# Do They Still Make the Sacagawea Dollar? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 4, 2005, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-they-still-make-the-sacagawea-dollar/329428 "2005-11-04T05:17:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2005, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-they-still-make-the-sacagawea-dollar/329428/21 "2005-11-04T18:51:45Z")
> [@](#): > > The $2.00 bill is gone in Canada, but replaced with a $2.00 coin: the twoonie. The $1.00 coin is the loonie (because the original version had a loon on it, and because that’s what many people thought of the idea at the time). > > The $5.00 bill is next on the horizon from what I hear. I’m sure if it was put to a vote the majority of people would support discontinuing the penny and rounding to the nearest nickel. The loonies no longer have a loon on them? That’s a shame. And when they do make a $5 coin, I hope they put a picture of an albatross on it, so it can be called a goonie. ---
**Author:** ![Skammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skammer/32/143_2.png) [@Skammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skammer)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2005, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-they-still-make-the-sacagawea-dollar/329428/22 "2005-11-04T18:58:25Z")
> [@Diceman](#): > > The general public does not want dollar coins. Is this true? Anyone I’ve every talked to about it (admittedly a small sample) and the majority of posters in this thread seem to welcome the idea. Has there been a survey or something? Do you have a cite? ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2005, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-they-still-make-the-sacagawea-dollar/329428/23 "2005-11-04T19:21:41Z")
> [@Diceman](#): > > Yeah, God forbid a democratically-elected body avoid doing something that they know would be massively unpopular :rolleyes: In virtually any other country this would be considered so petty. The democratically elected government is tasked with defending the country, protecting your civil rights, and upholding the Constitution. You/we do not have the “right” to insist on a paper denomination of money which is not even enough, now, to mail three letters, or purchase a single ticket on a big-city mass transit system. In any other country, even a democratically governed one, the government would be free to dictate in this area. We didn’t vote for dollar bills, or nickels, or pennies, or any of them…they were just there. We didn’t vote to have the coinage debased in 1964, it was just done. And we don’t have a constitutional right to insist that things continue the way they are forever. Do you realize how screwed up and inflated the whole system of currency is in this country? Last time I remember actually using quarters…in a parking meter at UCLA…each quarter was worth 8 (eight) minutes in a parking meter. Before that I used two qwarters to pay for five minutes on a gas station air pump. That’s what a quarter is worth today…a puff of air. And it’s the highest denominated coin in regular circulation…the flagship, if you will, of United States coinage. > [@](#): > > From what I hear, the Mint and the vending machine industry are the two groups that like the idea of dollar coins. The Mint because coins last longer than bills, and the vending machine industry because bill acceptors are more expensive and less reliable than coin acceptors. The Mint and vending machine industry did push the dollar coin. On the other hand, the Bureau of Printing and Engraving has successfully pushed to keep the dollar bill in production. The zinc lobby upholds the continuation of the penny. > [@](#): > > The general public does not want dollar coins, no matter who you put on the face, or whether the coin is silver, gold, or molybdenum. Around here you only see dollar coins when you use the stamp machine at the post office. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2005, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-they-still-make-the-sacagawea-dollar/329428/24 "2005-11-04T19:36:40Z")
> [@Skammer](#): > > Is this true? Anyone I’ve every talked to about it (admittedly a small sample) and the majority of posters in this thread seem to welcome the idea. Has there been a survey or something? Do you have a cite? It’s my firm belief that if the Sacajawea dollars had been universally available–that is, if everyone who thought they were a great idea could have actually gotten them–we would still see them in circulation today. But they weren’t. Many banks didn’t have them. Armored transport companies didn’t want to make the necessary adjustments to handle them, which pretty much put the kibosh on the whole idea from the start. If Brinks wouldn’t transport them, how could they get to the banks? We Americans are an unbelievably conservative and hidebound lot; I still marvel at the Europe, which has undergone the ditching of a dozen national currencies in favor of the Euro. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2005, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-they-still-make-the-sacagawea-dollar/329428/25 "2005-11-04T19:41:21Z")
> [@Spectre of Pithecanthropus](#): > > You/we do not have the “right” to insist on a paper denomination of money which is not even enough, now, to mail three letters, or purchase a single ticket on a big-city mass transit system. The hell we don’t. This is heading back over to GD, but the elected officials are there to do whatever we bloody tell them to do, and if that is maintain an archaic system of money and measures, then so be it! ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2005, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-they-still-make-the-sacagawea-dollar/329428/26 "2005-11-04T19:49:11Z")
> [@](#): > > We buy them 1000 pieces at the time for our coin shop, they cost us about $1.40 each in quantity, and we resell them for $2.00 each to collectors. Wait a second. You’re running a business that consists of buying newly issued American currency at 40% above its face value and reselling it to people at 100% above its face value? I’m imagining a coin collector with a million dollars to invest. So he buys 500,000 dollar coins. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2005, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-they-still-make-the-sacagawea-dollar/329428/27 "2005-11-04T20:22:22Z")
> [@samclem](#): > > We buy them 1000 pieces at the time for our coin shop, they cost us about $1.40 each in quantity, and we resell them for $2.00 each to collectors. Are these coins proofs, or produced in any other special way? How do they justify selling them at 40% over face value? And does anyone actually buy them from you at $2 each? ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2005, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-they-still-make-the-sacagawea-dollar/329428/28 "2005-11-04T21:35:21Z")
FYI, just to confirm what **samclem** said, if you go to the US Mint website, you can purchase a 250-count bag of golden dollars for $347 (or about $1.39 each). 25-count rolls are no longer available, but they were slightly more, at $35.50 per roll. So why do people buy the golden dollars from his store for two bucks? No idea, but it’s a nice business for him. On the other hand, if people stop buying them, he’ll be stuck with coins that are only really worth 72% of what he paid for them. ---
**Author:** ![Bill\_The\_Cat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ba8739/32.png) [@Bill\_The\_Cat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bill_The_Cat)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2005, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-they-still-make-the-sacagawea-dollar/329428/29 "2005-11-04T22:57:25Z")
I believe the real reason why they never caught on is because companies didn’t manufacture things that would actually take $1 coins. Aside from the stamp machines at the post office, I can’t seem to find anywhere to use them. What I really want to do is to be able to use them to buy the $1.50 sodas in the vending machines, or to fit it into a parking meter that charges $25 for 4 minutes. I think the best way to have made the transition is to eliminate the penny concurrent with widespread introduction of the Sac dollar. Restaurants wouldn’t need to get new 5-bin cash registers, coin sorters could be resized without having to be redesigned, etc. ---
**Author:** ![Pushkin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ee59a6/32.png) [@Pushkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pushkin)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2005, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-they-still-make-the-sacagawea-dollar/329428/30 "2005-11-04T23:03:15Z")
A dollar bill? I can barely remember the one pound note in the UK, the last I remember having I lost on the way to the shops to run an errand for Mum, I replaced it with a coin of my own. ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2005, 11:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-they-still-make-the-sacagawea-dollar/329428/31 "2005-11-04T23:11:04Z")
> [@Spectre of Pithecanthropus](#): > > I still marvel at the Europe, which has undergone the ditching of a dozen national currencies in favor of the Euro. America did it once already. Although it took a lot longer to eliminate foreign currencies from circulation, it worked. As it did for Germany in the 19th century, and for India (I’ve seen a late 19th-century guide for businesses, about the various currencies in each major Indian city. My God, I prefer my tax return to that endless chain of fractions) ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2005, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-they-still-make-the-sacagawea-dollar/329428/32 "2005-11-04T23:43:58Z")
> [@Balthisar](#): > > …And actually, I should have amended: and who are these bozos that pay $2 for a $1 coin that’s widely available? Plus the coin collector wants an _uncirculated_ coin, and by definition, the ones you get from a Post Office vending machine (or a Las Vegas casino, for that matter) are circulated. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [November 4, 2005, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-they-still-make-the-sacagawea-dollar/329428/33 "2005-11-04T23:46:29Z")
The OP is answered, and all’s right with the world. I’ve been through these discussions before. If you want to ramble on about the merits of coins vs. banknotes, or anything else, we have other fora. Closed. **samclem** GQ moderator [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-they-still-make-the-sacagawea-dollar/329428.md?page=1)