I used to be a coin collector and living in Canada I have been amazed at some of the stuff that the RCM has tried to pawn off at the collectors. I sort of thought/hoped that the US mint was better than that. I may be wrong....anybody else think it's just an excuse to market product that nobody really wants?

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The world breaks everyone and afterward many are strong in the broken places. ~ Ernest Hemingway ...

Well, I think the US Government would really love it if the people would start using dollar coins instead of dollar bills.

But - I've said this before, but I'll say it again - the coin's not going to become widely used until they take the bill away.

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SeanF

"Ask to understand, but don't challenge unless you have the knowledge."--NEOWatcher

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My band plays 2-3 times a month at our local saloon & we play for tips,drinks & dinner (we're all retired from full-time playing & do it for fun these days,so the money's not really important),we'll end up with 20-30 $1 bills apiece.
The last thing we want is to have to carry 5-6 lbs of coins!

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"An armed man is a citizen
An unarmed man is a subject"

Robert A. Heinlein

Sounds like someone never learned the old adage: "One definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over while somehow expecting a different outcome."

What's different about this latest attempt to introduce a dollar coin? The last two attempts failed dismally. What makes anyone think there'll be a different outcome this time?

They ever do that, they'd better start making $2 bills again, because as much as I love the nudie bar, it'll be a cold day in Satan's front yard before I start tipping fivers...

I make good money, but not THAT good.

You tip fivers, but only tip every fifth dancer.

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SeanF

"Ask to understand, but don't challenge unless you have the knowledge."--NEOWatcher

The contents of this post are ©2008 by SeanF and may not be copied or retransmitted in any form without the express written consent of SeanF

I prefer the bills anyways. I currently have about 8 $1 bills in my wallet, and would hate to have to carry them as coins. I can't stand having lots of coins in my pockets.

I don't. I think they're marketing a product that some people really want. In doing that, they are taking money from the pockets of people who gladly provide it, and putting it into the pockets of taxpayers who gladly accept it. Yippee. Keep it up, Mint! Who could complain about that? The state quarter program has been a success in that regard, from what I've read. But maybe I read wrong. Anyone know different?

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The problem with coins is the cost of manufacturing. Nickels and pennies are already on the way out because they're worth more melted down than intact, and with metal markets so uncertain, I can't see where metal currency makes long term sense.

Melting? That would be wrong.

CNN: Mint: Don't melt money
Government threatens prison for violators; at current prices the metal value of the coins may exceed their face values.

As for production costs of coins the US Mint FAQ claims that all the coins cost about the same to produce, and elsewhere that the penny is still profitable (so, imagine the profit on a dollar coin) -- which sort of flies in the face of the news that penny melt-value might be a problem, and make nickel melt-value very questionable.

But, yeah, electronic money will probably win in the end.

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Pardon me while I grab my crotch chanting "I've got your burden of proof right here" at the Feds.

If it is of any interest to you, in the UK, we acquired one pound coins on decimalisation, years ago, losing the ten shilling note at the same time, for the weird and wonderful seven-sided 50 pence piece. Of course for all the US's devotion to Imperial measures, you have always had a decimal currency! And I would love to have one pound notes again, for just the reasons you give. Buy something small - sorry, only a tenner - no probs, have handfull of coins - and you walk off lopsided.

But we also got two pound coins a while ago. They don't help the weight problem as they weigh exactly twice a one pound coin. Recently, the scarceity of the five pound notes in circulation and their dilapidated state, led to rumours of a five pound coin, but nice crisp fivers are back now, so the evil day is averted for a while. GoK what a fiver coin would weigh!

John

Coins make life a lot easier. Coins work in all vending machines, parking meters, laundromats, and so on, as opposed to bills, which are frequently rejected when they get old.

Also, it's not a big deal to carry a couple of them around with you. They don't weigh all that much. Do you really carry $30 in one dollar bills around? Not unless your wallet is very flexible. If you need the small denominations, you grab a twenty and a five and maybe five dollar coins... and of course, if you have two dollar coins, it's even easier.

Then there's the economics of printing money. Coins can easily stay in circulation for 50 years. Bills, not so much.

Speaking of collector stuff, the Canadian mint just received permission to print a million dollar coin. I don't know if they'll actually do it, but it'd be pretty cool.

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"It's turtles all the way down."

Given the problems with maintenance and theft, it may not be too long before many coin operated vending machines go the way of pay phones. A Japanese company (perhaps among others) is working on the technology to make vending machine purchases using cell phones. If that doesn't work out, it wouldn't surprise me to see an expansion of existing debit card technology (perhaps adding RFID) to make small purchases without needing coins or paper currency.

Should be soon, if ever. Visa cards already waive the signature requirement for purchases under $35 dollars. When I order pizza online, I don't even have to sign the receipts.

Except for $1 coins, which don't work in vending machines (at least not in the one's I've tried).

I have fourteen dollar bills in my billfold right now.

I wouldn't want fourteen dollar coins in my pocket.

Unless they're pretty old vending machines, they should. And any vending machine that would take the Susan Bs will also take the Sacagaweas without any retooling needed (The Sacagawea dollars are the same by size, by weight, and eletromagnetically).

Presumably, the new dollar coins will work, also.

However, as Doodler pointed out, coins do not fit in g-strings very well.

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SeanF

"Ask to understand, but don't challenge unless you have the knowledge."--NEOWatcher

The contents of this post are ©2008 by SeanF and may not be copied or retransmitted in any form without the express written consent of SeanF

They will fail until they make them difficult to mistake for a quarter... even in the dark (i.e. it must also feel quite different to the touch). Maybe punch a hole in the middle or give it an octagon shape or something.

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Sue ikki
mi hatenu yume no
hotsure kana---Choko
(This final scene, I
I will not see to the end.
My dream is fraying.)

They're going to become pretty much a necessity before long, due to inflation making other coins less and less useful. Many machines already don't take anything that's not a quarter, and require many quarters to get anything done. Laundry machines have already recently gone up to needing as many quarters as the little slide thing can fit side-by-side.