What's all this with the dollar coin again

[Monkei]

Haven't we already tried this twice before?

[jblum315]

What dollar coin?

[twinklesweep]

The only way a dollar coin would work would be if the government had the ***** to remove the paper dollar bill from circulation!!!

[nitehawk]

Bring on the dollar coin ---- no more dollar bills :pepper2:

[Jim 9922]

Haven't we already tried this twice before?

CAUTION, bumblecrates at work again! Apparently they have not much else to do.

[rayschic]

What dollar coin?

According to this article, issuing a dollar coin will save taxpayers hundreds of millions per year. The dollar bill lasts less than five years in circulation, the dollar coin will last 30 years in circulation.

Dollar coin advocates renew push to replace dollar bill - Jul. 26, 2013 (http://money.cnn.com/2013/07/26/pf/dollar-coin/index.html?section=money_news_international)

[memason]

The smallest Euro bill is the 5 Euro bill...everything below that is in coins. Currently, 5 Euros would be $6.65.

$1 coin would be ok; just needs to be significantly larger than a quarter...

[Barefoot]

Boring trivia ... :mornincoffee:
In Canada, we have a coin instead of a $1 bill. It's nicknamed a Loonie because the coin bears a picture of a loon. We have a coin instead of a $2 bill. Nicknamed a Toonie. (In The Villages, Canadians have started a Canadian Club which has over 600 members. It's called The Loonies and Toonies Club.)

The coins may last a long time, but they sure make your wallet heavy!

[Taltarzac725]

The US dollar coins are bulky and hard to carry around in your wallet. Maybe if they used a lighter metal and made them smaller than the quarter?

[buggyone]

Well, the Susan Anthony dollar was a failure as was the Sacajawa dollar. The silver dollar was just too big to carry around so that was a failure, too.

Keep the paper dollar. Much easier to handle.

If you have ever been to Canada, Mexico, or the Caribbean and tried using one of our dollar coins for a tip or small purchase, they will not accept it.

[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.

[tommy steam]

When was the last time you got change back and got dollar coins?

[nitehawk]

When was the last time you got change back and got dollar coins?

Thats because we still have $1 bills - when we stop printing $1 bills you will get dollar coins and maybe two dollar coins back in change --- its about time

[asianthree]

of course your young grandchildren will think you are cheap...folding money always better than coin in kids eyes...lol

[BritParrothead]

I have a Sakagawea golden coloured dollar coin. I was given it in change in Orlando about 5 years ago by a lovely Asian man, who told me not to spend it! Have kept it with other coins which will not be spent!

[MikeV]

Well, the Susan Anthony dollar was a failure as was the Sacajawa dollar. The silver dollar was just too big to carry around so that was a failure, too.

Keep the paper dollar. Much easier to handle.

If you have ever been to Canada, Mexico, or the Caribbean and tried using one of our dollar coins for a tip or small purchase, they will not accept it.

I go to Cancun every September to my Time Share. When the new Dollar Coins came out I took a bunch with me to have some fun. You should have seen the looks I got from the locals when I handed them a dollar coin or two for a tip. They smiled with a funny look in their eyes thinking I gave them a quarter. When they looked at the coins it was really funny to see their reactions. It was as if they were stumped as to what they were. My wife thought I was cruel to do that but it was funny to me. Just my sense of humor I guess.

[Dr Winston O Boogie jr]

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.

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.

[njbchbum]

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.

i prefer to carry four $1 bills since they are lighter than four $1 coins; and because no one is advocating cutting any amount of money '...for education and food for the needy to balance the budget.'

regardless of the expense to the treasury dept, there is a more extensive/expensive impact on all of the businesses that would have to conform to the use of a coin rather than paper...and which cost would probably be quickly passed to consumers...from the article:
'Cash-intensive businesses would have to modify vending machines, cash register drawers and night depository equipment to accept $1 coins. Over the longer term, some businesses would have to buy coin counting and coin wrapping machines. Others would bear higher transportation and storage costs because of the heavier and bulkier coins. '

[billethkid]

did you know the last dollar coin that was cancelled remained in production after it was cancelled to honor the manufacturing contract? As a result, did you know there a billions of dollars of minted gold coins in storage? And did you know that the storage costs millions of dollars per year to lease the storage space? And finally did you know a couple of years ago they had proposed and increase in the warehouse size to accomodate future uncirculated coins to be produced? And I know you didn't know the constrction costs were to be approaching a million dollars!!!!!!

By the way that multi million annual storage fee is still being paid.....for the billions of dollars of uncirculated coins.

If the new proposal is for a new coin....then shame on everybody remotely involved. And shame on the silent, uninformed, we the people. Your REPRESENTATIVES at work fleecing America....and we the people approving it.

btk

[Cedwards38]

It's all going to be electronic at some point anyway. and then coin and currency become a moot point!

[zcaveman]

What dollar coin?

All of these posts have not answered the original question. What dollar coin are we talking about?

The government cancelled the normal distribution of the US President gold dollars to the banks so that is not them. I did see something that they were planning on putting out gold dollars with the president's wives on them but I HOPE that was a dream.

I wish the OP would enlighten us as to what brought on this thread.

BTW: I agree that the only way to get the dollar coin into circulation would be to quit printing the dollar bill. But this is a government that will not quit minting the penny and the nickel even though it cost 2.00 cents to print a penny and 10.09 cent to print a nickel.

Cost to Make Penny and Nickel Declines But Still Double Face Value | Coin Update (http://news.coinupdate.com/cost-to-make-penny-and-nickel-declines-but-still-double-face-value-1751/)

The US mint has stored billions of dollars of the presidential gold dollar coins because no one wants them.

U.S. Suspends Production of Presidential $1 Coins - ABC News (http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2011/12/u-s-suspends-production-of-presidential-1-coins/)

They should cut their losses and flood the market with the gold dollars and suspend the one dollar printing to see how it goes.

Z

[jblum315]

The U.S. mint has over a billion dollars in dollar coins sitting in bags. Nobody wants them.

[Monkei]

It's all going to be electronic at some point anyway. and then coin and currency become a moot point!

You mean sort of like that not too old movie where everyone had a bar code on their arm. In the movie it was for time you had left on this world, but I guess it could be used for cssh.

[Monkei]

All of these posts have not answered the original question. What dollar coin are we talking about?

The government cancelled the normal distribution of the US President gold dollars to the banks so that is not them. I did see something that they were planning on putting out gold dollars with the president's wives on them but I HOPE that was a dream.

I wish the OP would enlighten us as to what brought on this thread.

BTW: I agree that the only way to get the dollar coin into circulation would be to quit printing the dollar bill. But this is a government that will not quit minting the penny and the nickel even though it cost 2.00 cents to print a penny and 10.09 cent to print a nickel.


Cost to Make Penny and Nickel Declines But Still Double Face Value | Coin Update (http://news.coinupdate.com/cost-to-make-penny-and-nickel-declines-but-still-double-face-value-1751/)

The US mint has stored billions of dollars of the presidential gold dollar coins because no one wants them.

U.S. Suspends Production of Presidential $1 Coins - ABC News (http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2011/12/u-s-suspends-production-of-presidential-1-coins/)

They should cut their losses and flood the market with the gold dollars and suspend the one dollar printing to see how it goes.

Z

I thought it was pretty clear, there have been numerous articles in the news and in print about once again issuing dollar coins, in fact I think I read one article in Forbes where the coins were actually already minted. The articles were all about savings.

My post mainly questioned why try it again when it failed so badly the first two times.

I agree without a mandate to do away with the paper dollar this has very little chance in success either.

[njbchbum]

The U.S. mint has over a billion dollars in dollar coins sitting in bags. Nobody wants them.

maybe the mint should sell them on one or all of those shopping networks! ;)

[DougB]

did you know the last dollar coin that was cancelled remained in production after it was cancelled to honor the manufacturing contract? As a result, did you know there a billions of dollars of minted gold coins in storage? And did you know that the storage costs millions of dollars per year to lease the storage space? And finally did you know a couple of years ago they had proposed and increase in the warehouse size to accomodate future uncirculated coins to be produced? And I know you didn't know the constrction costs were to be approaching a million dollars!!!!!!.....


I didn't know that.

[Shimpy]

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.

Cindy, you are obviously a female and carry a purse, so carrying coins makes no difference to you. I'm wearing shorts 99% of the time and don't want to be weighed down by heavy coins.

[BobnBev]

I have a Sakagawea golden coloured dollar coin. I was given it in change in Orlando about 5 years ago by a lovely Asian man, who told me not to spend it! Have kept it with other coins which will not be spent!

I have 5 of them. Was gonna give 1 to each of my siblings, never got around to it.

[Topspinmo]

An't going to matter" in five years that Dollar coin will be worth penny. If they want to save money get rid of the penny! use the copper for something else, O wait pennies not made out of copper due to copper worth more than penny!

[Rosie53]

I will retire from the US Mint in 2015. I work at the West Point Mint. We do not make circulating change; we make boullion and commemorative coins. The Treasurer of the US was here yesterday and we spoke about the issue. The dollar coin would replace the dollar bill. A coin lasts much longer than a bill so it would be a savings. As a Mint employee, it would be a boon for us but not for the Bureau of Engraving and Printing which makes the paper money. Also, Congress will have to deal with the public who has expressed that they do not want to carry so much change. With the use of debit cards these days that issue may not be as important.

[Bavarian]

When I go into a bank to get money vice ATM or getting change back at a store. T hey never have any, or very few. Try to get $2.00 bills also. Want to get them into circulation.

In Europe, the Pfennig and now 1 Euro Cent are small, the penny can be made smaller and cheaper, same with Nickel if needed.

[Shimpy]

The U.S. mint has over a billion dollars in dollar coins sitting in bags. Nobody wants them.



Well, If nobody wants them I'll take them.

[Barefoot]

The U.S. mint has over a billion dollars in dollar coins sitting in bags. Nobody wants them.

Well, If nobody wants them I'll take them.

:a20:

[buggyone]

Living just a short distance from Windsor, Ontario, I've never seen anyone refuse a USD coin anywhere in Canada.

A few years ago I tried paying for a visitor fishing license at a store in Canada with Susan Anthony dollar coins and they were not accepted. The owner only wanted either US paper money or Canadian funny money. This was in a small town.

[CFrance]

Cindy, you are obviously a female and carry a purse, so carrying coins makes no difference to you. I'm wearing shorts 99% of the time and don't want to be weighed down by heavy coins.

Well, I am a female, too, and this is exactly why I do not like the dollar coin. Since they are so bulky, men end up giving them to the women to carry in their purse. We lived in a European Union country for a while, and I can testify to how d*** heavy a purse can get with those dollar coins.

Also, it's harder to separate those out from the other coins in a coin purse, when in a hurry and not trying to hold up a line, as opposed to grabbing your bills out of your wallet and separating out the ones you need.

It was a royal PIA.

[Virtual Geezer]

It will promote savings via the piggy bank or change jar. For years while I was working I would always pay for everything with folding cash. Very seldom used a credit card if at all. Every evening I would empty the change into a large piggy bank that had been in the family for 40+ years. I would just let it build up and once a year empty it, roll everything and head to the bank. Always looked odd walking into a bank carrying a brief case about an inch off the ground as it was so heavy. I still do this today and since being retired and using a credit card ($ rewards and cash rewards) it takes a lot longer to get a decent amount.

Still carry 2 Sacagawea coins around for luck and a few $2.00 bills for restaurant tips.

VG

[nitehawk]

A few years ago I tried paying for a visitor fishing license at a store in Canada with Susan Anthony dollar coins and they were not accepted. The owner only wanted either US paper money or Canadian funny money. This was in a small town.

Try using Canadian funny money in the United States most all will not take---only will accept US monopoly money Sounds like the typical American traveler --- remember you are in their country --- some people hate France because they refuse to speak English. Try speaking French in the US - I rest my case -- thank you

[buggyone]

Try using Canadian funny money in the United States most all will not take---only will accept US monopoly money Sounds like the typical American traveler --- remember you are in their country --- some people hate France because they refuse to speak English. Try speaking French in the US - I rest my case -- thank you

My comment was sarcastic and hope you were not offended.

I travel to other countries frequently and have seen many acts of travelers that are amazing. Trust me, most Americans are not like that but some really are doozies.

One of the "funniest" was a group of older New York "ladies" who, after being on a walking tour of Tallin, Estonia, complained loudly that the 1,000 year old cobblestone streets should be black topped for easier walking.

[downeaster]

(Where did the term "buck" come from anyway?)

Your question piqued my curiosity so I googled "dollar buck" and came up with a lot of answers such as:

"Though some believe that the term buck for an American dollar originated from the use of silver dollars for bucks `markers used in poker,' others believe that the term buck `dollar' originated due to the fact that buckskins were used in trade, as a form of money, in early America. The term buck was then transferred to currency. If that is the case, then the buck used in poker got its name from the buck `dollar' used as a marker in the game. Unfortunately, no one knows the true answer with certainty." My emphasis.

[Villages PL]

It's all going to be electronic at some point anyway. and then coin and currency become a moot point!

How would you buy vegetables at a roadside stand or vegetable market? How would you pay the kid next door to cut your grass?

[nitehawk]

How would you buy vegetables at a roadside stand or vegetable market? How would you pay the kid next door to cut your grass?

with your smart phone

[Villages PL]

with your smart phone

What smart phone?

[gomoho]

The one we will all have to own if we want to continue to function in this world.

[Villages PL]

The one we will all have to own if we want to continue to function in this world.

I have never had a cell phone and I really don't want one. I'm perfectly happy with my land-line and I hope to keep it that way for a long long time. ;-)

[Bavarian]

So, I have a square module to plug into iPhone, swipe credit card, and sale made.

[zcaveman]

with your smart phone

Who is going to supply them to us? I have a cheap Tracfone for emergencies. I do not see a smart phone in my future.

[buggyone]

Who is going to supply you with a smart phone? You will be having to buy one. Gripe all you want but it is going to be a fact of life.

Do you remember when everyone got paid with a check at the end of a pay period? That went away with Direct Deposit and everyone had to get a bank account.

Soon, the smart phone will be a part of EVERYONE's daily living. You will not have a choice. The Star Trek cashless society is not too far into the future.

[zcaveman]

Who is going to supply you with a smart phone? You will be having to buy one. Gripe all you want but it is going to be a fact of life.

Do you remember when everyone got paid with a check at the end of a pay period? That went away with Direct Deposit and everyone had to get a bank account.

Soon, the smart phone will be a part of EVERYONE's daily living. You will not have a choice. The Star Trek cashless society is not too far into the future.

You are talking apples vs oranges. Direct Deposit did not cost me a monthy/annual charge for connectivity. A smart phone is taking money out of my pocket. Make it free and I will think about it.

Z

[nitehawk]

do some of you still have rotary dial phones maybe wood golf clubs --- good luck Who supplies you with you land line ????? do you pay for it ????

[CFrance]

do some of you still have rotary dial phones maybe wood golf clubs --- good luck Who supplies you with you land line ????? do you pay for it ????

If you are referring to the day when electronics will take over cash, yes, technology is wonderful. It will even do your floors. But not your windows. Some things still need to be done by hand. I prefer to keep paper money around, because for some reason it's easier to keep track of than my cell phone.

[Bavarian]

Who is going to supply them to us? I have a cheap Tracfone for emergencies. I do not see a smart phone in my future.

Did you go through life expecting everything to be provided to you, or did you go out and earn the money to buy it? Life moves on, technology moves on. I hope You and everyone else will keep up with it.

[CFrance]

Did you go through life expecting everything to be provided to you, or did you go out and earn the money to buy it? Life moves on, technology moves on. I hope You and everyone else will keep up with it.

I think that's over-simplifying the problem. Even if zcaveman were to buy a smart phone, digitizing money would open a lot of problems and end up costing people $. And why should zcaveman be forced to upgrade to another phone and spend more $ per month just because some agency is tired of dealing with real $?

Also, I don't believe zcaveman goes through life expecting everything to be provided for him. That's insulting. Maybe you didn't mean it to be.

[Bavarian]

My point is that everyone needs to keep up with technology. Zcaveman sounded like he wanted a smartphone provided to him. There are cheap smartphones now also. Many years ago, Nokia was working on a system in Finland to use a regular cell phone to pay, you would dial your bank, enter the code number on the parking meter, enter your password and the money was transferred. A major bank has something like this here, I know because someone sent me money that way, had to make an account to get the money online, no charge. Look at PayPal.

Getting back to original topic. I ask for $ coins and can't get them, the Mint needs to distribute all of them to banks for us. The only way I see them is in proof coin set.

[Villages PL]

do some of you still have rotary dial phones maybe wood golf clubs --- good luck Who supplies you with you land line ????? do you pay for it ????

Over ten years ago there were those (on another message board) who said credit cards and debit cards would take the place of cash and checks. Well, I still have two checking accounts and cash. I have a debit card but only use it about once or twice a month to get cash.

I have nothing against technology for those who like it or enjoy it. But to me, personally, it represents a big expense and I see it as problematic. I don't even like it when I have to reset my answering machine. My electricity went off a couple of weeks ago and I still haven't reset it. I just consider it a nuisance.

I never need to worry about having fresh batteries to operate the cash in my wallet. And I never have to worry about remembering a password or code number to use cash. Also, studies have proved that people spend more when they don't have to fork over any cash. For example, people tend to overspend when they use credit cards in place of cash.

[billethkid]

do keep up with the technology but also be realistic and prepared for a prolonged outage of electricity or cell phone access.

To be 100% reliant on technology only assures there will be even more catastrophic event within the catastrophic event.

During emergency situations cash in your pocket will far outweigh the electronics. Cash....non perishable foods....bottled water....the last two are easier to aquire with cash than a cell phone or an app.

As the comment goes...I'm just sayin'

btk

[De Lis]

IT WEIGHS TOO MUCH! Period.