1850. Before 1804 they were undervalued and exported, from 1804 to 1840 there weren't any, from 1850 to the 1860's they were undervalued and were worth more as metal than as money. From 1840 to 1850 they were properly valued and would have been preferable to the questionable private paper and bank notes in circulation. After 1862 there was Federal paper of fairly solid value that you could trust to be of the value stated and that paper was more convenient to use than the solid valued silver dollars. And by the 1870's that paper was freely convertible into silver on demand so why carry the heavy coins?

 

Comparisons with historical dollar coins are pretty meaningless. One dollar is worth far less today than it used to be. A dollar coin ought to be understood as pocket change, equivalent to what a quarter was in about 1976. We routinely and happily used quarter-dollar coins then, and it would have been ludicrous to argue that we needed 25-cent notes instead.

 

If we eliminate the dollar entirely, everyone just boosts their price (but not the minimum wage) to 5 dollars. Inflation is considered good for business owners and the US Treasury in DC circles. Perhaps after we drop the $1 bill we will reach back into history and resurrect an old denomination. The $2.50 denomination, but this time as a bill instead of a coin.

Let us face it. The reason most Americans had no interest in the dollar coins, besides the chintzy glitter is it feels like a quarter in your pocket. Those )Presidential and Susan B and Sasquawea coins would have all been a lot more popular if they had been at least the size of a half dollar. But Treasury wanted to be cheap and minimize coinage costs, so they made them too tiny. We have seen this before. Look what happened with the $2.50 gold coin and the dime. Heaven help someone who had a purse full of both in the dark back then and had to make change. The Mint keeps making coins of the wrong size for what the coins are supposed to be used for. Over and over the Mint just doesn't get that as the denomination increases, the coin size has to also so people can tell them by feel. Actually they probably could have saved the dollar coin from extinction by making them octagonal or triangular, but that is way outside the box of the DC mindset.

 

If you let yourself become accustomed to the current dollar coins you will find that they are in fact readily distinguishable. I carry Sac/Prez dollars in my front pocket every day and can pull one out sight unseen with no trouble.

 

I use my debit or credit card for almost all transactions and hardly ever carry cash unless I know I'll need it that day. Carrying ten dollar bills is a lot more convenient than ten coins that are heavier and jangling in my pocket when I walk, haha.

 

It doesn't really make sense to carry ten ones in coin or paper.

As I said, dollars now are what quarters were in 1976. Did people complain about the inconvenience of carrying around 10 quarters then?

 

Hmm, I use a wallet that holds some cash (notes and coins) plus various cards. No idea why I would or should carry €10 (or $10) in coins though.

Christian

 

A few $10 gold pieces perhaps?

 

Give me some, and I'll try it out.

Christian

 

The US $1 coins are actually widely used in Ecuador. The people there don't seem to have any of the problems with them that Americans do (e.g. distinquishing them from other coins, clutter in their pockets, etc).