They have a circulating dollar coin in Canada (known as the “looney,” because it has a loon on the back). Also a two-dollar coin (the “twoney”). Why not here?
Simple answer: The Rag cloth lobby.
They will not let congress put two in the hat of the Dollar bill and replace it with a coin that would not wear out for many decades.
Besides, I have too much fun handing two dollar bills to toll takers and Best Buy cashiers.
Are you sure you’re not thinking of pre-1982 pennies? That was when the composition of the penny was changed to be 97.5% zinc and 2.5% copper, making it both lighter and less expensive to mint.
Wiki sez that as of June 2009, the metallurgical value of a penny was less than 50% of its face value.
Any truth to this? How could the cloth lobby and the zinc lobby be so strong? Doesn’t the lobby of whatever metal goes into dollar coins have power, too?
I agree. Let’s start phasing that out.
With Senator Kennedy out of the picture, this may change. No pun intended.
They make the “paper” of the bills. Only it’s not paper.
Related question: How many drugs was the mint on when they decided to put the dates on the rim? Yuck!
I like it, but I wouldn’t mind the eventual abolition of the penny. More trouble than it’s worth.
It does look like it belongs in a comic book. Maybe that’s partially because the shield appears to be curved as though it were cut out from a hollow sphere. A true shield would probably be curved, of course. I don’t think a heraldic shield is.
The mint site says it’s used in the Capitol frescoes, but I couldn’t find a picture of one to see if it’s curved or not.
I don’t care for it. But it won’t keep me up nights or prevent me from using the coin.
Propaganda? Huh?
The coins are made for the convenience of residents, not foreigners. How does coins not having numbers on them = something “wrong with this country”? That’s quite an extreme reaction.
When I’ve visited other countries (England pre-decimalization, Italy, Canada), I always made sure I knew the values of coins. You’re not implying foreigners are less able to cope with our money than I am with theirs, are you?
It does have the currency amount.
10 Mils = 1 Cent
10 Cents = 1 Dime
10 Dimes = 1 Dollar.
Right, but why would they that lobby wield power, especially when you presumably have a metal lobby pushing for more coins and fewer notes?
You must have really good eyes, or a different dime - mine says “one dime” and unless you happen to know what a “dime” is, you are out of luck. These non-Americans did not know what “dime” meant, whereas they would have understood “10 cents” if that had been minted on the coin.
I don’t think I’ve seen any of those yet.
I saw this thread and was wondering if I would see three penny designs in circulation at the same time. Just last night I got a pizza and when I got home and checked my change, there was a wheat cent. But I haven’t seen a shield penny, so the circulation does not officially overlap, at least for me.
Simple answer: They have pictures. LOTS of 'em.
Where I’m from, everybody spells it “loonie” and “toonie”. Yes, “twonie” would make more sense, but then it wouldn’t look like “loonie”, and why does “two” need a ‘w’ in it, anyway?
For real? My kid was telling me that the other day, and I kept insisting that the little mark there was just some dirt. :smack: I’m going to have to tell him that he was right.
And I mistook Abraham Lincoln’s head for some dirt.
I feel like a jerk.
The money supply is not the supply of minted coinage & printed notes. It also includes credit held in banks.
Yes, like something from the political superheroes of the 1940’s.
I’m genuinely surprised they’re redesigning something as worthless as a one cent piece.
Surely they could discontinue it and put the money involved in designing and minting the coins to better use elsewhere?
I don’t know about that, but they’re certainly easy to cut in half with a decent pair of scissors.