I haven’t received them as change yet, but my Mom is always buying them from the bank and giving them to me. They wind up in my son’s piggy bank, he’s saving for a robot so I figure the dollar coins will get him there a lot sooner.
Right now I’m living in Germany and they have coins up to 5DM (about $2.50). Most people either carry change pouches(men and women) and some of the men have huge wallets that have a change pouch, kind of like a woman’s. Once you get used to having lots of change it’s really no big deal, esp. when you buy lots of things from vending machines.
I bought a 1999 proof Susan B. Anthony dollar from http://www.usmint.gov, but I’ve never seen one of these 1999 Suzies in circulation. Hell, they don’t even show up on the coin-dealer websites I visit. Were they actually released?
I can’t answer your questions with any type of authority, but the Mint presses lots of coins that never get released. The SF Mint pressing of the “State” quarters is a good example.
tracer—I’ve seen 1999 Anthonys in circulation. The only places I’ve ever gotten them were in the post office vending machines and on the PATH trains (the subway that runs between New York City and northern New Jersey.) The PATH accepts them for fare. In fact, I just spent one to get to work this morning.
I understand there are fourteen mass transit systems in the United States that demand dollar coins, which are the ones that kept the coins in circulation well after the U.S. Mint stopped making them in 1981. I know the 1999 Anthonys circulated in New York and New Jersey; I have no idea where else they were circulated.
By the way: your 1999 Anthony is probably just an uncirculated coin, since there were no proof Anthonys struck that year. There were just regular coins struck only in Denver and Philadelphia (with the Denver mintage weighing in at a mere eight million—remarkably low. Watch for 1999-D Anthonys!)