Dollar coin

Ick. NO!

I'm going to shun it.

 

I like dollar coins, and have always used them when available. The biggest problem comes from merchants, who mostly have cash drawers set up for "standard" currency. Dollar coins have no spot in the till, so they get set aside, and then returned to the bank. If they don't get handed out as change, they won't be commonly used.

Tom

 

It can get too easily interchanged with a quarter. I can't imagine how many times I've spent one of those thinking it was a quarter.

I don't have a problem ridding the penny. It'll affect my savings rate as I have a bid jug full of these every year. Other than that, I'll get over it. I wonder if it would affect retail. Aren't pennies used in a pyschological manner to lure consumers? You know, how they make their products $4.99 instead of $5.00?

 

I am all for the dollar coin. I tried to use the dollar coins back in 2000 when they tried, the only problem was that hardly any retailer would give them back as change. So what I did was get rolls of dollar coins from the bank and then spend the coins when I went shopping so that I would get them circulating. But, after a while I was tired of carrying around rolls of coins so I started shopping with 10s and 20s and I always asked for coin dollars over paper but so few retailers actually would carry them in the registers. I think the fed should do it and enforce it to the full extent. They should stop printing the paper dolllars altogether and stick by the coins. Americans will protest, but then we will all become apathetic and accept the change.

 

I think we're just too used to the way things have been. Resistance to change and all that. Using a bill is much more convenient for me. If the smallest bill I have is a 5 and I buy a candy bar, I now have, along with my usual change, 4 heavier coins in my pocket. With the dollar bill, I just tuck them in my wallet. Plus I'd have to carry the coins with me on a daily basis or use larger bills to pay for everything.

I think previous versions haven't been well thought out. The Eisenhower dollar was way too big. The Susan B Anthony was too easily confused with the quarter. The Sacagawea dollar is good, but there was no incentive to use it without the elimination of the dollar bill.

I don't know that this Presidential dollar program will work any better. Some will try to get one of each President, but without the coin being established (like the quarter), I can see this failing, too.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(MarkMN @ Feb 12 2007, 01:51 PM) [snapback]388993[/snapback]</div>

Truer words were never spoken!!

 

The penny must go! I spent a little time in Australia, and the lack of pennies was great. There is really no sense in the continued minting of these nuisances that fall out of circulation constantly because they are discarded or kept in a big jar that never goes back into circulation. What's the point?

I wouldn't be opposed to a dollar coin. I think it is just a matter of people having an aversion to change. I think this is human nature, but it seems to be particularly rampant in the US. We are a people slow to change, most of us, that is. If tomorrow all paper dollars were suddenly coins, there would be a lot of complaining but aside from some technical problems (cash registers, vending machines, etc.), I don't feel there would really be much of an issue.

Just my 2 cents, er, nickel?

 

Will they work in pop machines ect. If not, how much will that cost to refit them all? <_<

 

The only way to make the $1 coin succesful is to eliminate the $1 bill. I too tried to circulate the $1 coins but never received any as change.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Dragonfly @ Feb 12 2007, 02:50 PM) [snapback]389036[/snapback]</div>

According to its US Mint page(http://www.usmint.gov/mint_programs/$1coin/index.cfm), the Presidential dollar will have the same weight, size and metal composition as the Sacagawea.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(huskers @ Feb 12 2007, 02:23 PM) [snapback]389018[/snapback]</div>

They already work in machines. The vending industry was coerced into that with the Susan B Anthony dollar, which was a failure for all of the reasons listed above. When the Sacagawea dollar was being designed, there was no way to get the vending industry to do that again, so the Sacagawea dollar was made to look like a Susan B Anthony to vending machines. It has the same size and weight, although they went with a "gold" color to avoid confusion with quarters. The real trick was finding a bronze alloy that responded properly to the electromagnetic slug detectors already tuned for the Susan B Anthony. A fairly exotic manganese bronze alloy was found to work for this purpose.

Tom

 

I liked the dollar coins. However, there were never enough of them to compete with the popularity of the dollar.

The two most recent designs have sucked. As was mentioned, the Susan B. Anthony was too small and easily confused with the quarter. The Sacajewea is just as small but at least it's "gold". That doesn't prevent it from being confused with the quarter when they are on end in your coin purse and you're grabbing for something.

Personally, I think they should make them bigger again. And they should add a $5 coin. In Germany I used 1 and 5 mark coins all of the time. No problem.

So they need to make the $1 bigger the way it was, they need to make a lot more and they need to introduce a $5 coin and make a lot of them. They need to make so many that they are not a novelty being hoarded by people. They need to make so many that they are used and merchants much redesign the drawers and the vending machines.

They'll need to eventually if the dollar continues to go down.

They could get rid of the penny if they put Lincoln on the Dollar. They'll need to eventually as the price of copper continues to go up. It costs more to make a penny than it's worth now. But of course you'll need to do something about the state and local tax that makes change with the penny. When the tax is 8% and you buy something for a dollar the total is $1.08. I personally don't want to pay an extra 2 cents just because there is no penny anymore. So something will need to be done. Or they'll have to redesign the penny. I always thought haveing a dime small than a penny and a nicket so much bigger than both was stupid.

But money is very entrenched. Look how hard it was to redesign the bills. And they really didn't change them that radically.

The two coins I hate most currently are all of the different quarters and the new nickel. The new nickel is not that attractive and it just looks fake. I'm tired of having to look at my money twice to make sure it isn't counterfeit or Mexican or Canadian or some sort of token for a car wash.

 

Canadians have used one and two dollar coins for years. Rumour has it a five dollar coin is in the works. The one has a loon on it, so we call it a loonie. The twos have a polar bear, but we call them toonies. Coins are generally less expensive for the mint than bills, mostly because they last longer. If you don't like them, think of it as an effort to lower your taxes.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Dragonfly @ Feb 12 2007, 01:41 PM) [snapback]388985[/snapback]</div>

Coins of a similar value have been in use in the UK and in Europe for several years and work well. At present the £1 coin (worth about $2) is common and can't easily be confused with any other British coin. The equivalent value to $1 is the 50p coin which is larger. There is also a £2 coin and will probably be a £5 coin in a few years.

 

When slot machines and vending machines start accepting them maybe then they'll become viable.

Maybe if pennies are done away with, that extra slot in cash registers could be used for dollar coins. Then maybe restaurants and stores would grow to not mind them too terribly much.

But I think where our treasury will make its biggest gains is from those who buy those presidential dollar coins and collect them in drawers, jars and other little hideaways.

And lastly, most of us try to limit the number of coins we carry because of dislike for that added bulk in our pockets. Maybe if they were sized between a dime and a nickle and filled with a very light metal like lithium they could be tollerated.