# New $1 coins - here we go again!
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-1-coins-here-we-go-again/381144
**Category:** Great Debates
**Created:** [November 20, 2006, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-1-coins-here-we-go-again/381144 "2006-11-20T14:43:21Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)
#### Post date: [November 20, 2006, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-1-coins-here-we-go-again/381144/1 "2006-11-20T14:43:21Z")
The U.S. Treasury is going to try again, after the Susan B. Anthony and Sacagawea flops:
[http://money.cnn.com/2006/11/20/news/dollar\_coin.reut/index.htm?cnn=yes](http://money.cnn.com/2006/11/20/news/dollar_coin.reut/index.htm?cnn=yes)
The article says no inscription will appear on the obverse (face) side of the coin, but the illustration shows Washington’s name and the years of his presidency. Hmmm.
I don’t think dollar coins will really catch on unless the Treasury stops printing dollar bills. They don’t have to “demonetarize” or withdraw them, just stop printing any more. After a few years, all the paper dollar bills will have worn out and the dollar coins will rule. The dollar coins should also be thicker than quarters, like the British five-pound coin, so that you can tell the difference in your pocket.
What say you?
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### Author:  [@Gadarene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gadarene)
#### Post date: [November 20, 2006, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-1-coins-here-we-go-again/381144/2 "2006-11-20T14:44:42Z")
They’re going to be putting each successive president’s face on the coins, like they did with the states on the quarters. Four a year, apparently.
Man, I can’t wait to get my Chester A. Arthur dollar coin.
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### Author:  [@Walter\_Windchill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walter_Windchill)
#### Post date: [November 20, 2006, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-1-coins-here-we-go-again/381144/3 "2006-11-20T14:46:38Z")
I wonder if it isn’t a craven move just to make more money.
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### Author:  [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)
#### Post date: [November 20, 2006, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-1-coins-here-we-go-again/381144/4 "2006-11-20T14:47:13Z")
Me for Taft!
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### Author:  [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)
#### Post date: [November 20, 2006, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-1-coins-here-we-go-again/381144/5 "2006-11-20T14:48:36Z")
I think it is doomed as long as paper bills are printed. People may collect them but never spend them. Personally, I’d prefer them to be the size of the old dollar coins so that the artwork can be a bit more detailed.
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### Author:  [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)
#### Post date: [November 20, 2006, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-1-coins-here-we-go-again/381144/6 "2006-11-20T14:53:19Z")
This country needs to reinstate the Taft. He was a man with real gravitas.
(What is that crossword puzzle word I am thinking of? The profit made from producing coins from metal? Singurage?)
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### Author:  [@jshore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jshore)
#### Post date: [November 20, 2006, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-1-coins-here-we-go-again/381144/7 "2006-11-20T14:53:55Z")
The Susan B. Anthony dollar failed for good reason…i.e., it was too close in size and look to a quarter, which made it very easy to mistake for one. However, I think that the Sacagawea failed mainly because the mint just didn’t stick with it long enough…And, in fact what that article says about it tends to support this point:
> [@](#):
>
> But limited Sacagawea quantities led to too many being stashed away by collectors, reducing circulation and thus familiarity, said Rod Gillis, head of education at the American Numismatic Association in Colorado Springs, Colo.
I don’t understand why they just didn’t continue to mint them…along with gradually reducing the number of paper $1 bills they print. It is almost as if there are some people in the treasury who have wanted the coins to fail. They certainly are quick to give up on them.
I really don’t think it would be that hard to get Americans to accept a $1 coin with a little stick-to-it-tiveness. And, such a coin is very practical as it has become quite annoying the extent to which one has to stockpile so many quarters in order to do laundry or feed parking meters.
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### Author:  [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)
#### Post date: [November 20, 2006, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-1-coins-here-we-go-again/381144/8 "2006-11-20T14:54:11Z")
[QUOTE=Elendil’s Heir]
I don’t think dollar coins will really catch on unless the Treasury stops printing dollar bills.
[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE=BobLibDem]
I think it is doomed as long as paper bills are printed.
[/QUOTE]
If this is really true, it would mean that **Americans vastly prefer dollar bills to dollar coins**. Which means that they shouldn’t stop printing them, no matter how much “better for us” you think dollar coins may be.
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### Author:  [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)
#### Post date: [November 20, 2006, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-1-coins-here-we-go-again/381144/9 "2006-11-20T14:57:29Z")
[QUOTE=Thudlow Boink]
Which means that they shouldn’t stop printing them, no matter how much “better for us” you think dollar coins may be.
[/QUOTE]
I agree, but I also think it’s a good thing for the government to look for ways to save money when it can. If this last try to get Americans to embrace a dollar coin fails, let’s give it up.
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### Author:  [@jshore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jshore)
#### Post date: [November 20, 2006, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-1-coins-here-we-go-again/381144/10 "2006-11-20T14:58:34Z")
Oh yeah…and another thing…If the problem with the Sacagawea was its being stashed away by collectors, then isn’t this move to cycle through the Presidents exactly the wrong thing to do? I.e., it seens like a way to prevent this stashing effect from saturating very quickly!
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### Author:  [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)
#### Post date: [November 20, 2006, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-1-coins-here-we-go-again/381144/11 "2006-11-20T15:01:12Z")
Yikes! I just went to the Mint’s web site. Here.
These are some pug-ugle coins! Jeepers!
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### Author:  [@asterion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asterion)
#### Post date: [November 20, 2006, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-1-coins-here-we-go-again/381144/12 "2006-11-20T15:04:07Z")
[QUOTE=Gadarene]
They’re going to be putting each successive president’s face on the coins, like they did with the states on the quarters. Four a year, apparently.
Man, I can’t wait to get my Chester A. Arthur dollar coin.
[/QUOTE]
I can’t wait to collect both Clevelands.
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### Author:  [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)
#### Post date: [November 20, 2006, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-1-coins-here-we-go-again/381144/13 "2006-11-20T15:04:36Z")
[QUOTE=Elendil’s Heir]
The dollar coins should also be thicker than quarters, like the British five-pound coin, so that you can tell the difference in your pocket.
[/QUOTE]
There are five-pound coins, but they are commemorative issue, and not in wide circulation. Pound coins are ubiquitous, two-pound (a lovely thing - like some sort of doubloon) slightly less so.
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### Author:  [@Lord\_Ashtar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Ashtar)
#### Post date: [November 20, 2006, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-1-coins-here-we-go-again/381144/14 "2006-11-20T15:06:07Z")
I’d like it if they got rid of paper dollars in favor of dollar coins, but for a purely selfish reason. I prefer to use a money clip that I can keep in my front pocket, and dollar coins would be easier for me to keep organized.
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### Author:  [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)
#### Post date: [November 20, 2006, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-1-coins-here-we-go-again/381144/15 "2006-11-20T15:24:12Z")
The Sacagawea failed because:
a) Merchants don’t give them out as change (making them hard to come by); and
b) vending machines don’t taking them (undercutting their utility).
I don’t see why it will be any different with the new coins.
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### Author:  [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)
#### Post date: [November 20, 2006, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-1-coins-here-we-go-again/381144/16 "2006-11-20T15:27:11Z")
It’s not that dollar coinsd are “good for us”, it’s that they’re a lot cheaper in the long run. They last longer.
I agree that they didn’t stick with the Sacajawea dollars long enough. Making them a different color was wise, since they were _exactly the same size as the Susan B. Anthony dollars_. The color kept them from being confused with quarters.
The new coins will be the same size, I guarantee you. A lot of machines have been fitted for that size coin, and they’ll want to take advantage of that./ On top of which, bigger coins would be too large and heavy to carry conveniently – the reason we don’t have the old size silver dollars any more. Or the half dollars, for that matter.
Heck, I’d use them. I used the Sackies.
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### Author:  [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)
#### Post date: [November 20, 2006, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-1-coins-here-we-go-again/381144/17 "2006-11-20T15:33:23Z")
I used to use the Sacajawea dollars regularly. Last time I used one, the woman thought it was a 50 cent piece and gave me the wrong change.
I’ll use these too.
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### Author:  [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)
#### Post date: [November 20, 2006, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-1-coins-here-we-go-again/381144/18 "2006-11-20T15:50:01Z")
At least no living ex-President will be included. But what happens if 2017 rolls around and Bush and Clinton are still alive?
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### Author:  [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)
#### Post date: [November 20, 2006, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-1-coins-here-we-go-again/381144/19 "2006-11-20T15:54:57Z")
[QUOTE=alphaboi867]
At least no living ex-President will be included. But what happens if 2017 rolls around and Bush and Clinton are still alive?
[/QUOTE]
Don’t sell Carter and Bush I short, maybe they’ll be around too.
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### Author:  [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)
#### Post date: [November 20, 2006, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-1-coins-here-we-go-again/381144/20 "2006-11-20T15:57:45Z")
They’re starting with Washington? So how the hell can I not confuse them with quarters?!?!?
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