The reason why is because the subway MetroCard machines and the LIRR ticket machines where you live give these out in change. This means lots in local circulation. I’d guess around here if a cashier accepted a Sackie knowing what it was, they wouldn’t think of giving it out in change because the customer would think it was funny money.
The vending machines for Metro Rail passes in Los Angeles also use $1 coins (of course, no one seems to know that the LA subway exists, either). The vending machines for stamps at the Post Office also take them. They don’t seem to turn up anywhere else, though.
The machines accept both Sackies and Susan B. The two coins are the same size and shape, but the Susan B is more easily mistaken for a quarter due to the color and rough edge. However, I don’t think that is what made them unpopular. I think people in the US are simply accustomed to having “dollar” denominations in paper and “cent” denominations in coin. Making a more visibly distinct Sackie dollar didn’t change that.
D
People look at you funny when you give them a dollar coin (I only encounter them as change on the LIRR or NYC subway as well), but I like them. And they’re much more sensible than dollar bills. I long ago got fed up with going to vending machines and leaving hungry because my bills were slightly ripped or folded improperly or too worn. Coins eliminate all those problems in addition to the lessened expense to the government mentioned above.
I remember seeing a funny cartoon that showed a man looking at a row of vending machines. There was a candy machine, a snack machine, a soda machine and a machine with a sign that read: “Unwrinkled $1 bills, $1.25” That perfectly illustrates the stupidity and stubborness surrounding this situation.
The dollar bill slots only started appearing on vending machines within the last ten years or so. That was right around the time when a some products approached the $1 price. That would have been a good time to get rid of dollar bills and then adapt the vending machines slightly to take $1 coins. Instead, we stubbornly changed all the vending machines to take bills. Those bill slots seem to me to be a lot more expensive than a simple coin drop, and Og knows that coin slots work more often than not, while the dollar scanners can only handle new, dry, unwrinkled bills.
As for only using coins for bus fare, wouldn’t it be nice to only have to carry ONE coin for the $1 bus fare, instead of 4 or 6 or 7? Wouldn’t it be easier to just reach into a pocket for a coin instead of opening up your wallet to find a fresh Washington? Because those dollar scanners on the bus don’t always work too well-- if you have a wrinkled old bill, you can’t ride.
Yeah, and trays for your car, and and… those little change holders you can get at any dollar store… someone made a killing!
I actually still get somewhat annoyed dealing with US currency. I see a vending machine and find myself hunting through my purse for a loonie… only to remember “Oh, damn. Right. A bill.” And all the bills are the same colour. Argh! I think for a moment “Ah! I can quench my thirst with this paper bill!” Pull it out… wait a minute, this is a $20! Why does it look just like a $1?! Fine. Hunt around some more… ah! A $1 bill. Machine spits it out. “Wha?” Try it again. Spits it out. Try again. Spits it out.
I feel like Roy on “Father of the Pride”: “I want ze ‘ahhh!’”
I can’t get ze ahhh. 
Then I go home and look at my useless collection of toonies and loonies. I think of taking them to the bank and getting an American quarter or two. Instead, I just get back up and go back to the store, and give my ratty old bill to the cashier in exchange for a Slurpee. Ahhh.
I’ll take’m.
I’m too sleepy at this moment to do a Google search, but I have a definite memory of reading years ago that the vending machine makers were actually lobbying to replace the $1 bill with a $1 coin. Adding a bill slot definitely seems more expensive than adapting the machines to take a $1 coin. And, the machines are already designed for coins, so making them capable to take another shouldn’t be that bad of a problem. Plus, that these dollar scanners can only handle new, dry, unwrinkled bills means that if that is the only dollar bills someone has are in bad shape, the vending machine owner loses a sale. To them, this is NOT a good thing.
On Thursday I received 3 Sackies and a Susan B. Anthony in change at a Post Office vending machine. Later that day I used them at a local movie theatre. No alarms went off, no windows slammed shut. The ticket seller didn’t even look twice. So they’re probably less infrequently used than you think.
And for what it’s worth, around the time the Sacky was introduced, most of the vending machines I saw were converted to accept them.
I’m in Middle Tennessee, not exactly a huge metropolitan area.
StG
I’ve seen exactly one Sacky since they were introduced. One of my cousins had gotten it in change from a store. I think they’re pretty. And shiny! I like coins, but they make my wallet hard to close. I’m also quite fond of $2 bills. Cuts the thickness of that $1 wad right in half. When I used to have to give change to cashiers in a former job, there was one cashier who always liked to give me Susan B. Anthony dollars when he needed pennies. I mistook them for quarters every single time. :smack: He started reminding me of what they were first.
I’m hanging onto them, not going to exchange them for anything. My husband told me to keep any change I had brought with me and save it, so that when we one day had children, we could show them Canadian currency. Part of an “appreciate your roots” campaign on hubby’s part. S’okay by me.
There was a Canadian comedian I saw once… On Juste Pour Rire/Just For Laughs, I’m pretty sure… she said she moved to a rough New York neighbourhood, Harlem, IIRC. She said that she always wore a Canadian flag pin on her lapel - not so much out of pride, but so she wouldn’t get mugged. They’d take one look at that little Canadian flag and leave her alone: “Don’t steal her money, it’s Canadian! It’s not worth anything!” I wear a little maple leaf pin now with that in mind 
I haven’t been bothered yet! 
(HEY! This is Seattle. There could be a mad potterer out there just waiting to mug the next person to get her espresso fix!)
Back on topic, though, coins really aren’t as much of a hassle as some may think. Very easy, very quick, very convenient, all said and done. I loved saving up my change, and at the end of a week, empty out my purse only to realise I had more money than I had originally thought. All it took to make my day was to find a rogue toonie hiding among my nickels and dimes. Off to Tim’s I’d go…
Speaking as a former 19-year-old cashier, a $2 bill and a Sackie would have been cheerfully accepted, then either foisted onto another customer as change or dropped the next time I made a safe drop.
All the vending machines at my factory take $1 coins, and they’re pretty decent about taking grubby wrinkled bills too. They make a killing off us plant workers who’re too lazy to bring food though, guess it was worth converting the machines for them.
I like dollar bills, thanks. It weirds me out when traveling to realize my ‘change’ is more substantial than I’m used to thinking pocket change is.
It occurs to me that while a Sackie might confuse a cashier, this would happen just once, and that would be the first time they were handed one. A manager would quickly enlighten them. Thus this would only be a problem for a newly minted cashier (pun intended.) 
Even if they are scarce out that way, as the job of a cashier is to handle money, likely they’d encounter them not infrequently.
Heck, I used a couple of sackies to pay for some food at the airport in Cancun, and the cashier only hesitated for a split second.
IMO, wrong on both counts. I could almost never get them at banks, before I gave up trying. And many vending machines I’ve seen do accept them. To the person who asked, the Treasury did stop releasing them into general circulation and the current release is only for collectors, sold at a premium. I heard they did the same thing with the Kennedy half-dollar this year.
I’ve been in a few places where the cashiers would simply treat that as $3, the business owner having decided that it’s not worth the trouble and expense of handling pennies. And a great many retail establishment now feature the 'take-a-penny/leave-a-penny receptacles sitting by the cash register. Increasingly, once sees nickels, dimes, and even quarters in these, a sign that the entire system is out of whack and needs to be redesigned from the ground up in today’s prices. You can think of money as a pile of sandstone blocks. A whole block is worth a little, but a grain of sand is virtually worthless. And that’s what we’re doing here; we’re counting our money in grains of sand. Older dopers will remember Blue Chip Stamps and Green Stamps. Each stamp had a cash value of one tenth of a cent. Forty years on, and now a penny now is worth what a blue chip stamp was then, and we’re still fooling around with them.
That’s the way things used to be. A hundred years ago, our ancestors paid a nickel to ride the streetcar or subway (happy 100th, NYC subway!) They used not several, or even one of the most valuable coin they had, but just one of the second lowest coin they had. The whole idea of money, including coins, was different then. They obviously believed that the government should not waste its time producing any coins that were worth too little to buy a whole variety of merchandise. Even a penny was enough for a few things. A nickel could get you across town, as noted above. The dime had a whole class of stores named after it, suggesting that there existed a huge variety of everyday merchandise that cost a dime. Moving on up, buy the time you had a couple quarters or a dollar you could buy a meal or a round of drinks. It’d be baffling to these people that our government still stamps out tons of these nearly worthless pieces of metal. A man of 1904, somehow transported to our time, would be shocked by the effects of inflation, but then he’d probably wonder why we hadn’t changed the denominations by this time.
I’m actually going to try at my bank tomorrow to see if I can get a roll of $1 coins. I’ll let you know the results. It doesn’t appear that the Treasury has stopped releasing the Sackie if asked for them. That some here report they commonly are in use in mass transit shows there is a demand somewhere for them. My best guess is that the demand is just very low. And, I’d guess the Treasury would be overjoyed if demand went up. Replacing worn out dollar bills is expensive. The problem the Treasury has is that Congress lacks the political will to withdraw the dollar bill, like the Canadians did.
You’re going to the wrong banks, then. I get rolls from my bank all the time. I use them as panhandler fodder. It gives me a good and fun feeling to flip a golden coin into someone’s guitarcase.
Please sir, quit using common sense. Although I guess you can be excused for your post as this board is called the “Straight Dope”. Getting rid of the penny has been proposed. The idea being that the nickel would be the lowest denomination coin, and the total would be rounded to the nearest nickel. Someone from 1904 would also be shocked we are using paper currency with so low of a value. “WHAT? You mean you need to hand over a couple paper bills just to pay for one hamburger at a take out restaurant???” The time to get rid of the dollar bill passed long ago. Canada figured that one out. The US still hasn’t.