Quote:
Originally Posted by cindyj99
I'd rather carry around $ coins if that means saving millions and millions of dollars each year than cut another dollar for education and food for the needy to balance the budget.
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The problem is that millions and millions of dollars while in reality is a huge amount of money, it is a drop in the bucket when compared to our debt. Also, there is nothing to guarantee that any of this saved money will go to education, food for the needy or any other of your favorite programs. If it doesn't go to paying a very small portion of the interest on the debt, it will go to some politician's pet pork barrel project. The 535 will find some way to waste it. They usually do.
That being said, I think that dollar coin is a good idea. It will save millions and millions and that's not a bad thing. And those savings will go on every year from now on. The two problems brought up on this thread need to be addressed. The coin needs to be less bulky and printing of the dollar bill needs to stop. If this is done, the bill and coin will co-exist peacefully for a few years and the coin will eventually take over. Of course, thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands of bills, perhaps a million, will be saved by people hoping that they will increase in value in the future. But even a million one dollar bills is a relatively small number.
Some ideas for a coin based on some foreign currencies that I've seen: Why does it have to be round? Many countries have coins that are octagonal in shape. It could be made smaller than a quarter, bigger than a nickel and a different shape. How about a pentagon in honor of our armed forces? Another alternative is a hole in the middle. Again I've seen this in foreign currencies. It could be made round with a star shaped hole cut out. Instead of a buck we'd call it a star. (Where did the term "buck" come from anyway?)
One of the problems that will arise from this change will be that vending machines across the country will have to be altered to accept a new sized, (or shaped) coin. I don't think that would be a problem. They were changed, or are in the process of changing to accept bills.