# US Golden Dollars ($1 Coins) only really being used in Washington DC? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 20, 2018, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-golden-dollars-1-coins-only-really-being-used-in-washington-dc/818303 "2018-07-20T23:25:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Lord\_Feldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lord_feldon/32/341_2.png) [@Lord\_Feldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Feldon)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2018, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-golden-dollars-1-coins-only-really-being-used-in-washington-dc/818303/41 "2018-07-21T22:34:38Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > Anyhow, back to your post, the thing is it’s a Catch-22 for me. I absolutely would use them if other people would just use them. I far prefer them to the dollar bill. But I just can’t use them, because I don’t get them. I’d have to take a special trip to the bank if I wanted a pocketful of dollar coins, and the things still confuse some people. I can’t find it now, but I once read an article from someone who worked in the Treasury department when the coin was being designed and rolled out, and as far as they could tell from surveys and focus groups, people liked them just as much as dollar bills. Which means they were perfectly fine using them, but they certainly weren’t going to make a special effort to get them from banks or retailers, so the project was doomed to failure (due to retailers’ strong preferences) so long as Congress kept the dollar bill around. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2018, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-golden-dollars-1-coins-only-really-being-used-in-washington-dc/818303/42 "2018-07-21T22:46:51Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > And speaking of coins minted that nobody uses, how about 50 cent pieces? I see that [over 3 million were minted last year](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kennedy_half_dollar_mintage_figures), and I’m betting that they are used far less often than even dollar coins. How many of those fifty-cent pieces were sold in mint or proof sets? My guess is that’s where most of them are going. ---
**Author:** ![glowacks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/glowacks/32/5548_2.png) [@glowacks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glowacks)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2018, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-golden-dollars-1-coins-only-really-being-used-in-washington-dc/818303/43 "2018-07-21T22:53:44Z")
One problem with eliminating the nickel in change is the use of the quarter meaning that they’d basically always have to be used in pairs to replace 5 dimes. I guess that’s not a huge problem, but it would mean a quarter by itself was really only worth 20 cents until you found a partner for it. But when approached from the other way, are we really going to reprogram all the registers to round to the nearest dime? Do you want to get people to learn the banker’s convention for rounding 5 to even instead of up? (The founder of my firm _still_ does this with 50 cents despite it being against IRS guidance to always round it up) Much easier to just round everything to the nearest 5 cents, keep the nickel, and so not have to worry about numbers halfway between the rounding points. The only thing it would mess up are the people who count trays down to the penny. But the penny definitely should go. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2018, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-golden-dollars-1-coins-only-really-being-used-in-washington-dc/818303/44 "2018-07-21T23:25:36Z")
The parking garage at the hospital in St. Paul, MN gives them as change. After it spit out six of them for me, I commented “Ah, dollar coins; the most useful of all American currency.” My daughter, who had been crying over her brother a few minutes before, giggled for ten minutes. ---
**Author:** ![MEBuckner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mebuckner/32/2896_2.png) [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2018, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-golden-dollars-1-coins-only-really-being-used-in-washington-dc/818303/45 "2018-07-21T23:53:21Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > I’m thinking about countries with even higher denomination coins. Such as Japan with their (roughly $5.00) 500 yen coin. I think that has reached the point of being big enough to annoy even the reasonably well-off to lose. Drop a quarter and it rolls under the machine? Most would probably give up on it. A $1.00 coin? probably more would than not. A $5.00 coin? I’m betting most people physically capable would be on their knees reaching under the machine. It seems to me that, for all the longstanding grumbling about inflation, and what all you could buy for a nickel back in the Old Days, Americans ought to be _happy_ to have dollar coins (maybe two-dollar coins, too). The godless socialistic Europeans have €1 and €2 coins (worth respectively $1.17 and $2.34 in American money). This means you can slap down a handful of loose change on the counter (say, a €1 coin and three €2 coins, or four €2 coins–$8.19-$9.36) and get an Extra Value Meal and maybe even a little small change back–just like the Good Old Days! (Of course the kids these days just use their phones to buy stuff.) ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2018, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-golden-dollars-1-coins-only-really-being-used-in-washington-dc/818303/46 "2018-07-22T00:10:21Z")
Actually, I’d like to see one-dollar and five-dollar coins, replacing the paper money of the same denominations. Basically, get rid of the penny, nickel and dime, none of which are at all useful. The test should be; if you saw one of that coin on the street, would you stoop to pick it up? The answer is definitely no for the penny and increasingly no for the nickel and the dime. And remember that both the nickel and the penny cost more than face value to produce. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2018, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-golden-dollars-1-coins-only-really-being-used-in-washington-dc/818303/47 "2018-07-22T00:22:36Z")
Speak for yourself. I always stop and pick up pennies. And I’m a fatass. Coins must die. Period. ---
**Author:** ![CelticKnot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/celticknot/32/3392_2.png) [@CelticKnot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CelticKnot)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2018, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-golden-dollars-1-coins-only-really-being-used-in-washington-dc/818303/48 "2018-07-22T03:08:11Z")
We lived overseas when the Sacagewea dollar and other gold dollar coins came out, so we almost never saw them (even though the location used US money). When we came back to the states, we saw a few but almost never received them in a transaction. I’ve imagined that Tyvek (housewrap) could be used for children’s book pages, and perhaps it would work for bills. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2018, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-golden-dollars-1-coins-only-really-being-used-in-washington-dc/818303/49 "2018-07-22T04:13:36Z")
Working in a big box store, we get dollar coins _every_ day. When I’m working the cash office most days I also see half dollars and $2. They’re not common, but they are out there. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2018, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-golden-dollars-1-coins-only-really-being-used-in-washington-dc/818303/50 "2018-07-22T05:07:17Z")
> [@MEBuckner](#): > > It seems to me that, for all the longstanding grumbling about inflation, and what all you could buy for a nickel back in the Old Days, Americans ought to be _happy_ to have dollar coins (maybe two-dollar coins, too). The godless socialistic Europeans have €1 and €2 coins (worth respectively $1.17 and $2.34 in American money). This means you can slap down a handful of loose change on the counter (say, a €1 coin and three €2 coins, or four €2 coins–$8.19-$9.36) and get an Extra Value Meal and maybe even a little small change back–just like the Good Old Days! > > (Of course the kids these days just use their phones to buy stuff.) Yeah, that was one of the things I loved about European and British currency. In America, if I have some change in my pocket, it’s not likely to buy me anything. Out there, when I have change, I’m always pleasantly surprised at how much I can actually buy. I love coins, especially coins that are actual money that a single one can buy something. That said, I don’t really care that much, as I don’t use cash much at all these days, but I just don’t get the preference for small denotation bills to coins. Especially so when considering vending machines, where it’s a game of chance as to whether any given dollar bill is accepted by the machine. ---
**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:** [July 25, 2018, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-golden-dollars-1-coins-only-really-being-used-in-washington-dc/818303/51 "2018-07-25T23:18:43Z")
> [@PastTense](#): > > People overwhelmingly get change from retail businesses–and they haven’t seen any value in adding the dollar coin. The average coin drawer has 5 places for bill and 5 for coins. And besides the penny, nickel, dime and quarter the other drawer is usually used for rolls of coins. > > I don’t recall seeing a dollar coin anywhere locally–although I suppose you can get them from banks. It depends where you go. Which coins a bank decides to keep on hand is largely driven by retailer demand, and since the retailers have overwhelmingly rejected dollar coins, small or suburban branch banks won’t necessarily have them. Both consumers and businesses incur a cost in handling coins of increasingly irrelevant denominations, but perhaps retailers don’t mind it since it is an invisible part of their overall costs. I’ve heard that one other retailer objection is that it costs more to order dollar coins from the bank because they are heavier and bulkier than brand new stacked dollar bills. But hey, if the denominations of coins had meaningful values, then the merchants wouldn’t have to order so much change from the bank in the first place. I have occasionally gotten dollar coins as change from transit ticket vending machines, and my wife recently got some one time from the cash acceptor at a carwash. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-golden-dollars-1-coins-only-really-being-used-in-washington-dc/818303.md?page=2)