Could congress get any dumber?

I doubt that anybody actually "hated" dollar coins. They were simply not a convenient thing to carry around.

Up through the mid-1930's when Morgans were last minted, the average weekly income was no more than $30 per week. There simply was no reason to carry 1/30 of your weekly wage in one coin - that would be like carrying a heavy $25 around today.

Peace dollars weren't popular mainly because the major form of coinage in use by then was the half dollar and smaller.

SBA's were often confused for quarters (although I don't know why) and not used for that reason.

The current crop of Sac and Pres dollars come close to being hated because they're UGLY, especially when they start to "tone" and most people use quarters in everyday commerce.

 

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I didn't They always find a way to be dumber.

 

I'm betting that up until around 1862 people were very happy to get dollar coins. Just that most of them were Spanish milled dollars. US dollar coins didn't circulate except between 1840 and 1851 because at all other times they were worth more as metal than as money. The milled dollars circulated and people were happy to get them rather than paper because until 1862 all the paper was issued by the individual banks. There were thousands of different notes in circulation and you never knew what the paper being foisted off on you was really worth if anything. That was why there were various publications that listed all the different banks and the discount rates on their paper. Once the Federal paper was issued and accepted as solid the Federal paper DID become preferable to hauling around heavy silver dollars.