Paper vs. coin: American politics are overly commercialized

I clicked on a news story about a campaign to replace the U.S. paper dollar with dollar coins. It seems like an interesting question: What do American people prefer? What would be more convenient for vending machines?

But instead what struck me about the news item is that the debate is being driven by specific vested interests. On one side is Crane & Co., manufacturer of fine paper items like wedding invitations … and dollar bills. On the other side are copper companies; indeed the Congressmen leading the push for coins come from Arizona, America’s biggest copper-producing state.

Personally, I have no dog in the paper-vs-coin debate, but it seems like a question where a variety of tradeoffs need to be considered. It isn’t good that the commercialization of politics means the issue will be decided by specific most-affected companies.

I am not advocating repeal of the First Amendment. But I do think Americans need to be more aware of how political decisions are made in their country.

It amazes me what subjects get politicised in the US. When we in the UK changed from £1 notes to £1 coins (back in 1984), the Government just… did it. There wasn’t even a parliamentary debate about it because it just isn’t very important.

Likewise, copper is pushing for abolition of the penny and zinc wants to keep it. And Joseph Wharton (who controlled essentially all nickel production) lobbied for nickel coins in the mid-19th century.

It doesn’t really matter. Americans have consistently rejected dollar coins. The US Mint finally seems to be getting the hint, and doesn’t plan to foist any new designs on us in the forseeable future. This bill will probably die a quiet death.

Is this because the copper producers figure that abolishing the penny would increase the number of other coins in circulation?

(At first, I couldn’t even guess what their game was, then did a bit of quick research intending to rule out a possibility. Who knew that the US nickel, dime, and quarter ALL have proportionally more copper than the penny?)

Well Americans have rejected the dollar coins that have been introduced over the years because the coins that have come out are stupid. There was the much too large , old one, and then the Susan B Anthony, Sacajawea, and presidential ones that were the same size, by feel in the pocket, as a quarter. Come up with something along the lines of an Italian 1000 lire, and it might work.

I was in Canada just a couple years after they switched to a one-dollar coin. I took some Canadian money with me that I had from a previous trip. When I spent a one-dollar bill somewhere, the guy said “don’t see these much anymore.” Come up with a coin like that, and withdraw the bill, and I think it would work. Our pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters all have the same look and feel already.

You’re wrong about the Saccy feeling the same as a quarter, though. The Saccy has a smooth edge; the quarter is ridged.

The only reason Americans have rejected dollar coins is Because they didn’t replace dollar bills, they were introduced beside them. People intrinsically fear change and so will of course scoff at the new thing unless they don’t have a choice. From what I understand, switching to a dollar coin in place of the bill will save a LOT of money over the years. After living in Europe for 3+ years, I came to love the €1 and €2 coins. They were nice.

Yes, very few things seem to be debated on the common good.

As I said in another thread:

That sounds a lot like the reaction I would expect from people in the US, too.

That’s me: I only use paper money, because I fear change.

I prefer dollar coins, but (at least here in Seattle) I never get them from retailers as change, so the things I have to spend are dollar bills. The ATM only gives me $20s and as the week goes on, I get smaller bills and coins as change for purchases that aren’t a multiple of $20. I, and probably most Americans, wouldn’t be willing to go out of their way to the bank to get rolls of dollar coins when every store offering change gives out paper dollars.

So I think the dollar coin should be pushed from the end of businesses, not ordinary people. Most cash registers I’ve seen have at least 5 slots for coins, so it’s not like there isn’t any room. If new dollar bills aren’t produced anymore, banks will have to give dollar coins to businesses, which will then pass them as change to customers.

I would hate dollar coins. Having 6-7 single dollar bills in my wallet is nothing. Having 6-7 huge coins in there would bulk it up way too much. No thanks. And I am glad that at least in this the “powers that be” seem to be listening to the people. Maybe.

Thank you.

Despite thread title and OP, the paper vs coin debate has relatively little interest for me. But I did click the news link and learned that the issue had devolved into whether paper or copper companies would spend the most money lobbying. Albeit just a minor “straw”, this news item did “break my camel’s back” and caused me to complain about the way America makes decisions.

Yes, sometimes rather odd connections.

Back when the government first proposed celebrating many holidays on Mondays (rather than the actual calendar date), I was surprised that the potato chip industry strongly opposed this. Turned out that with holidays on Mondays, creating 3-day weekends, people go on trips, visit relatives, etc. But holidays on the actual date mean some 1-day holidays in the middle of weeks – so people stay home, and have picnics or backyard barbeques, for which they buy more potato chips. So the potato chip industry opposed celebrating holidays on Mondays.

True, proposed law changes that cost somebody money become politicized. But I don’t see why that should be so amazing to you.

I’m not saying that the government should act like it knows better than the people… but sometimes, the government should act like it knows better than the people.

It’s a weird paradox isn’t it? The US is the world’s leading innovator, but also one of the most socially conservative. My theory is that it’s because our governments in Europe are in fact slightly less democratic - but the additional democracy in the US, which is theoretically ‘better’, gets hijacked by lobbyists and pressure groups which actually makes it ‘worse’ in the long run.

On the one hand you’ve got amazing things like the Moon landings and the iPad, and on the other hand you’ve got the stubborn refusal to adopt international standards. The coin vs note thing is symptomatic of a wider issue issue - Lobby groups: “waah, we’d have to redesign all the vending machines”; rest of the world: “yeah big deal, we did it years ago”.

we can “reject” them because they won’t take the dollar bill out of circulation. Simple solution: start minting dollar coins, stop printing dollar bills.

problem solved. I mean, what are you gonna do about it? Stop using money?

Thank you! Every time someone tells me that the various dollar coins in recent US history didn’t work because people didn’t like them, I want to pull me hair out.