The George Washington dollar coin may be one of the most confusing coins ever issued. I literally had to stack it on top of a quarter to tell the difference. I’m starting to thing there’s some vested interest that doesn’t want the US to have dollar coins.
I am hardly the first person to suggest this but we will never see successful usage of a dollar coin in the US until the mint stops making dollar bills. Size, shape, design don’t really come into it as long as people have an alternative.
The smallest Euro bill is €5 and it hasn’t resulted in any issues. There are €1 and €2 coins and in my experience they are commonly used.
I don’t know why Congress keeps trying to make the dollar coin happen. Seems like every decade or so there’s legislation passed to adopt some new version. But it’s pretty obvious people don’t see the need for them.
I hope the US never gets rid of the dollar bill. If I hold cash, it’s bills, never coins.
What I will never understand is why every time the Mint puts out a new dollar coin they make it the same size as a quarter. Did they learn nothing from the Susan B Anthony coin “Oops, I thought it was a quarter” debacle? Make dollar coins dollar-coin sized! Or at the very least make them half-dollar coin sized.
The Sacajawea coins were gold…until they weren’t. The SB Anthony coins had some straight lines around the edges of the face design. Nobody looked at that. Make the coins a different size, you dipshits!
I cannot access them right now as they are still packed away, but I have a few square coins. I say make the dollar coin square. Yes, I am serious.
ETA
What new dollar coin???
Years ago, for reasons not of interest here, I got to talk to a Secret Service agent about American money design (people don’t usually realize it, but it is the Secret Service that is responsible for dealing with counterfeiting).
He said that historically speaking, the public always hates anything new in the design of their cash, so the Treasury just sort of assumes “eh, there will be outrage, but eventually people will get over it.” This has certainly been the case with the no-longer-new more counterfeit-resistant bills that have enlarged portraits and red strips running through them.
However … I have not seen the new dollar coin yet (it may take a while to wend its way to Hawai’i Island) but it sounds idiotic. I’d like to hear exactly why making it the precise size of a quarter seemed like a good idea.
The U.S. hasn’t minted a dollar coin for mass circulation since 2011. Congress did approve an “American Innovators” dollar coin series in 2018 schedule to release new coins through 2032 but these are only being minted for collectors.
Maybe that’s why I haven’t seen it!
I watched a special on counterfeiting back in the 90’s. Except for the hologram, every anti counterfeit recommendation on that special has come to pass.
But I’ll be in the cold cold ground before I accept a dollar coin.
Preach it!
And this mindset is exactly why there will never be a widely used dollar coin in the US. Europeans have no problem using the €1 coin but most people here are convinced having to use dollar coins would be impossible. Personally I would be just fine with it but I recognize I’m in a very small minority.
They aren’t. Different diameter, different thickness.
So, do people have jugs filled with change including 1 euro coins? That would get expensive fast. Lots of people here just chuck their change into a jug, maybe trading it in for real money when it fills up, maybe just starting on another jug.
But not enough different to tell by feel when you are digging in your pocket. Larger than a quarter and it’s too big/heavy for people to carry comfortably. All the sizes smaller are taken. So the dollar coin languishes, as it should.
Aren’t these two sentences contradictory?
The UK has/had a one-pound coin and Australia a two-dollar coin that were of smaller diameter than some lower-denomination coins (IIRC about the size of a U.S. nickel) but very thick. This made them easy to distinguish by either sight or feel. And they weren’t too big or bulky to carry a number of them in your pocket.
Come to think, maybe the U.S. should consider a two-dollar coin of such dimensions.
I can’t provide a definitive answer to that as I live in the US. However, when I’ve traveled in Europe I’ve had no problem spending the larger denomination coins before returning home. But with everyone using cash less and less in favor of cards I think it’s really becoming a moot point to some degree. Frankly I have gone a couple weeks at a time with very little to no cash in my wallet.
I will also add I have a different wallet I use when traveling abroad because paper money can be different dimensions and not fit in my regular wallet. My “Euro” wallet has a snap pocket that is designed to hold coins so they are easier to access than if they were loose in my pocket.
The Australians are a rugged lot, built to handle the staggering burden of carrying 1/3rd of an ounce in their pocket.
You know that they’ll be in the change you get from scan-your-own-food sections in markets, right?