# American Loonie! **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [December 17, 2013, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-loonie/676527 "2013-12-17T04:20:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Lord\_Feldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lord_feldon/32/341_2.png) [@Lord\_Feldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Feldon)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2013, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-loonie/676527/41 "2013-12-18T01:53:55Z")
> [@Max\_Torque](#): > > And this right here is the problem. People hoard them like they’re rare, rather than spending them. Even in the first year the Sackie was produced, there were enough coins in circulation that every man, woman, and child in the US could have at least four of the darn things. And yet people thought they were special and put them in their sock drawers, instead of using them like good little consumers. Breaks my heart. How many of the coins “in circulation” were _actually_ in circulation? 1.2 billion were minted that first year, but how many of them ever touched the hands of a consumer? There are 1.4 billion just sitting in the Fed’s vaults right now, because banks aren’t buying them because retailers aren’t buying them. I don’t think individual consumer behavior has much to do with it. ---
**Author:** ![seal\_cleaner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e274bd/32.png) [@seal\_cleaner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/seal_cleaner)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2013, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-loonie/676527/42 "2013-12-18T02:28:01Z")
I got a bunch to hand out to grandkids last Christmas. Most wanted to exchange them for quarters. :rolleyes: Edit: Rolleyes because they proposed a \*1 for 1 \*exchange. ---
**Author:** ![LawMonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d6d6ee/32.png) [@LawMonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LawMonkey)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2013, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-loonie/676527/43 "2013-12-18T02:49:50Z")
> [@seal\_cleaner](#): > > I got a bunch to hand out to grandkids last Christmas. Most wanted to exchange them for quarters. :rolleyes: > > Edit: Rolleyes because they proposed a \*1 for 1 \*exchange. Step 1: Give dollar coins to grandkids. Step 2: Exchange dollar coins for quarters, 1:1. Step 3: [del]Profit![/del]Cut losses by 25%! ---
**Author:** ![Ruken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f475e1/32.png) [@Ruken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruken)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2013, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-loonie/676527/44 "2013-12-18T03:39:20Z")
Whenever I go into a bank, which is extremely rare, I ask for a roll or two of dollar coins and every $2 bill they have sitting around. I asked about ordering a pile of $2 bills, but the lady at the bank wasn’t sure how to do that. ---
**Author:** ![rsat3acr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a3d4f5/32.png) [@rsat3acr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rsat3acr)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2013, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-loonie/676527/45 "2013-12-18T04:01:34Z")
> [@AuntiePam](#): > > 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. 🙂 He pays more than a dollar for them?! My bank always has them. How much does he pay I’ll be happy to sell him hundereds for a bit over a dollar apeice.(shipping not included) Over the years I’ve gotten two from circulation. ---
**Author:** ![Xema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9de053/32.png) [@Xema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xema)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2013, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-loonie/676527/46 "2013-12-18T04:19:29Z")
> [@AuntiePam](#): > > He has tried to get them from local banks. Local banks say they can’t get them. Strange. My small local bank gets them without problem. I lay in a supply at Halloween time, to hand out in place of candy (which I don’t like to buy, because I’ll end up eating the leftovers). The (rather few) kids that come seem happy to receive 2 of these, though explanation is sometimes needed. ---
**Author:** ![SCAdian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scadian/32/3292_2.png) [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2013, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-loonie/676527/47 "2013-12-18T04:36:13Z")
I use them all the time - get them from the commissary and the credit union. I never notice the weight or bulk unless I’m carrying over a dozen, and one of the many points in their favour is that I’ve never had a vending machine refuse to accept one. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2013, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-loonie/676527/48 "2013-12-18T05:00:19Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > \*… switching to a dollar coin “would provide a net benefit to the [US] government” of about $5.5 billion over 30 years. > > But it’s not because coins are cheaper… Uh? I thought the whole point was that it’s cheaper _than maintaining and replacing as needed the equivalent number of small-value bills over the same period._ It’s cheaper if you do a complete replacement of fast-wearing bills with coins. Your quote doesn’t seem to address that at all. > [@Chefguy](#): > > That’s really a misspelling. While Native Americans disagree on both the way whites spell and pronounce the name, it’s more correctly spelled “Sacagawea”, and pronounced Sah-cah’ gah-we-ah, with a hard ‘g’ and the accent on the second syllable. Thanks! I always wondered how to pronounce that. “Sackie” for the coin is so much easier. Pity the Presidential Series kind of derailed that slang. ---
**Author:** ![Mtgman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5a626/32.png) [@Mtgman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mtgman)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2013, 5:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-loonie/676527/49 "2013-12-18T05:54:05Z")
> [@LawMonkey](#): > > Step 1: Give dollar coins to grandkids. > Step 2: Exchange dollar coins for quarters, 1:1. > Step 3: [del]Profit![/del]Cut losses by 25%! Step 4: Cut losses by another 50% because… math. Enjoy, Steven ---
**Author:** ![LouisB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dfb087/32.png) [@LouisB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LouisB)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2013, 6:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-loonie/676527/50 "2013-12-18T06:44:19Z")
I had twenty of the birdwoman coins. I have no idea where they are. ---
**Author:** ![JoseB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/joseb/32/1530_2.png) [@JoseB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JoseB)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2013, 10:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-loonie/676527/51 "2013-12-18T10:01:25Z")
FWIW, the dollar coins are very much in use in Ecuador, which dollarized its whole economy in the year 2000. People there are very happy to use the coins, which circulate there without problems (the only currency still minted in Ecuador itself are their own 1-cent --or “1 centavo”-- coins). I guess that a portion of those dollar coins that are currently stored in some warehouse will find their way to Ecuador for a life of fruitful circulation ^.^ Oh, I forgot: El Salvador also uses the US dollar as currency (it was adopted in 2001), and the 1-dollar coins also circulate there without problem. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2013, 12:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-loonie/676527/52 "2013-12-18T12:01:17Z")
> [@LouisB](#): > > I had twenty of the birdwoman coins. I have no idea where they are. Them’s Alcatraz Dollars. ---
**Author:** ![Pixel\_Dent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/bc8723/32.png) [@Pixel\_Dent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pixel_Dent)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2013, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-loonie/676527/53 "2013-12-18T14:49:33Z")
> [@aruvqan](#): > > MTA token so you don’t get stuck like [Charlie](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3VMSGrY-IlU)?😛 I got mrAru an MTA token as a present once, just so he doesn’t get stuck on the MTA 😃 Last time I was in Boston they didn’t use tokens anymore. They’d switched over to pass cards. I’m sure by the next time I make it back everyone will just wave their cell phones at the turnstiles. As for dollar coins, I use them to pay off golf bets. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2013, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-loonie/676527/54 "2013-12-18T15:02:54Z")
Maybe I work in the only building in America with an active economy largely based on US dollar coins? It’s a state office building, and in the caff there’s a bill changer machine that breaks five and ten dollar bills into dollar coins, which we then use in the food and drink vending machines. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-loonie/676527.md?page=2)