ABC
GAO report: Dollar coins make more cents
The U.S. could save billions of dollars by getting rid of the paper dollar, according to the Government Accountability Office. …
At a hearing before the House Financial Services Committee Thursday, Lorelai St. James, a director at the GAO, plans to tell Congress that switching from paper currency to dollar coins would ultimately be more cost effective, the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.
Last February, the GAO reported that making such a switch would save the country $4.4 billion over the next three decades – or about $146 million per year in savings.
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We already have a dollar coin
No one likes it….
cmsinaz on November 29, 2012 at 9:47 AM
How we’ve NOT adopted dollar coins is one of the best illustrations as to how screwed up and beholden to special interests the US government is.
The $1 amount is the most commonly used denomination in use today. Using bills for $1 is wasteful, because as paper, they tear and get worn too quickly, thus forcing the US government to have to print millions of dollar bills year after year. ($5, $10, $20 are different because they aren’t used as much; thus don’t tear/get dirty as often).
Coins are durable. They last for years and years. They are more expensive to make, but they replace something like 30 bills over a single coin’s lifetime, which in the end saves money.
Switching to dollar coins will save the US something like $4 billion dollars.
If you oppose switching … you really aren’t a fiscal conservative, now are you?
ZachV on November 29, 2012 at 9:49 AM
Very true, but that is because the paper dollar is an option. If they got rid of those and the only dollars were coins, people would have no choice but to use them. I think until we get rid of paper one dollar bills and the penny, we aren’t serious about cutting spending. It costs about two and a half cents to make one penny; no private firm would ever manufacture anything at such a loss.
radjah shelduck on November 29, 2012 at 9:50 AM
Not only did I totally dismantle this bullshit the last time it was raised, but I even proposed a solution that would actually work.
Sheesh.
Dr. Mercury on November 29, 2012 at 9:51 AM
I guess you’re right radjah
People dont like change
cmsinaz on November 29, 2012 at 9:54 AM
Lets just go to a cashless society we are practically there anyway.
ChunkyLover on November 29, 2012 at 9:56 AM
Well, first off, even 20 seconds into reading that article, you’re already wrong.
“There isn’t a vending machine or arcade game or slot machine or toll booth or coin changer or coin counter in the galaxy that can handle them.”
That’s wrong. The vast majority of vending machines / slots / coin changers / etc. accept dollar coins. The vending machine industry is one of the strongest supporters of dollar coins there is, because, having to put in bill readers is a huge overhead cost. Plus, dollar bills are dirty, germy and worn out, so they get stuck in the machine and break the bill reader.
Ninety percent or more of the vending machine companies changed their machines in 2000 to accept dollar coins, simply because they wanted to encourage the public to change.
ZachV on November 29, 2012 at 9:56 AM
Between “Q.E. whatever it is now” and the deficit spending/borrowing, forget the dollar… maybe $100 coins are a better idea?
moo on November 29, 2012 at 9:57 AM
Easier to print paper than stamp metal.. no matter the supposed savings.. therefore it is easier to pump the money supply and fuel the government’s spending habits, so this switch won’t ever happen IMO.
gatorboy on November 29, 2012 at 9:59 AM
Try designing a better looking coin than a designed-by-committee politically correct compromise. At the very least, make it look like it belongs with the other coins. Put a President on it. A dead one, I don’t even care if it’s LBJ. That portrait should be in profile. Make it appreciably larger than a JFK 50 cent coin. And withdraw the paper dollar. At some point, stand up to the vending machine cartels, they’ll have to adapt but they’ll be better off in the end. They’ll have to adapt anyhow with how worthless money is becoming anyway.
Greek Fire on November 29, 2012 at 10:04 AM
Great thing about our currency – coins and bills each have their own distinct advantage/disadvantage.
Low denominations are made as coins, because low denominations need durability to be able to survive being used so often. Quarters (25c) used to be bills, but they were eventually changed to quarters as inflation chewed into their purchasing power. Dollars ($1) are at that point now.
High denominations are made as bills, because high denominations need to have security. A $100 bill has a lot of purchasing power, thus there’s a huge temptation to counterfeit them. A bill has 10x the amount of available security measures as does a coin, so we make it as a bill.
ZachV on November 29, 2012 at 10:05 AM
Just friggin’ do it… we’ve been debating the virtues of the dollar coin and getting rid of the penny. What the hell… do it.
However, make sure the dollar coin is more distinguishable from quarters. I’ve been given Sacajawea coins when I should have been given quarters. Mostly from drive-thrus when I’m getting my morning coffee – neither of us can distinguish the slightly gold color under the artificial parking lot light.
Hill60 on November 29, 2012 at 10:05 AM
Look up Logical Fallacies and see how many apply to that sentence. Start with Circular Reasoning, Begging the Question and The No true Scotsman argument
RadClown on November 29, 2012 at 10:07 AM
Strippers don’t like coins pushed into their g-strings.
RINOs are people too on November 29, 2012 at 10:07 AM
(sheepishly)
I like the dollar coins.
Abby Adams on November 29, 2012 at 10:10 AM
ZachV for Treasury!
Abby Adams on November 29, 2012 at 10:12 AM
Beat me to it.
And besides, if I have 3-4 dollar bills in my wallet, that doesn’t weigh on me. But the same as coins does weigh heavily in my pocket.
rbj on November 29, 2012 at 10:16 AM
I thought the Eisenhower dollar a great coin. The Kennedy half, usefull. Pennies, not so much, they may as well be plastic and you tear them off a sheet to spend them, kinda like stamps.
A new dollar coin needs a new face on it. I like the young, thin Elvis, or maybe Johny Cash.
RINOs are people too on November 29, 2012 at 10:18 AM
It’s not a matter of looks, but of practicality. The SBA was going to be 11-sided, but then they chickened out and make it practically the same size, shape, and color as the quarter. No one wants that confusion. The Sac/Pres dollars are a step in the right direction, but only a step; they still look an awful lot like the quarter after a few years of wear.
That too. And a dollar coin without some two-dollar currency is totally impractical, too.
I don’t know what you’re smoking, but keep it away from me. There was never any paper currency under a dollar used nationwide. For amounts over a dollar, gold used to be what was most commonly used, not paper. The (silver) dollar coin lasted until the early 20th century, and then was taken away. Four times they tried to re-introduce it and four times it failed to catch on. Reports like this ignore the fact that if people don’t want the dollar coin, they won’t use it (unless of course you give them no alternative, in which case they’ll complain endlessly).
calbear on November 29, 2012 at 10:25 AM
That’s not a coin slot?
Kraken on November 29, 2012 at 10:25 AM
Is that a roll of dollar coins in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?
Kraken on November 29, 2012 at 10:27 AM
Abolish the penny. Thanks to poor management it’s useless. A penny contains over a penny worth of administrative costs. Switch to the dollar bill and push the two dollar bill.
Strippers get a raise, and cash registers can still be used.
amazingmets on November 29, 2012 at 10:29 AM
Yeah yeah… Save billions… And how many billions of dollars have been spent on minting and advertising dollar coins that, btw ARE in circulation and never used?
Nobody likes carrying change in their pocket. I keep about $10 in 1s in my pocket on average. That means ill have to jangle around 10 coins plus make sure I check them when I go through the TSA line.
You know what’ll really save money and stop counterfeiting? Do away with cash altogether!!!
There’s no benefit here except for the government which will happily spend trillions of dollars investigating the migratory habits of coconut laden swallows but find it inconvenienced that it has to maintain a monetary supply… One of its chartered responsibilities.
Ashamed of my country.
Skywise on November 29, 2012 at 10:32 AM
It’s a credit card reader!
Skywise on November 29, 2012 at 10:34 AM
Not really true that no one likes it. The major obstacle to dollar coin success is poor distribution.
For the most part, no businesses are willing to give them to people as change. Businesses will accept $1 coins, but then they dump them in the bank instead of giving them out as change. Figure out how to fix that problem, and you would see a major turnaround in dollar coin usage.
The easiest way to do this would be to abolish the dollar bill. I’m inclined to support such a thing as I think it would save us a significant chunk of change. Of course, I am also biased as I collect coins.
Doomberg on November 29, 2012 at 10:35 AM
I’m thinking that the treasury issues everyone a debit card. The problem is, it takes your cash.
RINOs are people too on November 29, 2012 at 10:39 AM
Chump change in trillion dollar per year deficits.
txsurveyor on November 29, 2012 at 10:40 AM
I don’t have any problem with either a dollar coin or the dollar coin. If I got them in my change I’d use them.
Bob's Kid on November 29, 2012 at 10:41 AM
I vote for W. C. Fields with his motto, “Never give a sucker an even break.”
trigon on November 29, 2012 at 10:42 AM
I see what you did there. As far as I’m concerned, you’ve won the thread!
Libraritarian on November 29, 2012 at 10:47 AM
Haha, yes, you’re right. But the simple issue is that it is a move that will neither raise taxes not cut spending. It’ll probably affect a few union jobs at the the company that manufactures the bills in Massachusetts, but beyond that, it’s simply a common sense improvement in an already established process/procedure.
ZachV on November 29, 2012 at 10:47 AM
When I was in Japan, they had 500 yen coins that were worth something like six bucks. A couple of those in your pocket and you could buy lunch, very handy, especially with all the vending machines there that would take them.
Socratease on November 29, 2012 at 10:47 AM
Out-of-the-box thinking. It’s great.
ZachV on November 29, 2012 at 10:49 AM
Agreed. I bought a roll of $1 coins from a bank a few years back. They worked OK, but they disappeared and never came back. You can buy the coins from the mint with free shipping, but, like you say, until they will circulate it’s hard to justify.
Socratease on November 29, 2012 at 10:50 AM
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fractional_currency
Abby Adams on November 29, 2012 at 10:56 AM
The Eisenhower dollar was popular because it fit slot machines. No other dollar coin introduced since then does that. Casinos and Bally decided to use a slug, that size, to replace the coin.
Make a new dollar coin in the fashion of a casino chip (plastic, with the casino, I mean treasury, image on it), and I guarantee young people will use them for everything.
RINOs are people too on November 29, 2012 at 10:57 AM
Naw, he’s technically correct. I had in mind the paper currency of the American colonies, Continental currency, the Fractional currency as you mentioned … but I didn’t want to go full out nerd. At that point, most people get scared and check out.
ZachV on November 29, 2012 at 11:05 AM
As another trivia point, we also used to have a half cent until 1857.
Doomberg on November 29, 2012 at 11:05 AM
I don’t know why this is such a big deal. Just phase the paper dollar out and circulate more coins. People will grumble about it for a year or two and then forget the issue. It’s just like the (many) years ago that the country was to change over to metric system. A bunch of grumpy traditionalist made noise and we’re still using the British imperial system that even the British have abandoned.
It’s a unit of measurement, not some sacred hallowed instrument handed down from Mt. Olympus For crying out loud.
theblackcommenter on November 29, 2012 at 11:09 AM
Funny at that, in the 19th Century, there were several attempts* to convert to the metric system that involved opposition on “religious” (or spiritual, I guess) grounds. It stemmed from a pseudo-science called Pyramidology. The “scientists” involved in the movement believed that the inch was derived from a sacred Egyptian unit of measure called the Pyramid Inch. To switch to the metric system would have been damaging because we’d be ignoring the divinity of the ancients.
*A report order by John Quincy Adams in the 1820s, several signed international treaties and an order in 1893 called the Mendenhall Order, which actually defined all US customary units in respect to metric units.
In addition, we were almost the first country in the world to adapt a decimal measurement system. Thomas Jefferson was a huge advocate, and even drew up a system that he wanted Congress to adapt. The proposal languished in the Senate, however, and a war with the Native Americans eventually got in the way; so the honor of inventing a decimal system instead went to the French and their metric system.
ZachV on November 29, 2012 at 11:26 AM
But, yes. Dollar coin = fantastic.
ZachV on November 29, 2012 at 11:29 AM
I wasn’t including emergency currency like Continentals and Civil War currency, but I guess I should’ve made that clearer…. Unlike those currencies the half-cent was used for decades.
calbear on November 29, 2012 at 11:33 AM
The scary thing is that the majority of Americans would actually think the following is a practical/good idea:
Since there’s been a long term push to get rid of the single penny coin, why don’t solve lots problems at once. On Jan 23, 2013, all current 1-penny coins will be treated as the new dollar coins. You can go ahead and use a sharpie to write in the two additional 0′s on existing coins. As new coins are minted they will have 100 on them (along with savior Obama’s face). The two 0′s and O’s face would give rise to the orgasmic “ohh, oohhh!!” term for the new coins.
We’d all be rich!!! Heck, there’d be so much money that we could immediately pay off the national debt.
gregbert on November 29, 2012 at 11:55 AM
Interesting that coin advocates say “well get rid of the bill and everyone will love the coin.”
Isn’t that like saying “get raise the price of gas and everyone will love electric cars?”
LincolntheHun on November 29, 2012 at 11:56 AM
Base-10 is not always the best, and our system of measurements is worth preserving for reasons apart from ‘this is the way we’ve always done it’. I like that the foot is easily divideable into halves, thirds and quarters.
Liquid measures, which Americans use primarily in cooking, are set up in such a way as to allow for easily halving and doubling. We have a very useful form-follows-function system.
I prefer Fahrenheit, because O degrees is really as cold as it ever gets, 100 degrees is really as hot as it ever gets. It’s no less arbitrary than the boiling and freezing points of pure water at a certain altitude under certain lab-controlled conditions.
Oh, and how about time? I cant see kiloseconds catching on anywhere… the hour divides easily into halves, thirds, quarters, fifths, sixths, tenths, twelfths, fifteenths, the Phoenicians figured that awesomeness out and that should stay where it is.
Greek Fire on November 29, 2012 at 12:02 PM
As the most used form of currency, the weight and volume of that currency has a cost on society, and thus the productivity of the nation. With the choice between solid coins and paper currency, the people of the nation have chosen to use the more economically beneficial for themselves paper currency.
If you propose to FORCE FEED YOUR OPINION OF MOST EFFICIENT CURRENCY onto the population, you are not much of fiscal conservative, let along conservative in general, now are you?
astonerii on November 29, 2012 at 12:02 PM
No I think what is being said is that printing dollar bills is wasteful and there is no real reason to continue the practice and that people will soon get over the fact that they have to use the dollar coin instead of dollar bill. It is an entirely different position than your electric car example.
theblackcommenter on November 29, 2012 at 12:04 PM
A savings of 4.4 billion, that is with the pathetic b after it over 30 years, a pretty long time.
It is not a massive waste, and once you calculate up the fuel costs, the burden of carrying significantly more weight in your pockets, it does not in fact save a penny, but likely will cost far more.
astonerii on November 29, 2012 at 12:09 PM
Not saying that at all. Grumps who dislike coins will remain grumpy, however much money will be saved. To them $4.4 billion is much less important than being able to gripe, complain and moan.
ZachV on November 29, 2012 at 12:22 PM
Wow, somehow you manage to make an argument for base 12 and base 16 as convenient, because of fractions? My watch doesn’t do fractions. As for liquids, well sure I guess gallons, quarts, pints, cups, tablespoons, teaspoons, etc and fractions of these are so much easier than liters.
But by far the best argument you make is for Fahrenheit. Imagine temperatures higher than 100. Incredible! My clothes would probably spontaneously combust! And below 0, inconceivable. Maybe in the depths of outer space, where no one can hear you freeze, but here on Earth, never!
RINOs are people too on November 29, 2012 at 12:22 PM
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