# So much for more dollar coins. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [December 13, 2011, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-much-for-more-dollar-coins/606066 "2011-12-13T19:56:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2011, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-much-for-more-dollar-coins/606066/41 "2011-12-14T02:38:07Z")
The weird thing about this is, it’s not that big a deal here in Canada. They announced the replacement of the one-dollar bill by a coin, people grumbled a bit, then got used to it. They announced the replacement of the two-dollar bill by a coin, people grumbled a bit, then got used to it. They announced the replacement of the paper bills by plastic ones, people will probably grumble a bit, then get used to it (assuming no major errors). We’ve been completely changing our banknotes about once every 15 years since the 1950s. I don’t understand what is it about the States that this issue causes seizups in the political mechanism. ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Knig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/cdc98d/32.png) [@Typo\_Knig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Knig)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2011, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-much-for-more-dollar-coins/606066/42 "2011-12-14T03:03:57Z")
> [@Sunspace](#): > > …I don’t understand what is it about the States that this issue causes seizups in the political mechanism. Everything! Every single damn thing in or near the US political system causes seizups. Heck, the three branches system was _designed_ to cause seizups. Specific to the currency, we in the US have made few changes to currency in the last century. Changing just the appearance of coins or bills is a Very Big Deal. Introducing new denominations is a HUUUGE Deal. Removing existing denominations is just more than our poor, aged, tradition-bound hearts can bear. Yes, it’s stupid. So’s our system of weights and measures, but it’s Tradition! :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![missred](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/missred/32/14096_2.png) [@missred](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/missred)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2011, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-much-for-more-dollar-coins/606066/43 "2011-12-14T03:10:54Z")
In the break rooms with vending machines at work, all of them dispense dollar coins from the change machines and all of the vending machines take them. Since I have to use the coin operated laundry in my apartment complex or go to the laundromat, I just wish that their machines would take dollar coins, dollar bills or plastic. It would save lugging around a roll of quarters on laundry day. OTOH, my purse can be used as a bludgeon when I’m carrying that much change. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2011, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-much-for-more-dollar-coins/606066/44 "2011-12-14T03:13:25Z")
> [@Sunspace](#): > > If you accumulate ¤5.27\* in coin, it’s easier to carry if it’s made of 2x ¤2.00, 1x ¤1.00, 1x ¤0.25 and 2x ¤0.01 (for 6 coins total), than if it’s composed of 21x ¤0.25 and 2x ¤0.01 (23 coins total). > > [sub]\*note cunning use of the "generic currency sign’, ¤ 🙂 [/sub] Now I can put the dollars in my wallet. I hate having a bunch of crap in my pocket. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2011, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-much-for-more-dollar-coins/606066/45 "2011-12-14T03:25:42Z")
I collect them, but I don’t see people using them. I presume that this does not mean the Sacajawea is also gone. Eventually the one dollar paper must go. ---
**Author:** ![jabiru](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/bbce88/32.png) [@jabiru](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jabiru)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2011, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-much-for-more-dollar-coins/606066/46 "2011-12-14T03:30:53Z")
> [@Sunspace](#): > > The weird thing about this is, it’s not that big a deal here in Canada. They announced the replacement of the one-dollar bill by a coin, people grumbled a bit, then got used to it. They announced the replacement of the two-dollar bill by a coin, people grumbled a bit, then got used to it… That’s essentially the way it happened here as well. I don’t get why it’s such a big deal. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Dr.Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Drake)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2011, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-much-for-more-dollar-coins/606066/47 "2011-12-14T03:45:50Z")
> [@suranyi](#): > > The only thing that would make this work is if paper dollars were forcibly removed from circulation, as happened in Canada. For political reasons, that’s unlikely to happen in the U.S. Could somebody spell out for me what these political reasons are? I just don’t understand what the problem is. ETA: If it’s that any change = perceived instability, I would think that stopping a planned series of coins partway through would look worse, although I wonder if they’d thought it through to the end… would they end up putting a sitting president’s face on a coin? ---
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2011, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-much-for-more-dollar-coins/606066/48 "2011-12-14T04:28:44Z")
> [@YogSosoth](#): > > You were a stripper?? :eek: Topless only, for about 4 years in the very early 2000s. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2011, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-much-for-more-dollar-coins/606066/49 "2011-12-14T04:38:39Z")
From the article in the OP: > [@](#): > > In fact, the U.S. Treasury Department said there are 1.4 billion surplus $1 presidential coins just sitting in the vaults of the Federal Reserve Dear U.S. Treasury, I understand that you have a surplus of dollar coins and need to free up the space. I would be happy to take those surplus coins off your hands. Please send them all to… ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2011, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-much-for-more-dollar-coins/606066/50 "2011-12-14T04:52:11Z")
> [@Covered\_In\_Bees](#): > > You can ask your bank for them if you are ever there. Same with $2 bills. My bank almost never had dollar coins. The decision not to use them is generally made upstream from me as a “consumer” of currency, and I have to use whatever cashiers , bank tellers, and ATMs pass out. I never refused a dollar coin in change, but then I have never been offered one either. In my neck of the woods there’s just not a whole lot of variety in the supply of readily available coins and currency. Four denominations of coins–pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters; and only three of currency, since tens are becoming progressively rarer–singles, fives, and twenties. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2011, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-much-for-more-dollar-coins/606066/51 "2011-12-14T05:19:02Z")
> [@Typo\_Knig](#): > > Everything! Every single damn thing in or near the US political system causes seizups. Heck, the three branches system was _designed_ to cause seizups. > > Specific to the currency, we in the US have made few changes to currency in the last century. . Don’t go too far here. We changed the size of our currency in 1928 from huge to the size it is today. > [@Typo Knig](#): > > Removing existing denominations is just more than our poor, aged, tradition-bound hearts can bear. . Except, we removed the $500 and $1000 banknotes. ---
**Author:** ![Cugel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cugel/32/1199_2.png) [@Cugel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cugel)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2011, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-much-for-more-dollar-coins/606066/52 "2011-12-14T05:21:31Z")
> [@Dr.Drake](#): > > Could somebody spell out for me what these political reasons are? I just don’t understand what the problem is. You’re not alone. A small band of never-happies might have a cry for a few minutes, but it’s difficult to envisage some sort of insurrection, or whatever the problem is supposed to be. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2011, 5:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-much-for-more-dollar-coins/606066/53 "2011-12-14T05:27:53Z")
> [@Cheesesteak](#): > > The good Ol’ USA, where our currency was perfectly good in 1911, when people made $10 a week and you could buy a cup of coffee for 5 cents, it’s still just as good now. :rolleyes: > > Sure, we collect our coins in jars until we have enough of them to make it worth our time to lug them over to a machine that takes 5% of the value to exchange them back into “real” money. 2 of our 4 main coins are so valueless it’s difficult to think up a single item you can purchase with one of them. What are you buying with even a dime or a quarter? I can’t think of a single thing I can buy with just one of any of the four main coins. It’s my understanding that when you go to the Coinstar machine you can get around the 9% “discount” by requesting a gift certificate instead of cash. This way your money gets channeled to Amazon or iTunes, but strangely with nary a peep of protest. It’s astonishing how all these folks who don’t want the government dictating what kind of coins to carry, yet don’t mind at all then when they are thus “encouraged” to spend their money at a specific business. ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2011, 5:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-much-for-more-dollar-coins/606066/54 "2011-12-14T05:46:23Z")
> [@Dr.Drake](#): > > Could somebody spell out for me what these political reasons are? I just don’t understand what the problem is. > > ETA: If it’s that any change = perceived instability, I would think that stopping a planned series of coins partway through would look worse, although I wonder if they’d thought it through to the end… would they end up putting a sitting president’s face on a coin? No. A living person’s image cannot be put on any U.S. Currency. Or postage stamp for that matter. The Presidential dollars would have been halted if they had gotten minted to the point where an ex-president was still living. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2011, 5:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-much-for-more-dollar-coins/606066/55 "2011-12-14T05:46:55Z")
> [@suranyi](#): > > The problem is that the government is still replacing the paper bills even with the dollar coins, because _ **nobody wants the dollar coins** _. (Emphasis of last five words is mine.) But this is isn’t quite correct. As I mentioned, most of us are more or less stuck with the forms of currency that actively circulate. For a type of coin to actively circulate, it has to flow from the banks to the businesses and into most of the cash drawers of the land. This did happen with the Bicentennial quarters of the 1970s, and with the State Quarters of the 2000s, for a very simple reason: there were no other quarters being manufactured at the time. For the opposite reason, it hasn’t happened with dollar coins. I’ve said countless times that I have been generally unable to obtain the dollar coins, even at banks. I can only assume this is because the banks’ merchant customers didn’t ask for the coins, and they got sent back to the Fed. After a while the banks stopped ordering them altogether. But you can’t assert that nobody wanted them. I never “refused” dollar coins, because I was never presented with any meaningful opportunity to use them. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2011, 6:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-much-for-more-dollar-coins/606066/56 "2011-12-14T06:56:17Z")
> [@iamthewalrus\_3](#): > > Just imagine how getting change would be if we only had pennies and bills. It would be about like what we have now. ---
**Author:** ![YogSothoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8edcca/32.png) [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2011, 7:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-much-for-more-dollar-coins/606066/57 "2011-12-14T07:08:43Z")
> [@OpalCat](#): > > Topless only, for about 4 years in the very early 2000s. That’s…awesome! 😃 Got any pics? 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2011, 7:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-much-for-more-dollar-coins/606066/58 "2011-12-14T07:10:35Z")
> [@Dr.Drake](#): > > Could somebody spell out for me what these political reasons are? I just don’t understand what the problem is. Much of American politics is decided on margins no thicker than hummingbird down. From the point of view of any given legislator, or the Administration, you don’t want to tick off another legislator over a small issue like eliminating pennies or dollar bills. If you do, they may vote against funding that would benefit your constituency. ---
**Author:** ![Shakester](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shakester/32/437_2.png) [@Shakester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shakester)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2011, 7:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-much-for-more-dollar-coins/606066/59 "2011-12-14T07:12:29Z")
Australia: Replaced $1 note with coin in 1984 Replaced $2 note with coin in 1988 Got rid of 1c and 2c coins in 1992 Introduced first polymer banknote in 1988 Completed changeover of all banknotes to polymer in 1995 …did all the above with minimal hassle and zero disasters. (Points at north America and laughs) ---
**Author:** ![Covered\_In\_Bees](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7ab992/32.png) [@Covered\_In\_Bees](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Covered_In_Bees)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2011, 7:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-much-for-more-dollar-coins/606066/60 "2011-12-14T07:25:11Z")
> [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](#): > > My bank almost never had dollar coins. The decision not to use them is generally made upstream from me as a “consumer” of currency, and I have to use whatever cashiers , bank tellers, and ATMs pass out. I never refused a dollar coin in change, but then I have never been offered one either. > > In my neck of the woods there’s just not a whole lot of variety in the supply of readily available coins and currency. Four denominations of coins–pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters; and only three of currency, since tens are becoming progressively rarer–singles, fives, and twenties. Well that sucks, I feel for you. I’ve only ever dealt with a local credit union, if that matters. The only time they can’t fulfill my request for dollar coins or $2 bills is if I go in after 3PM (when they supposedly lock their vault) and the teller has to scrounge up whatever he or she can find from his drawer and anyone else’s. If I go in before 3PM, no problems, they just grab a bundle and hook me up with whatever I requested. Which of course does suck for them because now they’ve got a bunch of coins and $2 bills taking up space in their drawer. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-much-for-more-dollar-coins/606066.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-much-for-more-dollar-coins/606066.md?page=4)