I remember when Canada first introduced the one dollar coin. Over night all the vending machines that sold candy or soda’s for under a buck jumped up in price to, you guessed it! One dollar even! Keep your one dollar bills in circulation or you’ll wind up taking it in the shorts.
Just one mans opinion.
No, I’m afraid you need to pull out the old merriam webster’s.
Main Entry: po·lyg·a·my
Pronunciation: -mE
Function: noun
Date: circa 1591
1 : marriage in which a spouse of either sex may have more than one mate at the same time – compare POLYANDRY, POLYGYNY
2 : the state of being polygamous
Ergo, a polygamist is one who belongs to a marriage in which a spouse of either sex may have more than one mate at the same time.
(1) we’re basically using our great-grandfathers’ coins in a world of 21st century prices, and
(2 how many single dollars do you actually have to carry,
unless (arrrrgghgh) you just paid a $3.00 for parking and
got 17 singles in change, bulking up your wallet, and
(3)isn’t it kind of embarrassing to be the only industrialized country where you can have a wad of bills or
a pocketful of change that’s worth next to nothing? In most of Europe you can easily have enough coins in your pocket to buy yourself a beer or sandwich or magazine. But not in the USA, where you’d have to count out 12 to 25 or more quarters to buy any of these things. When European tourists come here, do they get warned by travel agents that
even though their pockets or coin purses may be bulging with
coins, you need a large pile of American coins even to buy
yourself a sandwich?
samclem:
Thanks for the clarification. I had an old Red Book from the late 80’s, all it mentioned was that it was very scarce. I just assumed that it would be quite valuable.
And on a related note, the Today Show this morning had a Sacagawea dollar with the obverse struck as a Washington quarter. I guess it’s tough to say at this point whether such a coin will come to be very valuable, or just a modestly priced curiosity.
It sounds to me like you support the elimination of physical currency altogether. Our great-grandfathers had access to dollar coins, along with 5 and fifty dollar gold pieces (the first coin ever minted by the United States was the fifty dollar gold piece). No metal coin can claim to be “21st century” they are all a continuation of thousands of years of coin minting. If you want US money to move into the 21st century then we should ditch paper and metal coinage completely. Instead we should use credit/debit cards for everything including vending machines. (Person to person tranfers will have to use checks.)
Think for a moment how convenient it would be to buy a soda or a sandwich by sticking a card in a slot, press a button or two and out pops your lunch. ASSUMING (<–that’s a big assumption) that security measures are taken to thwart credit card fraud by using biometrics (i.e. finger print readers, voice print analysis etc.) then you wouldn’t have to worry about getting robbed. No one could stick a gun in your face and steal your money if there is no paper currency. We are already taking the risks associated with electronic money transfers (i.e. check fraud, credit card fraud, wire fraud, computer errors wiping out your bank account…) why not enjoy the benefits of our wonderful electronic funds transfer system and expand it to every transaction. So in answer to the OP, I say spend the damn coin and then write to your congress person about ditching the US Mint (that place costs the tax payers billions per year, did you know they are spending $44 million just to promote the new dollar coins.) What do you all think? Is physical currency a hold over from the Roman Empire or does it have a place in the new millenium? Or am I just crazy?
If it has George Washington’s picture on it, it could be worth a whole lot!