# If I had a dollar...
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-i-had-a-dollar/33783
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [September 19, 2000, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-i-had-a-dollar/33783 "2000-09-19T20:52:51Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Necros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Necros)
#### Post date: [September 19, 2000, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-i-had-a-dollar/33783/1 "2000-09-19T20:52:51Z")
…I would probably circulate it.
I know we’ve had discussions here about whether the U.S. dollar coin would fly as a new form of currency. I’ve sort of been taking it as a one-man challenge to distribute as many of these things as I can. I get either a roll or two a week, and spread them around. I know there are others out there who are doing the same.
BUT! I never get them back as change. Why is this? People who work in jobs that involve giving and receiving money, why aren’t you sending these back into circulation? Do you, for some reason, think they’re going to be valuable? Or are you worried you’ll give them back instead of a quarter, or what? I’ve very interested to hear if my crusade will end up all for naught.
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### Author:  [@Ivar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ivar)
#### Post date: [September 19, 2000, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-i-had-a-dollar/33783/2 "2000-09-19T21:14:55Z")
I like the coins.
I received one once when they were out of dollar bills, then was asked " Um, we’re all out of dollar bills, do you want one of these coins, is that ok?" with a worried look on their face.
I think that sums up the prevailing attitude
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### Author:  [@Silver\_Fire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silver_Fire)
#### Post date: [September 19, 2000, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-i-had-a-dollar/33783/3 "2000-09-19T21:27:07Z")
When these coins first came out, I was employed at a convenience store. I got them on a daily basis, probably $20 or so every single day. People, at least the ones that I came in contact with, were not as happy to receive them as they were to give them. Dirty looks and a bitchy tone: “Do you have any _ **bills** _?” Sure, there were a few people who didn’t mind them but, eventually, we just started giving the coins right back to the bank.
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### Author:  [@Booker57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Booker57)
#### Post date: [September 19, 2000, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-i-had-a-dollar/33783/4 "2000-09-19T21:46:52Z")
My problem with them is the cash drawer in my POS termial There are bins for 1/5/10/25 cent coins that are below the spaces for the bills. Now, there is a space and bin off to the left for ? stuff ? Where do I put the new coins?
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### Author:  [@Necros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Necros)
#### Post date: [September 19, 2000, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-i-had-a-dollar/33783/5 "2000-09-19T22:34:30Z")
What’s wrong with the ‘stuff’ spot? Or is there a lot of ‘stuff’ you have to have around in your drawer? How about throwing them in with your pennies/nickels/dimes? They’re pretty easy to tell apart.
Of course, the ideal solution is to no longer ciculate pennies. But I won’t go into that.
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### Author:  [@Suo\_Na](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Suo_Na)
#### Post date: [September 19, 2000, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-i-had-a-dollar/33783/6 "2000-09-19T22:39:31Z")
I still have not seen the new dollar coin. I’d love to get them, because I’m tired of seeing a bill and thinking, “Hey, money!” and it turns out to be a one.
Are they not distributing them in California or something?
I did, however, get 17 Susan B. Anthony dollars from a postage stamp machine a few months ago.
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### Author:  [@Kid\_Gilligan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kid_Gilligan)
#### Post date: [September 19, 2000, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-i-had-a-dollar/33783/7 "2000-09-19T23:19:32Z")
The coins will begin to circulate when vending machines begin accepting them. It’s 1.25 for a bottle of Coke in a lot of places, and that requires more change than most people carry around, and bill changers are a pain in the @#%.
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### Author:  [@Sofa\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sofa_King)
#### Post date: [September 19, 2000, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-i-had-a-dollar/33783/8 "2000-09-19T23:26:31Z")
A couple of our Metro ticket dispensers here Inside the Beltway now proudly announce that “we dispense dollar coins as change.”
I thought this was pretty cool, as I have yet to see one, and getting a big handful of change for a large bill kind of sucks. Until I thought about the thoroughness of our Metro sign-makers…
There are no signs saying the machines _accept_ dollar coins.
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### Author:  [@Necros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Necros)
#### Post date: [September 20, 2000, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-i-had-a-dollar/33783/9 "2000-09-20T15:04:08Z")
Huh. I guess we’re living back in the days before inflation here in Colorado. The soda machine right down the hall in my office has 20 oz. bottles of water for a buck, and it takes dollar coins. The food vending machine (with chips and candy and such) actually has a special sign on it advertising the fact that it takes dollar coins.
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### Author:  [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)
#### Post date: [September 20, 2000, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-i-had-a-dollar/33783/10 "2000-09-20T16:21:23Z")
Although it has only happened a handful of times, I’ve refused the coins as change. Twice it came down to me asking to void the whole transaction (it was for trivial crap I was not in a hurry to get) before they relinquished. I sincerely hope the coin’s use wanes soon.
You want change for your candy bar? Carry four quarters, don’t foist your needs on me. Sure they are pretty, but a few quiet bills in my wallet are much better than a few coins jangling away in my pocket.
So when I (inevitably) end up with a dollar coin off it will go into my change jar, a veritable purgatory for odd coins. It can go back to circulation in a few years when I change out… in the meantime it can reflect on the nature of its soul.
With my most humble apologies for being a spoilsport,
Rhythmdvl
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### Author:  [@Necros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Necros)
#### Post date: [September 20, 2000, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-i-had-a-dollar/33783/11 "2000-09-20T18:31:03Z")
Dang it!
::smacks **Rhythmdvl** about the head and shoulders::
As the “Will dollar coins survive?” thread seemed to point out, lots of people hate them. But I’ve had a hard time seeing their arguments as valid. I don’t normally carry an assload of buck bills around in my wallet. About three or four is usually the most I have. And three or four pieces of change in my pocket doesn’t bother me in the least. Maybe if I wore a suit every day, it would. But with jeans, I don’t notice at all.
But I forgive you. 🙂
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### Author:  [@Pambo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pambo)
#### Post date: [September 20, 2000, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-i-had-a-dollar/33783/12 "2000-09-20T19:56:46Z")
Here’s a voice from a Canadian…
We already have two “dollar” coin denominations in circulation. The $1 coin is the “loonie” (boy, doesn’t THAT set us up for jokes…) - because there’s a picture of a loon on it, no reference at all to our government…no, not at all…
The newest coin is the $2 coin with the ultra-creative name of “toonie”. Get some good jokes with that one. The center of the coin on one side has a picture of a polar bear, the other side is Queen Elizabeth’s face. We (well, some of us, anyhow) tout this as the one coin where you can see the queen and her “bear” behind.
Having $10 in coins in your pocket weighs a heck of a lot more than a $10 bill. But, on the flip side, it’s kind of nice sometimes to open up the change pocket in your wallet and finding out it was several bucks worth of change making all that noise, not just the four pennies you thought were in there.
Pre 1997, when Canada was looking for designs for the new dollar coin, they asked the general public for suggestions. One smart aleck mailed in an American quarter.
Not only is our money colorful, it also has about as much value as Monopoly money.
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### Author:  [@Stuffy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stuffy)
#### Post date: [September 20, 2000, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-i-had-a-dollar/33783/13 "2000-09-20T21:20:53Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Suo Na \*
> \*\*I still have not seen the new dollar coin. I’d love to get them, because I’m tired of seeing a bill and thinking, “Hey, money!” and it turns out to be a one.
>
> Are they not distributing them in California or something?\*\*
I’ve got at least ten of em probably more. Try Walmart and Walgreens, Ive gottem most of mine from those two places. Me, I like the coins, and Ive put away the first ones I received \*just in case \* Ive also put some back into circulation, ussually when I happen to go to more than one store. As a general rule, any coins surviving the day goes into my change can/something silly fund.
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### Author:  [@Necros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Necros)
#### Post date: [September 20, 2000, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-i-had-a-dollar/33783/14 "2000-09-20T21:51:54Z")
Hey, **stuffinb** , kudos to you for putting them back in circulation. But a question: “Just in case” what? I mean, it’s not like they’ll become valuable or anything. At least, not more valuable than a buck.
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### Author:  [@Stuffy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stuffy)
#### Post date: [September 20, 2000, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-i-had-a-dollar/33783/15 "2000-09-20T22:38:02Z")
Oh, not for me per se, but I have a lot of Susan Bs, that I thought I’d add the new ones to, I planned to give them away to my kids at some point. I even have about $5 worth of bicentenial quarters. But to answer your question, I don’t expect any of them to get valuable.
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### Author:  [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)
#### Post date: [September 21, 2000, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-i-had-a-dollar/33783/16 "2000-09-21T00:06:31Z")
Pambo wrote:
> [@](#):
>
> Having $10 in coins in your pocket weighs a heck of a lot more than a $10 bill.
But does having $10 in coins in your pocket weigh a heck of a lot more than ten $1 bills?
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### Author:  [@anya\_marie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anya_marie)
#### Post date: [September 21, 2000, 8:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-i-had-a-dollar/33783/17 "2000-09-21T08:09:07Z")
i have not seen many dollar coins around town, i have only gotten a couple, and i gave them to the pizza guy for his tip. i would like to have some, i would like vending machines to take them so i do not hae to carry so much change.
at the end of the day i just take my extra chump change, put it in a jar, then every so often take it to my bank, and get currency for my change.
fwiw, i would like to get a couple toonies for my coin collection.
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### Author:  [@Gunslinger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gunslinger)
#### Post date: [September 21, 2000, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-i-had-a-dollar/33783/18 "2000-09-21T15:38:15Z")
I’ve never seen a Sackie except when I asked for one (when they first came out), and the roll my uncle gave me as part of my graduation present. They do make dollar slots easier, though 🙂
I do, however, occasionally get Susies back in change in place of a quarter. I don’t point it out to the cashier 😉
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### Author:  [@Medea\_s\_Child](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Medea_s_Child)
#### Post date: [September 22, 2000, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-i-had-a-dollar/33783/19 "2000-09-22T02:37:53Z")
I have yet to see one. Yes I am that lost. And that broke.
I will probably keep my first one around in my ye olde bowl o’ wierd metal stuff. After that they get handed out, probably changed for quarters so I can do laundry. (Which I need, if you have quarters to spare e-mail them to me please…) The state quarters, for instance, when I saw those all that went through my mind was “Delaware is going to clean my underware”
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### Author:  [@Chance\_the\_Gardener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chance_the_Gardener)
#### Post date: [October 5, 2000, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-i-had-a-dollar/33783/20 "2000-10-05T19:09:31Z")
No one has ever handed me a Sackie in change (love that name, by the way.) I do what I can to circulate them. I spend them at the cafeteria where I work and I’ve only ever gotten feedback on them once. (“I _hate_ these things!” remarked one cashier who makes it a point to give me any foreign coins that she comes across. She knows I collect coins.) There are two cash registers in the cafeteria, and each one has several Sackies in their drawers, doubtlessly ones that I’ve given them. I’ve given them so many of those coins, though, that they must be doing _some_thing with them and not letting them simply accumulate in the drawer. Are they taking them to the bank? Do some lucky souls get them as change? Do people sometimes see them in the drawer and ask for them? I dunno. I don’t want to ask, because I’m so much for making the Sackie a regular part of life in America that I don’t want to make it seem unusual that the coins are circulating at all.
I got my first Sackies at the bank, where I bought rolls of 25 coins so I could begin to circulate them. The mass transit systems of New York City and northern New Jersey (where I live) helped me out by clinking the coins out of their vending machines as change. This rules, and is my main (well, only) source of Sackies. These machines will also provide Anthony dollars, giving a mixture of the two types of dollars sometimes. Fine with me.
It’s important to note that Sackies were introduced for the same reason that Anthony dollars were struck in 1999 for the first time in eighteen years was because we were actually _running out_ of them. The huge stockpile of Anthonys minted for circulation in 1979 and 1980 was exhausted, though the demand for the coins seldom ran outside of mass transit systems. Mass transit systems (in my experience) are the only places I’m seeing these coins used, and I think they will keep Sackies in circulation even if the entire country should reject the coins. A new dollar coin will not take nationwide as long as the one dollar bill exists.
[http://www.geocities.com/Paris/Jardin/6099/spendtoannoy.html](http://www.geocities.com/Paris/Jardin/6099/spendtoannoy.html)
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