My cousin in Florida sent me an example of a US “golden dollar” coin, the equivalent of the Canadian one-dollar “loonie” coin. I received it today.
I’d never seen one before. The US coin is quite good looking, in a chunky kind of way. Canadian one-dollar coins are pretty much the same thickness and diameter, but manage to look thinner. I have no explanation for this. The US coin bears the bearded face of James Garfield (“20th president 1881”).
It fits right in to my change pouch, next to the loonie and toonie and subway token and smaller silver coins and no pennies…
Are these coins being used at all now? I have the impression from the last few coin threads that they’ve just sort of gone off to the side, but those threads were a while ago.
We give them as game prizes to kids at our community picnics. The mayor has to order them directly from the mint, and pays more than face value for them. He has tried to get them from local banks. Local banks say they can’t get them. (They probably just don’t want to bother.) If he has any left over after the picnic, he sells them to the bank.
They’re cool. If you see any in circulation, they may have started out in Woolstock, Iowa (pop. 168) won by a nine-year-old playing chicken scratch.
No. I don’t think I’ve seen even a single one since the post office got rid of stamp vending machines. Anything smaller than a $20 will only make it into wide circulation if stores hand it out in change, and stores do not like dollar coins (I think the armored car companies charge more to deliver coins). They’re also interchangeable with the older Susan B. Anthony dollars, which were derided as being too similar to quarters, so even if a store wants to order a load of Sacagawea and presidential dollars, the bank won’t guarantee that they’ll all be the newer coins.
Dollar coins have never taken off in the US. I don’t think they ever will unless they also take the paper dollars out of circulation. Nowadays the whole question might be pointless. I never have cash on me, I buy everything from my subway pass to my sodas with a debit card or credit card.
Only time I see them is when buying train tickets. People around here do seem to at least be familiar with them, though. But don’t go to Best Buy with a stack of $2 bills.
MTA token so you don’t get stuck like Charlie? I got mrAru an MTA token as a present once, just so he doesn’t get stuck on the MTA
Put me down as being perfectly thrilled to have them eliminate the paper dollar for coins. I would also consider a $5 coin as well. And can we eliminate the penny and do the round up/down thing?
In college, I worked at a store which was pretty close to a NJ transit station that had machines that gave out Sacagawea dollars as change. So occasionally people would pay with those. The problem I had with them was that the drawer in the register didn’t have a location for dollar coins. I’d accept them, of course, but give them out as change as soon as possible. I was afraid I’d otherwise misplace them or accidentally give someone the wrong change.
I use them whenever possible (always ask for them at the bank). It’s amazing how many people have no idea what this mystery coin is that I’m handing them.
As always, they’re another failed attempt at dollar coins, a concept which will never work until dollar bills are removed from circulation. Unfortunately, people are people (read: morons) and rail at the top of their lungs against the idea.
I’m not going to get into yet another round of this, but the bottom line is this: Stop minting pennies (all amounts round down to the nearest nickel), switch all dollar bills to coins. No one will be carrying any more change than they already do, and there’s a significant savings on minting costs. People arguing against it anymore are just being obtuse.
I got mrAru an MTA token as a present once, just so he doesn’t get stuck on the MTA 
