# The newest Dollar coin
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-newest-dollar-coin/1001374
**Category:** The BBQ Pit
**Created:** [May 10, 2024, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-newest-dollar-coin/1001374 "2024-05-10T18:04:09Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@Cheesesteak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheesesteak)
#### Post date: [May 10, 2024, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-newest-dollar-coin/1001374/21 "2024-05-10T19:42:34Z")
> [@RitterSport](#):
>
> chuck their change into a jug, maybe trading it in for real money
We have likely lost any chance of rekindling the idea that coins can be real money. Millenials, Zoomers and Gen Alpha will have ALL lived their entire lives with coins being completely worthless junk. Trash that clogs up your pocket, fills up jars, until you can drag all that heavy nonsense to a coin machine that steals 10% of it just to turn it into real money.
My dad, from the Silent Generation, used to put his coins in a tray on the TV, drop the pennies in a 5 gallon glass jar, and would put the coins **back in his pocket** the next morning. Why? because they were actually money, real money. A couple of coins would get you a cup of coffee, that’s not even true anymore with dollar bills. Their only saving grace is that we keep them in the same place as the real money.
Today, dollar coins are basically fat quarters, still basically worthless, destined for the coin jar. I occasionally get a couple from a vending machine at the office, they stay in my desk for the next time I want a candy bar.
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### Author:  [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)
#### Post date: [May 10, 2024, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-newest-dollar-coin/1001374/22 "2024-05-10T19:42:45Z")
That’s a joke right? I thought my loathing for self checkout was well known.
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### Author:  [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)
#### Post date: [May 10, 2024, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-newest-dollar-coin/1001374/23 "2024-05-10T19:51:06Z")
If you spend change as you get it, why do you ever need to accumulate much of it? In a world of dollar coins, nobody would ever need to have more than 4 of them in their pocket at any time–when you bought something costing less than $1 with a $5 bill. If you don’t carry enough paper money to come close to the total amount, plus or minus a coin or two, that’s not the fault of the coins.
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### Author:  [@Si\_Amigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Si_Amigo)
#### Post date: [May 10, 2024, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-newest-dollar-coin/1001374/24 "2024-05-10T20:23:12Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#):
>
> If you spend change as you get it, why do you ever need to accumulate much of it?
The point is that I don’t use cash often enough to build up change in my pocket to use.
But my main issue with the dollar coin is that you can’t stuff them into G-Strings, which is where I use dollar bills more than anywhere else other than the car wash. And the damn car wash doesn’t make change for dollar coins or take dollar coins in the wash area. So I’m stuck with them.
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### Author:  [@Stratocaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stratocaster)
#### Post date: [May 10, 2024, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-newest-dollar-coin/1001374/25 "2024-05-10T20:26:17Z")
> [@DocCathode](#):
>
> But I’ll be in the cold cold ground before I accept a dollar coin.
I’ll take yours!
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### Author:  [@Stratocaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stratocaster)
#### Post date: [May 10, 2024, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-newest-dollar-coin/1001374/26 "2024-05-10T20:29:21Z")
> [@Kolak\_of\_Twilo](#):
>
> However, when I’ve traveled in Europe I’ve had no problem spending the larger denomination coins before returning home.
That was my experience. No big deal to carry around a couple of one or two pound coins.
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### Author:  [@robby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robby)
#### Post date: [May 10, 2024, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-newest-dollar-coin/1001374/27 "2024-05-10T20:51:30Z")
> [@furryman](#):
>
> 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 had to look up the coin in question to see what you were talking about. This appears to be it:
> **[George Washington Presidential $1 Coin | U.S. Mint](https://www.usmint.gov/coins/coin-medal-programs/presidential-dollar-coin/george-washington)**
>
> Welcome to the U.S. Mint, America's manufacturer of legal tender coinage. Your source for tours, online games, breaking news, and our product catalog.
I assume it’s the same dimensions as the Sacajawea dollar coin. And it’s gold-colored too like the Sacajawea dollar coin. That makes a difference, IMHO. I don’t think I would likely mistake it for quarter.
(Of course the difference in color doesn’t really help when fishing for coins in a pocket or if someone is visually impaired.)
The coin that I always confused with the quarter was the Susan B. Anthony dollar coin. Not only is it similar in size to a quarter, but it’s the same color too.
In any event, like others have said, I hardly ever use coins anymore. Or cash, for that matter. And due to inflation, neither a dollar nor a quarter are worth all that much these days.
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### Author:  [@Mundane\_Super\_Hero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mundane_Super_Hero)
#### Post date: [May 10, 2024, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-newest-dollar-coin/1001374/28 "2024-05-10T20:54:27Z")
> [@DocCathode](#):
>
> That’s a joke right? I thought my loathing for self checkout was well known.
I hate self-checkout too… but understaffed registers and lines that are 30+ people deep suck.
Look, you’ll get one in change from any automatic vending machine. Maybe you’ll need a METRO-card… or something from a soda or food vending machine at a highway rest stop. What I’m saying is that eventually you will get stuck with one ( and if you yell & scream at a machine, people will stare at you ).
If you get stuck with one, separate it from your other change and make sure you spend it during your next normal purchase of whatever. Gasoline? Whatever.
Other than that, what are you going to do?
Grind the outside rim sharp & throw them like you’re John Wick…?
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### Author:  [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)
#### Post date: [May 10, 2024, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-newest-dollar-coin/1001374/29 "2024-05-10T21:09:18Z")
> [@Si\_Amigo](#):
>
> But my main issue with the dollar coin is that you can’t stuff them into G-Strings, which is where I use dollar bills more than anywhere else other than the car wash.
I long for the day that someone doesn’t make that same stale “joke” every time this discussion comes up.
As for vending machines and self checkout, I use my credit card. I rarely see change anymore. We should really stop making anything below a quarter.
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### Author:  [@velomont](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/velomont)
#### Post date: [May 10, 2024, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-newest-dollar-coin/1001374/30 "2024-05-10T21:10:03Z")
Canada has had $1 coins since the late '80s and $2 coins and we’ve done just fine with them. Though post-pandemic I have rarely used cash at all.
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### Author:  [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)
#### Post date: [May 10, 2024, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-newest-dollar-coin/1001374/31 "2024-05-10T21:13:26Z")
Make it nickel size and octagonal.
Pretty much all I use cash for anymore is tips.
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### Author:  [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)
#### Post date: [May 10, 2024, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-newest-dollar-coin/1001374/32 "2024-05-10T22:20:14Z")
What no one has mentioned yet is that the current U.S. dollar coins, since the Sacagawea dollar, have a smooth edge like a nickel. You can distinguish it from a quarter (with a reeded edge) easily just by feel.
As for square, octagonal, etc., I’m not sure how well such coins would work with automatic sorters. Any non-round coin will have a slightly different diameter depending on how it’s aligned as it goes through the sorter. I don’t know how you’d pack them into rolls, either. At best, I think you’d need to orient all the coins so the corners line up.
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### Author:  [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)
#### Post date: [May 10, 2024, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-newest-dollar-coin/1001374/33 "2024-05-10T22:29:48Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#):
>
> Any non-round coin will have a slightly different diameter depending on how it’s aligned as it goes through the sorter.
You could make a Reuleaux triangle. And, googling, I see that some have:
>
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### Author:  [@Boudicca90](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boudicca90)
#### Post date: [May 10, 2024, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-newest-dollar-coin/1001374/34 "2024-05-10T22:33:19Z")
I don’t see the point of this. There have only been a few times in my life when I’ve encountered dollar coins, and I’m not even sure if employees would even recognize it as legal tender these days since they are so obscure.
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### Author:  [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)
#### Post date: [May 10, 2024, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-newest-dollar-coin/1001374/35 "2024-05-10T22:40:37Z")
As @CairoCarol says, once size, shape, denominations, security features, and everything are designed by your Isaac Newton-types, you go ahead and implement it. You don’t ask the plebes.
In the case of a coin indistinguishable from another coin by feel, obviously someone fucked up, though that may not be the case for this particular coin.
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### Author:  [@Briny\_Deep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Briny_Deep)
#### Post date: [May 10, 2024, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-newest-dollar-coin/1001374/36 "2024-05-10T22:44:24Z")
> [@F.U.Shakespeare](#):
>
> 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.
Do they still have those? When I visited the UK a million years ago, they were worth significantly more than a dollar, which itself was worth far more then than now, so having a few of those coins felt like having real money. I loved them.
In the U.S. the dollar coin ship has absolutely sailed. Forget $2; we might make a $5 coin if we did it right, which we won’t, so forget it. I hope the folks at the Mint enjoy these pointless little excursions.
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### Author:  [@Folly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Folly)
#### Post date: [May 10, 2024, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-newest-dollar-coin/1001374/37 "2024-05-10T23:27:52Z")
> [@Briny\_Deep](#):
>
> I hope the folks at the Mint enjoy these pointless little excursions.
The pointless excursions make the US treasury money.
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### Author:  [@Briny\_Deep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Briny_Deep)
#### Post date: [May 10, 2024, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-newest-dollar-coin/1001374/38 "2024-05-10T23:37:30Z")
No doubt you’re right in this case, and I know this is the BBQ Pit and all, but I wonder if every new coin venture is an automatic profit. Is there a limit to that? If not, we should totally mint 37-cent coins that look just like pennies, then end all taxes and build cities on Mars.
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### Author:  [@themapleleaf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/themapleleaf)
#### Post date: [May 10, 2024, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-newest-dollar-coin/1001374/39 "2024-05-10T23:46:12Z")
> [@DocCathode](#):
>
> But I’ll be in the cold cold ground before I accept a dollar coin.
With respect, what is the issue here? Canada has had a dollar coin, [the Loonie](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loonie), since 1987, and I can’t for the life of me associate anything negative with it, quite the contrary.
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### Author:  [@Stratocaster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stratocaster)
#### Post date: [May 10, 2024, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-newest-dollar-coin/1001374/40 "2024-05-10T23:55:58Z")
> [@Boudicca90](#):
>
> I don’t see the point of this.
From wiki:
> [@](#):
>
> The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has stated that discontinuing the dollar bill in favor of the dollar coin would save the U.S. government approximately $5.5 billion over thirty years primarily through seigniorage.
> **[Dollar coin (United States)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dollar_coin_(United_States))**
>
> The dollar coin is a United States coin with a face value of one United States dollar. Dollar coins have been minted in the United States in gold, silver, and base metal versions. Dollar coins were first minted in the United States in 1794.
> While true gold dollars are no longer minted, the Sacagawea, Presidential, and American Innovation dollars are sometimes referred to as golden dollars because of their color. As with several other denominations of U.S. coinage, golden dollars are similar ...
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