# What to do with dollar coins **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 9, 2010, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-do-with-dollar-coins/531852 "2010-03-09T14:49:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2010, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-do-with-dollar-coins/531852/41 "2010-03-09T18:48:33Z")
I’d take dollar coins (aka loonies in Canada) over the $100 bill Jim got the other day at Wal\*Mart when he used their cash back service. We damned near couldn’t use the thing - everyone was looking all stank-eyed at it - “We don’t take $100 bills because of counterfeit problems.” I think we got rid of it at Safeway - the cashier didn’t want to take it, but they did eventually. I was having vision of having to go into a bank and get them to break it for us. Oh, it just occurred to me, we could have just deposited the 100 and taken out other money through an ATM. ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2010, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-do-with-dollar-coins/531852/42 "2010-03-09T18:52:24Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > What do you do with them? I’m going to go out on a limb here and say “buy things.” :rolleyes: What is the big deal? No one even bats an eye at them here. That’s what is given for change by the MTA machines. ---
**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2010, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-do-with-dollar-coins/531852/43 "2010-03-09T19:00:04Z")
> [@Diceman](#): > > I’ve heard that Australia uses plastic notes for their $1 bill, and Canada is going to start experimenting with them as well. As **manx** said, Australia has been using $1 and $2 coins for a long time now. The last $1 and $2 bills were made of paper, not plastic, and circulated in 1984 and 1988, respectively. Plastic $5, $10, $20, $50 and $100 bills started coming out in the early 1990s. ---
**Author:** ![Lacunae\_Matata](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8491ac/32.png) [@Lacunae\_Matata](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lacunae_Matata)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2010, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-do-with-dollar-coins/531852/44 "2010-03-09T19:01:01Z")
Personally, I like to give dollar coins and two-dollar bills to kids for cash gifts. Tooth fairy money and birthday gifts are more likely to be saved instead of squandered if it comes in a nifty form like that. (And it’s pretty cool when your kids or nephews or whatever other smallfry in your life figure out the value of saving: My 9-year-old daughter managed to save up enough chore money, gifts, and such to buy herself the bicycle of her dreams. She thinks it was totally worthwhile to have sacrificed packs of bubble gum and bottles of soda for a couple of years in order to have the best bike ever. And her dentist and her waistline certainly agree with the value of the tradeoff!) ---
**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2010, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-do-with-dollar-coins/531852/45 "2010-03-09T19:03:18Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > My son is flying to Florida. He was worried about the metal detector, and I had shared TSA horror stories with him. And I mean real money, like bills. If you have coins, or other metal objects, in your pockets, just put them into a bowl before you go through the metal detector, and pick them up the other side. The TSA agents may be dumb, but they aren’t going to look at those coins to decide whether it’s Paul McCartney or John Lennon posing as a dead president. ---
**Author:** ![missred](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/missred/32/14096_2.png) [@missred](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/missred)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2010, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-do-with-dollar-coins/531852/46 "2010-03-09T19:31:21Z")
Vending machines, drive-thru cokes, car washes and tollbooths. They spend anywhere else too, but that’s what I use them for mostly. ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2010, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-do-with-dollar-coins/531852/47 "2010-03-09T19:41:12Z")
Count me in as someone else who doesn’t get what all the fuss is about. I have no problem with dollar coins at all. I’d rather have five of them in my pocket than twenty quarters jingling around after using a five in a change machine. Most vending machines take them, as do the self-checkout registers at the grocery store, and you don’t have to try to feed them into the machine a dozen times before they’ll accept it like you do with torn wrinkly old dollar bills. Bah! You spoiled kids… ---
**Author:** ![Twoflower](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/twoflower/32/22_2.png) [@Twoflower](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Twoflower)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2010, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-do-with-dollar-coins/531852/48 "2010-03-09T19:42:44Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > cash registers do not have a place for dollar coins, so they are a pia. Personally, I think this is the real reason every effort to popularize US dollar coins has flopped. If they stopped making pennies and maybe nickels, there would be room in the till for dollar coins. Stores would start using them to give in change, and presto- they’d be in circulation. ---
**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:** [March 9, 2010, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-do-with-dollar-coins/531852/49 "2010-03-09T20:01:22Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > My son is flying to Florida. He was worried about the metal detector, and I had shared TSA horror stories with him. And I mean real money, like bills. I don’t know what horrors you were subjected to by the TSA, but I’ve not experienced problems. I put all of my loose change in a small change purse or a ziploc bag in my carryon bag, so that there is very little metal on me. I admit that I don’t particularly like having to empty my pockets, remove my belt and shoes and take my laptop computer out of its bag, but after doing so, I generally walk right through the checkpoint without any problem. It then takes a few moments to put my shoes back on and put my wallet and cell phone back in my pocket. No rectal probes and nothing too onerous. ---
**Author:** ![Hal\_Briston](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a9a28c/32.png) [@Hal\_Briston](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hal_Briston)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2010, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-do-with-dollar-coins/531852/50 "2010-03-09T20:06:13Z")
> [@Driver8](#): > > The real way to get people to change to dollar coins is to simply stop printing bills and start making coins, not wait for them to come round on their own. It’ll never happen otherwise - habits have a lot of momentum. No doubt. The point I’m making is that the more people use them, the more _other_ people will get used to their existence. Once people get more used to the idea of using dollar coins, there’ll be less resistance when they finally stop making dollar bills. ---
**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:** [March 9, 2010, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-do-with-dollar-coins/531852/51 "2010-03-09T20:16:36Z")
Coins are evil. If they want to save money, start using plastic for bills instead of paper. But the dollar coin must die! ---
**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:** [March 9, 2010, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-do-with-dollar-coins/531852/52 "2010-03-09T20:27:36Z")
I saw a PBS documentary on US currency. There are actually very good reasons why the US still uses paper bills. One of the tests they do is to crumple a dollar bill into a tiny package and then unfold it. I believe they found that this wouldn’t work with plastic bills. ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_Robson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gary_robson/32/3448_2.png) [@Gary\_Robson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Robson)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2010, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-do-with-dollar-coins/531852/53 "2010-03-09T20:40:20Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > A guy who owed me $50 paid me yesterday, with dollar coins. Dick move, IMHO. Not in the slightest. He owed you $50. He paid you $50. > [@kayaker](#): > > Anyway, what would you do with fifty dollar coins? Anything you’d do with fifty dollar bills. Except that the coins work in the vending machines no matter how old they are, and they don’t get all tattered. It’s just money. Spend it however you wish. > [@kayaker](#): > > A friend in retail tells me that cash registers do not have a place for dollar coins, so they are a pia. Some don’t. The register in my bookstore has five bill compartments (which I use for $1, $2, $5, $10, $20 bills) and five coin compartments (which I use for pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters, and dollar coins). ---
**Author:** ![D\_Odds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/d_odds/32/2882_2.png) [@D\_Odds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D_Odds)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2010, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-do-with-dollar-coins/531852/54 "2010-03-09T20:47:46Z")
> [@Hal\_Briston](#): > > No doubt. The point I’m making is that the more people use them, the more _other_ people will get used to their existence. Once people get more used to the idea of using dollar coins, there’ll be less resistance when they finally stop making dollar bills. How a fellow Giant fan can be so wrong about something… I’m a firm believer that bills are better than coins, even though they are more expensive for the Treasury. I don’t like the bulk of coins; I don’t like the sound of coins in my pocket; I don’t like accumulating coins (other than quarters for parking). Coins are great for my daughter, as she gets all my non-quarter coins daily. If we want to save on mint costs, abolish the penny. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2010, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-do-with-dollar-coins/531852/55 "2010-03-09T20:52:50Z")
[quote=“Gary “Wombat” Robson, post:53, topic:531852”] Not in the slightest. He owed you $50. He paid you $50. [/QUOTE] Yes, but if he ever finds himself in need of some $$ I’m not gonna help him out. Dick move or not. The coins are gone, btw. An employee was running to the bank to make a deposit and she brought me back a Grant.😃 ---
**Author:** ![atomicbadgerrace](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8e7dd6/32.png) [@atomicbadgerrace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/atomicbadgerrace)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2010, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-do-with-dollar-coins/531852/56 "2010-03-09T20:59:27Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > Yes, but if he ever finds himself in need of some $$ I’m not gonna help him out. Dick move or not. > > The coins are gone, btw. An employee was running to the bank to make a deposit and she brought me back a Grant.😃 Save it for the next time someone wants to borrow $50, and you try to pull that “two twenties and two fives” dick move. ---
**Author:** ![brad\_d](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@brad\_d](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brad_d)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2010, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-do-with-dollar-coins/531852/57 "2010-03-09T22:29:42Z")
Do some of you folks not acknowledge that some forms of $50 are more convenient to carry and use than others? I’m getting that impression, and I must disagree. Fifty $1 coins would not be my first choice if I were carrying $50 around in my pocket. Five thousand pennies would be _worse_, to be sure, but I’d really rather have a few bills. I would submit that most people do not normally carry fifty $1 coins with them, and I would consider that an unusual way to settle a debt for that amount. Perhaps a way specifically designed to inconvenience the creditor, depending on circumstances. It’s possible to legally settle a debt while still being a dick about it - the two are hardly mutually exclusive. Whether or not that happened here is debatable. ---
**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2010, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-do-with-dollar-coins/531852/58 "2010-03-09T22:39:06Z")
> [@brad\_d](#): > > Do some of you folks not acknowledge that some forms of $50 are more convenient to carry and use than others? I agree that the person paying with 50 $1 coins was either trying to be annoying, or trying to make some kind of point. It would be equally annoying if they had paid with 50 $1 bills. On the other hand, if the debt had been $4, paying with 4 $1 coins would seem to me to be quite reasonable, even if some people here seem to think that coins generally, and $1 coins in particular, are some kind of plot by Satan to bring down the United States economy. ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2010, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-do-with-dollar-coins/531852/59 "2010-03-09T23:15:41Z")
I give them as tips or payment to waitstaff and bartenders. Nearly all of them find it a nice surprise, and I see them changing a paper dollar for it, so they can take it home. Once, in a grocery store, a cashier went to see the manager before she’d take it. She had no idea what it was. ---
**Author:** ![brad\_d](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@brad\_d](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brad_d)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2010, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-do-with-dollar-coins/531852/60 "2010-03-09T23:53:56Z")
> [@Giles](#): > > I agree that the person paying with 50 $1 coins was either trying to be annoying, or trying to make some kind of point. It would be equally annoying if they had paid with 50 $1 bills. > > On the other hand, if the debt had been $4, paying with 4 $1 coins would seem to me to be quite reasonable, even if some people here seem to think that coins generally, and $1 coins in particular, are some kind of plot by Satan to bring down the United States economy. That’s reasonable, to me. (Personally, I encounter $1 coins only very infrequently; I don’t think I’ve handled one within the past year. Which is fine - I think $1 bills are more convenient. But it does make it hard for me to get too upset about their very existence…) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-do-with-dollar-coins/531852.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-to-do-with-dollar-coins/531852.md?page=4)