Dollar coins can save U.S. money
The U.S. Mint will be rolling out new $1 coins next month and will be launching a campaign to expand the coins' use. Jeremy Hobson reports the coins could save millions in production costs.
A $1 coin (Don Emmert/AFP/Getty Images)
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Stacey Vanek-Smith: We throw around a lot of big numbers on this show -- millions, billions, trillions. But this next bit of news is a little more on the level of most of us: dollar coins. Andrew Jackson's visage will grace the new ones coming out next month. Maybe the former president will have better luck filling our pockets than Sacagawea did.
The dollar coins had a lot of trouble catching on. But the U.S. Mint is hoping to change all that and make dollar coins . . . well, a dime a dozen. Jeremy Hobson reports.
Jeremy Hobson: There actually is a good reason why the Mint is trying to get us to use dollar coins instead of bills. The Government Accountability Office says Uncle Sam could save $522 million a year in production expenses if we did. That's because the coins last 30 years, while the bills don't even last 30 months.
But no one seems to use the coins -- not even this coin proponent:
Robert Whaples: I haven't used a dollar coin in who knows how many years.
Wake Forest University Economist Robert Whaples says there are logical places to use the coins:
Whaples: The place that I've seen it be in circulation the most usefully has been, you know, when I go to some large cities and they'll be using it in their subway system or something like that.
The U.S. Mint is launching an effort next month to expand the dollar coin's usage above ground at cash-heavy businesses like fast-food joints and retail mega-stores like Wal-Mart. Spenders in Charlotte, Portland, Oregon, Austin and Grand Rapids will be the guinea pigs for the Mint's latest trial.
In Washington, I'm Jeremy Hobson for Marketplace.
Comments
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09/24/2009
To "Me Me" from Alabama, yes a bill costs a nickel to print, but lasts only 18 months on average! A coin circulates about 30 years. The fact that the USA still uses a dollar bill is ridiculous in this day and age (what can it buy?!?).
From Me, AL, 09/04/2009
The $1 coin is dumb.
You people are fools for wanting it.
You're worried about cost?
Fools!
The mint must be going broke on all those $20 bills they print for a nickel.
Fools.
From austin, TX, 01/10/2009
American Silver Eagles are the real dollar coins. Tell your boss you will take a huge pay cut if he pays you in these. This will lower your income taxes and protect you from the ongoing decline in value of the federal reserve notes. When you buy things, negoiate a much lower price by paying in American Silver Eagles.
From Tempe, AZ, 01/08/2009
I love the dollar coin. Its extremely convenient to carry around as opposed to ripped wrinkly dollar bills. Im happy the new Phoenx Light Rail system accepts and dispenses them. It shows a movement towards a dollar coin that this contry has never seen. Also working at a bank, I see how discusting dollar bills really are. Dollar coins are the way to go. Its convinient for having them in your car as well for drive through purchaces.
From Seattle, WA, 11/16/2008
We need a movement of $1 coin supporters to 1) use and promote the coins and 2) petition Congress to discontinue production of the $1 bill. While we are at it how about discontinuiing production of the penny, probably one of the most ridiculous uses of metal in today's world. At the end of this year's celebration of Lincoln's 200th birthday on the backs of new pennies let's make a big deal of RETIRING them. Then let's have a big celebration of the greenback dollar and then retire them
WRITE YOUR CONGRESSIONAL REPRESENTATIVES AND SENATORS, THE NEW PRESIDENT, AND THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY!! IT'S THE ONLY WAY TO GET THIS CHANGE ENACTED.
From MI, 09/21/2008
DOES ANYONE USE THE PRESIDENTIAL DOLLAR COINS?
I think they look great and I use them everywhere I can with the help of a little change-holder called Portsou that I picked up online.
Check it out www.portsou.com
Go dollar!!!
From MA, 08/23/2008
I got one of those coin holders from Canada. Just fill the $1 and $2 slots with presibux.
From Toronto, ON, 08/13/2008
The conversion to the $1 and $2 has been very succesfull in Canada! I've been using this great new coin-holder that holds up to 8 $1 President coins, it's so easy to use at the cash heavy business like fast food restaurants.
Check it out at www.portsou.com
From Las Vegas, NV, 08/13/2008
We should have phased out the $1 note years ago. A dollar is worth what a quater was when I was a kid. The coins are convenient, and no one has to carry more than a couple around as there are such things as $2, $5 and $10 bills, you know...people just need to quit fighting this and they'd find out it's a lot easier to use one $1 coin to buy a soda then a bunch of quarters, nickels, dimes, etc.
From Tawas City, MI, 08/13/2008
It's not a matter of whether or not you like the bill instead of a coin, it's my tax dollars being wasted because you are too stupid/lazy/old to use a coin instead.
From Omaha, NE, 08/11/2008
I am in agreement with getting rid of the paper dollar and and utilizing the dollar coin along with introducing a two dollar coin. It is also my opinion that the penny and nickel could be gotten rid of. I am fairly certain that the value of the 1/2 cent piece, when manufacturing was stopped, had a relative value a fair bit greater than the present value of our nickel. In order to get the dollar coin in my area, I have to either go to the post office and use one of their vending machines or go to a bank and ask for them. I think it is worth the effort to do this just to get more of the coins in circulation.
From Milwaukee, WI, 08/06/2008
I want them, I like them.
From Beverly Hills, CA, 07/24/2008
A dollar is now worth less than what a quarter was around 1975. We don't need pennies. It's time to move forward and not be stick in the muds. We seem stuck in our tracks, this attachment to what is familiar is only one small aspect. We should move our currency to be the same as (gasp) the rest of the world: increments of 1,2 & 5 and dump quarters as well! We need a $2 coin or start to use the bills. Who needs a wallet stuffed with worn out and dirty 1s!
From DC, 07/24/2008
In addition to the $522M per year the government would save if it eliminated the $1 note and replaced it with the $1 coin, there are also health benefits to using coins.
Coins are more sanitary than notes and harbor fewer germs. Studies show that 94% of all $1 notes carry germs that could cause serious infections (Staph, e coli, etc). Copper (the main alloy in $1 coins) is an anti-microbial, which means it can kill dangerous microbes as the coin is passed from one person to the next. Peter Ender, chief of infectious diseases at Dayton's Wright-Patterson Air Force Base collected 69 $1 notes from businesses in Dayton and found five had bacteria (Staphylococcus aureus and Klebsiella pneumoniae) that could infect healthy people if the notes touched the mouth or an open cut. Another 59 notes had a variety of germs that "have been known to cause significant infections in those with depressed immune systems." His findings were presented to the American Society of Microbiology meeting in Orlando in May 2001.
From Boston, MA, 07/24/2008
It seems to me, the easiest way by far to encourage use of the $1 coin is to eliminate the $1 bill. Few people are going to switch from their old habit if it is still available.
From Phoenix, AZ, 07/23/2008
Please no $1 coin - one of the joys of moving to the US was getting away from heavy coinage. The US is ahead of countries such as Canada & the UK where one is presented with huge heaps of change. It may save the mint money but it will cost me in worn out pockets
From arden hills, MN, 07/23/2008
in reference to your dollar coin story. How can a country that can't rid it's self of the dollar bill or the penny ever find the wharewithal to make meaningful changes to our health care system???
From Grand Rapids, MI, 07/23/2008
The vending machines where I work take the dollar coins. If you need to break a 5, 10 or 20 dollar bill -- it gives it to you in dollar coins. It sounds like you've hit the jackpot when you change out a 20. I've used the dollar coins in the drive through at McDonalds
From Denver, CO, 07/23/2008
I use the coins quite often. They are the change given back to you when you take Light Rail (Denver's verison of the subway). They are not that bulky, and the vendors I spend them at appreciate them. Having travelled a fair amount, it seems strange that we are behind other nations in getting rid of the one dollar bill.
From Stafford, VA, 07/23/2008
Just as much as a dollar coin, we also need a $2 coin like our Canadian neighbors have. I found them very useful on visits there. Most people don't realize that you can still get $2 bills, by just asking for them at your bank.
From Takoma Park, MD, 07/23/2008
As a coin enthusiast, I'd add that changes in banknotes and coinage can have subtle but profound effects on society. In many countries around the globe, when the lowest denomination banknote has been replaced by a coin, it has often had the effect of signaling inflation in the public's perception of it's own currency.
Anecdotaly, I would also add that as a society entering a new millenium, we Americans tend to rather dislike coins. They are heavy to carry around, as opposed to banknotes which make one more mobile and nimble. Nowadays coins are even a burden for most banks to deal with in bulk--my wife and I tried to teach our 4-year old son the virtues of thrift by having him diligently save coins in his piggy bank for months, only to find that most banks in suburban Washington, DC do not offer paying customers the facility of providing coin counting machines and require customers making savings deposits to roll coins into wrappers, add name, account number and telephone number and then have the teller re-double efforts to verify the accuracy of the deposit.
It's ironic because when we started out as a nation, Americans had a severe mistrust of paper money because it was not gold, silver or even copper...
From Milwaukee, WI, 07/23/2008
I'd be happy to use any of the dollar coins the mint has launched so poorly, if only I could find them. I can't find them, becuase no one uses them, and that's because the paper dollars are still around. This new coin also won't be embraced and used until the bills are gone. Why doesn't Congress get this?
From Roswell, GA, 07/23/2008
I travel a lot and use dollar coins for tips. I generally get a smile when I tell them they are getting 'government gold'.
From Irvine, CA, 07/23/2008
Why do they want to bother us with the 1 dollar coins once again? Nobody wants them, nobody likes them.
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