From one of the great state of Massachusetts own newspapers: New Dollar Coins Doomed to Fail: The U.S. Mint has raked in $4 billion from its 50-state quarters program and they have been a big hit with the public. The Mint hopes the same magic will happen for the new program to put the 37 dead presidents on dollar coins. But don't bet on it — and blame Massachusetts for its failure. Why Massachusetts? Simple, because Crane & Co. of Dalton provides the security paper for U.S. currency. The only way to force a dollar coin into widespread use is to eliminate the $1 bill. But Sen. Edward Kennedy and other Crane supporters fight like mad to keep the $1 bill because doing away with it would severely hurt Crane & Co. It was no surprise that the Susan B. Anthony coin, introduced in 1979 failed to catch on. It looked too much like a quarter, with a similar size and color and milled edge. It also had to co-exist alongside paper money. The Sacagawea $1 coin, first minted five years ago, was better designed, with a gold color and smooth edge. But it also had no chance because Crane supporters in Congress refused to eliminate the $1 bill. That leaves the United States as just about the only major country that won't replace its $1 or equivalent paper currency with a coin. Canada did it (along with a $2 coin); Great Britain did it; even Russia replaced its paper ruble with a coin. The public wasn't happy at first, but quickly got used to it. So would Americans. There is no logic to this domestic quirk and it is very costly. One estimate said the Treasury can save $500 million by switching from paper to a coin because the $1 coins last much longer than bills.
Don't really know about many other people but myself and everyone I know say the same thing. Why would anyone want a larger pile of coins to carry around? Nowadays everyone just wants plastic and not even paper if at all possible. So why now have a pile of coins to make holes in pockets, get mixed up in purses, have to add a new thing in coin changers for people that make change (train conductors here). No one wants the half dollar so what are we going to do with a new baby dollar? Half and dollar coins should be stopped.
I carry 4-5 dollar coins to work with me every day for use in the vending machines. They are so much easier than trying to feed dollar bills into the machines and more convenient than a stack of quarters. I hear people make the agrument about not wanting a pile of coins in their pocket but it dosen't hold water. If your bill is $3.75 and you pay with a $10 bill you will get a $5 bill and $1 coin in your change. Just 1. There would be no need to hold more than 4 dollar coins at any time unless you wanted to. I don't have 10 or 20 singles in my wallet, Do You?
People would certainly complain if the $1 bill was eliminated, but if it was done forcibly, people would get used to it. But politicians have too much tendency to back off at the slightest sign of stubborn resistance. This is why, although we were supposedly supposed to change over to the metric system, we've stll been in the "transitional" period for 35 years.
Actually Crane would get hurt very little. Yes the amount of paper required to make one dollar notes would be eliminated, but the amout of paper need to make two dollar notes would skyrocket. The effective over all reduction in the paper requirements would be small. Think about it. The government DOES make two dollar bills, and the people do prefer to use paper over a coin, so if they can't get ones they will ask for or the bank will offer twos. Since more twos are asked for, the bank asks for more twos from the fed. Since the fed is having more twos requested they ask for more twos from the BEP. Since the BEP needs to make more twos they need more paper from Crane. As for having a bunch of coins to carry around, why? You should never have a reason to have more than one in your pocket unless you want to. If you eliminate the dollar bill and we make a $1 purchase with a $5 bill, in change you should get 2 $2 bills. Make a $2 purchase, get a $2 and a $ coin. Make a $3 purchase, get a $2 bill. Make a $4 purchase get a $ coin. Say I have a $ coin, a $2 bill and a $5 bill and I want to make a $4 purchase. If I give them the $5 I get a $ coin back and I would have two of them. But if I give them the $5 and the $ coin I get a $2 bill back and I have no coins. If you have a pocket full of coins it's your own fault. Not always, or else we wouldn't have authorized $250 million dollar to build a bridge to nowhere in Alaska. Every was against that bridge. Even the people in Alaska that would have been served by it (all fifty of them) didn't want it. The only people who wanted it were the construction company that will build it, and the Alaska Senator whose name will be on it. So all they need to do is discontinue the dollar bill right after election day, people will scream bloody murder, but by the time elections roll around the next year people will have become used to using the coins and they won't care about what the politicians did to make them angry the previous year. If there is anything with a shorter lifespan than a political promise, it's a constituents indignation. (I do agree though that they are scared of the people grumbling. Take digital TV broacasting, ten years ago legislation was passed requiring all the stations in the country to be switched over to digital within ten years. That means by the end of this year. Very few have, so today they passed a bill saying they have to be switched over by Feb 17th 2009. A three year extention. I bet they wil wind up extending it again in three years.) Itsbeen longer than that. The government made the first steps with the avowed purpose of converting the country to the metric system back in 1866 when they pegged the weight of the nickel at exactly 5 grams. And that was deliberate. Earlier drafts of the bill had the weight at an odd amount but it was increase to make it an even 5 grams specificly so that it could be used as a 5 gram weightand assist in a conversion to the metric system. Later when the weights of the silver coins were increased in 1873, they were increased in such a way that they were, even, half, or quarter gram divisions. Before then they were odd weight units. So the transition to metric in this country has been going on for almost 140 years.
dollar bills are only good for around 18 months. Why? because they are used so often. People are afraid to spend 1$ coins because cashiers grumble about the change. its retarded. Money is money, and it should be honored as such. We would save tons of money daily if we stopped the dollar bill in lieu of the coin. Truckloads.
Primarily individuals that are lucky enough to live in areas where coins and dollar bills are not very usable are very lucky indeed. I have a coin holder in my car full of change at all times. We have toll roads where coins are important unless you want to wait in long lines where bill are exchanged. I frequent flea markets where you always want to have large amounts of $1, $5 and $10's to always be able to say I only have XXX. You can't bargain down from $7 to $4 or $5 and then pull out a $20. Same is true at coin shows, camera shows, gun shows, etc and I go to almost all of them. Where I work there is a room full of vending machines and all take change, some bills but none take the baby $1's. My drawer at work is full of change. I take a commuter train to work and the conductors will not take the baby $1 coins. If you argue that they are legal tender you find yourself out at the next stop. Complain to who? At most commuter train stops there are parking lots that have boxes that take $1 bills or change. That would be a massive job to put in coin changers for $2 or $5 bills and most would be broaken into every day. Most commuters have lots of change and $1 bills in their cars. No place nearby to get change. Parking violations are expensive. I can't even imagine how many stores I been in where they are asking if anyone has exact change because they are running out of change and $1 bills. Then we also have those darn parking meters. They all only take change. Anyone that thinks large amounts of change being carried is unnecessary is not living around here.
:mouth: LOL!!! If people won't accept your dollar coins as payment, well too flippin' bad; you gave them real money and they refused. Then there are those who think the Sackies will be worth $10 a coin by the end of 2008, so they hoard them and BOOM, another reason why the Sackies are not in circulation. I got 12 from the bank a few weeks ago. Spent the filthy ones (9) and kept the nicer ones. The coins were readily available in the teller's drawer, so that proves how easy they are to obtain (at least for moi)
I too live in Chicago and I almost NEVER carry change, unless I'm on my way to or from the bank with a box of half dollars. There is simply NO NEED to have change in my suburban Chicago life. I would prefer the elimination of the paper dollar, it would force the issue and make my life easier.
