# 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:** 4
### Author:  [@flurb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flurb)
#### Post date: [May 11, 2024, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-newest-dollar-coin/1001374/61 "2024-05-11T02:01:53Z")
I’m sure this is all right and true and correct but – I just can’t get too spun up about the dollar coin. I put it in the same category as eliminating daylight savings time. The change just isn’t worth the headaches. I’d rather our politicians were using their political capital to force changes that are worth the squeeze, like addressing climate change.
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### Author:  [@robby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robby)
#### Post date: [May 11, 2024, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-newest-dollar-coin/1001374/62 "2024-05-11T02:05:36Z")
> [@wolfpup](#):
>
> Rising costs were also the reason that many of those same countries eliminated pennies, something the US Mint still can’t get its head around despite those things being essentially worthless. Costs may still be recorded down to the cent, but when paying cash, the amount is rounded up or down to the nearest nickel. This is not just a convenience for the consumer, but another cost-saver for the government – when pennies were eliminated here almost exactly 14 years ago, it was costing the government about two cents to mint each penny.
When I visited my parents who were living on a U.S. Army base in Germany back in the 1990s, I found that they had already eliminated the penny from circulation over there…and this was 30 years ago! None of the facilities there (including the commissary and PX) would accept or return pennies. If you paid in cash, prices were rounded to the nearest nickel. I was told it was because the U.S. Army was tired of the expense of shipping tons of pennies overseas for change, because people tend to either hoard them in a jar or throw them away. And the reason for this is because they are essentially worthless.
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### Author:  [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)
#### Post date: [May 11, 2024, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-newest-dollar-coin/1001374/63 "2024-05-11T02:09:19Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#):
>
> (a) feel that the penny is useful
It isn’t.
> [@kenobi\_65](#):
>
> (b) are worried that, without pennies, somehow people will be getting ripped off, a few cents at a time, with prices getting rounded up to the nearest 5c increment
This has not happened here, AFAIK. Grocery prices, for instance, are often in amounts down to the penny. It’s only the total that gets rounded up, or, by law, rounded down, and then only if you’re paying cash. If you’re paying by debit or credit, the world continues to run as it always did. It’s just that physical pennies no longer exist.
> [@kenobi\_65](#):
>
> (c) don’t want the tradition of American pennies to end
So as I said upthread, basically the same reason that rednecks shot up early metric road signs and America shares with Liberia the dubious honour of being one of the very few countries in the world who haven’t adopted the metric system.
> [@kenobi\_65](#):
>
> Also, it doesn’t help that the company which supplies zinc blanks to the Mint has been actively lobbying to keep the penny.
Now that you mention it, I seem to remember that. Ah, America, where the almighty dollar reigns supreme, especially when it’s bribing politicians! 🙄
> [@flurb](#):
>
> I’m sure this is all right and true and correct but – I just can’t get too spun up about the dollar coin. I put it in the same category as eliminating daylight savings time. The change just isn’t worth the headaches. I’d rather our politicians were using their political capital to force changes that are worth the squeeze, like addressing climate change.
I can’t really disagree with that sentiment, except to point out that the alleged “headaches” are mostly imaginary, and the resistance to change is almost entirely political and regressive.
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### Author:  [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)
#### Post date: [May 11, 2024, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-newest-dollar-coin/1001374/64 "2024-05-11T02:14:13Z")
> [@wolfpup](#):
>
> > [@kenobi\_65](#):
> >
> > a) feel that the penny is useful
>
> It isn’t.
>
> > [@kenobi\_65](#):
> >
> > (b) are worried that, without pennies, somehow people will be getting ripped off, a few cents at a time, with prices getting rounded up to the nearest 5c increment
>
> This has not happened here, AFAIK. Grocery prices, for instance, are often in amounts down to the penny. It’s only the total that gets rounded up, or, by law, rounded down, and then only if you’re paying cash. If you’re paying by debit or credit, the world continues to run as it always did. It’s just that physical pennies no longer exist.
>
> > [@kenobi\_65](#):
> >
> > (c) don’t want the tradition of American pennies to end
>
> So as I said upthread, basically the same reason that rednecks shot up early metric road signs and America shares with Liberia the dubious honour of being one of the very few countries in the world who haven’t adopted the metric system.
FWIW, I agree with all of the above, and honestly, (a) and (c) are pretty much the same reasons why we still have dollar bills, too. A significant fraction of Americans hate change, and hate, even more, a proposed change that’s backed with evidence based on “many other countries have done this, and it’s been a great success.”
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### Author:  [@Buck\_Godot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buck_Godot)
#### Post date: [May 11, 2024, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-newest-dollar-coin/1001374/65 "2024-05-11T02:27:37Z")
With the rise of inflation, I think now, or actually probably after the election, is the best time in a long time to revisit the idea of overhauling the cash supply.
At this point I don’t consider a dollar to be money I consider it to be change. You can’t buy much of anything for a dollar. Dollars are what you get after you bought something for a five or more likely 20 dollar bill and got some money back. And then use them just so that you don’t get more. In other words change.
If I ran the circus, we would have 10 cent 50 cent and dollar coins, and then 5, 20 and hundred dollar bills. I don’t see any reason to bother with anything less than tenths of a dollar, we got rid of the half penny coin in 1857 when it the penny was the equivalent of about 36 cents, and cash was much more important. So rounding to the nearest 10 cents shouldn’t be a heavy lift.
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### Author:  [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)
#### Post date: [May 11, 2024, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-newest-dollar-coin/1001374/66 "2024-05-11T02:30:56Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#):
>
> I don’t think that resistance to getting rid of the penny is coming from the Mint; it’s coming from Americans…
Seriously: who is asking them? The Secretary of the Treasury? Congress?
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### Author:  [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)
#### Post date: [May 11, 2024, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-newest-dollar-coin/1001374/67 "2024-05-11T02:34:11Z")
> [@Buck\_Godot](#):
>
> With the rise of inflation, I think now, or actually probably after the election, is the best time in a long time to revisit the idea of overhauling the cash supply.
I’d guess that a bigger factor will be how many Americans have gone cashless.
A 2022 Pew Research study indicated that, at that time, 41% of Americans say that, in a typical week, they do not use cash for any purchases at all (up from 29% in 2018). Conversely, only 14% say that they use cash for all, or most, of their purchases. Those who still use cash are more likely to be lower-income, and (not surprisingly) those who usually have cash on hand tend to be older.
As going cashless grows, the resistance against getting rid of pennies (or dollar bills) is likely to decline.
> **[More Americans are joining the ‘cashless’ economy](https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2022/10/05/more-americans-are-joining-the-cashless-economy/)**
>
> In less than a decade, the share of Americans who go “cashless” in a typical week has increased by double digits.
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### Author:  [@Lord\_Feldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Feldon)
#### Post date: [May 11, 2024, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-newest-dollar-coin/1001374/68 "2024-05-11T02:43:23Z")
When the nickel 5 cent coin was introduced, did people claim to be stumped by it being the “same size” as a quarter?
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### Author:  [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)
#### Post date: [May 11, 2024, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-newest-dollar-coin/1001374/69 "2024-05-11T02:48:35Z")
That was way back in 1866. At that time a nickel was the only price for anything sold in the US. Just talk to anyone older than you for a while and they’ll tell you how everything used to cost a nickel.
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### Author:  [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)
#### Post date: [May 11, 2024, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-newest-dollar-coin/1001374/70 "2024-05-11T03:00:27Z")
But they had bees on them.
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### Author:  [@Mundane\_Super\_Hero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mundane_Super_Hero)
#### Post date: [May 11, 2024, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-newest-dollar-coin/1001374/71 "2024-05-11T04:42:52Z")
> [@robby](#):
>
> That is impressive. I never realized loonies were migratory.
Well… Hockey season…
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### Author:  [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)
#### Post date: [May 11, 2024, 12:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-newest-dollar-coin/1001374/72 "2024-05-11T12:23:25Z")
Gimme 5 bees for a quarter you’d say.
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### Author:  [@asterion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asterion)
#### Post date: [May 11, 2024, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-newest-dollar-coin/1001374/73 "2024-05-11T12:30:04Z")
> [@DPRK](#):
>
> Seriously: who is asking them? The Secretary of the Treasury? Congress?
Well, I don’t know about asking, but the latter is why the new Catalyst series of bills (still scheduled to start with the ten in 2026 but we’ll see) doesn’t include a change to the one dollar bill. That design is fixed by law. And it doesn’t include the two because they barely print the two.
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### Author:  [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)
#### Post date: [May 11, 2024, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-newest-dollar-coin/1001374/74 "2024-05-11T13:44:21Z")
Fourteen years ago I started a thread complaining about some idiot who borrowed money from me and eventually paid me back with 50 dollar coins.
> [@What to do with dollar coins](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-do-with-dollar-coins/531852/1):
>
> A guy who owed me $50 paid me yesterday, with dollar coins. Dick move, IMHO.
>
> Anyway, what would you do with fifty dollar coins? It seems rude to pay a restaurant check with a pile of coins, doesn’t it? A friend in retail tells me that cash registers do not have a place for dollar coins, so they are a pia. Maybe I’ll take them by the bank and get real paper money.
>
> I haven’t had any of these coins before. The have the Statue of Liberty on one side, and Paul McCartney (when did he die?) on the other.:dubious:
Replies pretty much mirror the replies in this thread.
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### Author:  [@purplehorseshoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehorseshoe)
#### Post date: [May 11, 2024, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-newest-dollar-coin/1001374/75 "2024-05-11T14:13:38Z")
> [@kayaker](#):
>
> eventually paid me back with 50 dollar coins
I vaguely remember that thread!
What’d you do with your fat pile o’change in the end, anyway?
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### Author:  [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)
#### Post date: [May 11, 2024, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-newest-dollar-coin/1001374/76 "2024-05-11T14:21:59Z")
I’d forgotten, so I looked through the 14 year old thread. I exchanged them at the bank for real money.
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### Author:  [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)
#### Post date: [May 11, 2024, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-newest-dollar-coin/1001374/77 "2024-05-11T14:36:29Z")
> [@kayaker](#):
>
> Replies pretty much mirror the replies in this thread.
Yep, right down to the first response you got.
My opinion hasn’t changed over the intervening years. I don’t hate _change_, I hate change.
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### Author:  [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)
#### Post date: [May 11, 2024, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-newest-dollar-coin/1001374/78 "2024-05-11T14:38:34Z")
> [@silenus](#):
>
> Yep, right down to the first response you got.
Exactly!
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### Author:  [@CaveMike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CaveMike)
#### Post date: [May 11, 2024, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-newest-dollar-coin/1001374/79 "2024-05-11T14:40:51Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#):
>
> A 2022 Pew Research study indicated that, at that time, 41% of Americans say that, in a typical week, they do not use cash for any purchases at all (up from 29% in 2018).
I like the dollar coin and am in favor of dumping the penny and nickel, but this stat shows why the point is moot. There’s much bigger savings going from paper to plastic then going from paper to zinc.
* * *
For anyone interested, the GAO has an interesting graph of the year by year savings that aggregates into 5.5B in 30 years in the highlights doc here:
> **[U.S. Coins: Replacing the $1 Note with a $1 Coin Would Provide a Financial...](https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-11-281)**
>
> Since coins are more durable than notes and do not need replacement as often, many nations have replaced lower-denomination notes with coins to obtain...
It includes the upfront costs as well.
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### Author:  [@furryman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furryman)
#### Post date: [May 11, 2024, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-newest-dollar-coin/1001374/80 "2024-05-11T18:25:26Z")
That was minted in 2011? This is the first time I’ve encountered one. Shows you how little I’ve seen them.
If that coin was gold colored it was very faint, nearly non existent.
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