I don’t think I’ve ever even seen one, except for pictures.
So, if we use the 18 month life versus the 22 month life, the following calculation changes from:
Plan B:
The US Mint produces 16.6 million Sackies each day for the next 22 months - at a cost of $1.6 billion. This would keep us in Sackies for the next 30 years.
to:
Plan B:
The US Mint produces 16.6 million Sackies each day for the next 18 months - at a cost of $1.3 billion. This would keep us in Sackies for the next 30 years.
An even BIGGER savings.
One of the cashiers at work actually got one (probably cause we’re right by a post office) and we all had to go look. They don’t look like real currency, they look like arcade tokens.
Why do you need a separate change purse? Just get a wallet which has a compartment for coins. I’ve never been able to fathom why these aren’t more popular: A coin compartment is essential, if you ever want to spend all of those quarters.
To turn the debate on its head: Should we replace the 25 cent coin with a paper bill? Why or why not?
OUCH! I can’t imagine sitting on a wallet full of coins.
Also, if the eliminate the penny and the dollar bill, there should be plenty of room in cash drawers (and people’s drawers for that matter) for the Sackies.
The dollar bill works fine. Just fine. Why does everyone feel the need to mess with it? The “it’ll save money” argument hardly appeals, considering the government’s job–or hobby, at least–is wasting money.
[gross generalization] Changes to US currency always seem to be endlessly complained about and only grudgingly accepted by much of the American public. I remember the endless complaints when they changed the look of most of the bills. “It’s ugly!” “It looks like Monopoly money!” “The picture’s not as good!” Etc etc etc. This is probably also one of the reasons we’re one of the few nations in the world with bills that are all the same, single color. (more or less – I know there’s the black/green inkamajig and all) [/gross generalization]
I get a lot of Sackies and Susan Bs when I buy train tickets from Metrolink machines. I love 'em, myself. I really do wish they’d retrofitted more vending machines to take 'em, though, especially since most Sackie-accepting machines also take Susans.
Therefore, oppose every cost-saving measure and support every new tax.
As already mentioned, Caltrain gives them to you in change. Nothing like putting in a $20 bill and getting $18 of these god-forsaken coins. I save them and use them to settle sports bets with my friends. “Here ya go: <sprinkle sprinkle>”
Neat timing on this thread: I got my first gold dollars just Monday. My godmother has the tradition of giving me my age in dollars as a birthday present – bless her, I hope she keeps that up for a loooooong time! – and this year I got a darling little drawstring bag full of them.
I thought they were very neat. I like the woman’s illo (can’t spell her name, though) and they feel nice and substantial in your hand, and best of all is the shiny gold color. It was fun to play with them a while – stack them up in little columns and reenact the illustration for “The king was in the counting house, counting up his money.”
(BTW, why couldn’t they make square or rectangular coins? It’d be neat to use them for domino-type tricks.)
Anyway, having gloated over them for several days, I decided I might as well spend them. Here’s how it went:
News vendor: accepted the coin and handed over the change w/o any special reaction.
Sandwich shop for lunch: I handed over a fistful, the guy on the counter stared at them a bit. I asked him, Oh, do you mind them? He said, ‘No, no problem’ in that way that means ‘yes, they’re a damn nuisance’, then dumped them on top of the dollar bills in their section, clearly planning to be rid of them as soon as possible.
CVS (pharmacy): I had two items that added up to $11.69. I counted out 12 and handed them over. The clerk, a high school aged girl, stared at them. “What are these? We only take American money.”
“Those are American money. They’re the new dollar coins,” I said.
She picked one out of the pile, studied both sides of it suspiciously. “These aren’t silver dollars.”
“No. They’re golden dollars.”
She held the money out to me. “We only take American money.”
“They are American money. Didn’t you just read what it said on the back? ‘United States of America, One Dollar’.” (Okay, I was getting stubborn. How dare this girl snub my beautiful golden birthday present? Harrumph.)
“I can’t take these.”
There was a line behind me by now. One woman called out, “I’ve heard about those dollars. They’re American.”
The clerk still shook her head. “I’ll have to get a manager.”
And she did. The manager had to look at the coin for a moment, but at least he recognized it as American currency.
Guess the Mint needs to step up that familiarization campaign, eh?
But, here’s a question: on the paper bills it says “This note is legal tender for all debts, public and private” – but there’s nothing like that on the coins. Does that mean stores could refuse to accept the dollar coins? Not that I expect they would, a sale is a sale, but could a chain of stores decide to declare the dollar coins off limits?
This keeps coming up, usually in the guise of “How can businesses legally refuse to accept bills larger than 20’s?”. The wording suggests to people that businesses are obligated to accept the money as payment. Not so. From the Treasury Dept. FAQ:
Bolding mine. The chain of stores could insist that you pay in cowrie shells if they wanted to - the only rub would be collection of taxes - governmental authorities tend to be very sensitive to tax revenue lost in barter setups.
This is among the reasons I’m in favor of eliminating the dollar bill, minting lots of dollar coins, and starting to print the Jefferson 2-dollar bil again. Then there’d be a smallish bill, as well as those handy dollar coins. For the strippers.
Please tell me you made this up.
Are there really people that have no idea what a Sacejawea dollar is three years after they’ve been released?
?? I didn’t realize the $2 bill had been discontinued. Ever bring a bunch of $2 bills to a strip club? They go crazy for 'em. :o
BTW, check these out - I didn’t even know there ever was such a thing as a $5000 or $10,000 bill. Has anyone ever seen one of these?
And from snoopes.com - about a guy trying to pay with a $2 bill at a Taco Bell and the cashier and manager think it is fake. It takes a security guard (who is 45) to clue them in.
The $2 bill has not been discontinued although I don’t think they’ve made any recently due to low demand. They also still make the 50¢ coin nearly 30 years after it was used with any regularity nationally.
Continuing the hijacking debate IMHO if we’re going to alter our currency we should go all the way and not piddle about. Revalue them and have us be set for the next 50 years.
new - old
1¢ - 10¢ (size of a dime)
5¢ - 50¢ (size of a penny)
20¢ - $2 (size of a nickel)
$1 - $10 (bill sizes)
$5 - $25
$20 - $100
$100 - $1000
Making a whole set of production needs to make a coin or bill that is worth all of 2 of the nearest smaller denomination just seems weird to me.
“Tender” means tender of payment for a debt, not exchange for sale. No vendor is obligated to accept cash at all, much less coins.
Yeah, and did she even look at it?
What did she think the Italians were putting Sacejawea on their money?
Sorry, no can do. I may have a word or two wrong in the exchange, but that is how it went.
**
Beats me.
But I suspect a bit of the problem comes from the fact that the coins look so different – we don’t have any other gold colored coins (okay, barring a few genuine gold coins, which don’t circulate anyway) and the portrait is so completely different from the classical presidential profiles on the rest.
It would also help if what’s-her-face had a name Americans found easier to spell/say/remember. I mean, I think I’ve seen five spelling variations just in this one thread.
I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve SEEN them (3), and I’ve never gotten them in any kind of transaction. It’s somewhat understandable, considering they don’t circulate much.