The British tall Bobby helmet, about 150 years old, is on its way out. It tends to wobble and fall off during melees.
The three hats being tested are a shorter version of the current model, a stronger version of the female officer’s bowler hat and a reinforced baseball cap for specialist units.
“I wouldn’t like to see a baseball cap,” Morris said. “It doesn’t look smart enough.”
Meanwhile, it looks like the Sacagawea coin won’t even make a fraction as long. Demand is far behind plans, though in general demand on coins is down in the present economy.
“We estimated that the Mint had approximately 3.6 years inventory of golden dollars in storage or about 88 times more than the Mint’s target level,” the report said.
Less than 31 million coins were shipped to the Fed during the first quarter of this fiscal year, the report said. The Mint didn’t plan to ship any coins to Federal Reserve banks during the second and third quarters.
Early next year, the Mint, working closely with the Fed banks, will check out demand for the golden dollars and decide whether or not it should resume production coins intended for public circulation.
Pity, that. I like a “unit” coin idea. It’s just never caught on with the public in general. For reasons I can only attribute to general conservativism.
Living in Nevada used to mean carrying a lot of silver dollars around all the time. You’d get them in your change from the gas station, the grocery store and even from the library if you paid a 15¢ fine with a $5 bill. I’m glad those days are gone, the casinos now use tokens rather than real coins for anything over a quarter. I would much rather carry a lightweight piece of paper than a heavy bunch of coins in my pocket.
I didn’t know you could *ask* for them. I’d use them all the time if I had some…
Have to make a point to ask in banks, I guess. Not that I’m in them all that often (sigh).