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.
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:
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.
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.
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?
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…
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
