{"id":8200,"date":"2005-04-27T18:13:25","date_gmt":"2005-04-28T01:13:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/2005\/04\/27\/dollar-for-your-thoughts.html"},"modified":"2005-04-27T18:13:25","modified_gmt":"2005-04-28T01:13:25","slug":"dollar_for_your","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2005\/04\/27\/dollar_for_your.html","title":{"rendered":"Dollar for your thoughts"},"content":{"rendered":"

First off, it’s clear that a dollar coin should <\/em>be practical. Almost every other Western nation, including our nation to the north, has something like that, and it works just fine for them. And it saves them oodles of (so to speak) money, since the cost-over-lifetime for dollar coins for the Treasury beats that of dollar bills.<\/p>\n

But the US has tried twice since 1979 to introduce dollar coins — with the Suzy B., and then with the Sacajawea — and it’s flopped.<\/p>\n

Now for most people, the reason is obvious — there is cost (cash register drawers, vending machines) to making the cutover, as well as habits to be changed, so, given their druthers, most people and businesses won’t do it if they have a choice. And, in fact, they have had a choice — dollar bills have been printed right alongside each of the dollar coin runs, which means that … <\/p>\n

… well, that nobody’s made the change. You can argue that the Suzy B was too much the size of a quarter, or that the Sacajawea was … well, whatever aesthetic was wrong with it. <\/em>But that’s trivial as a reason. The fact is, the government has only pushed the issue where it’s had control over the local currency, such as at military bases, but nowhere else. And, so, it hasn’t been adopted.<\/p>\n

Now the answer to all that is obvious: at a mimimum, if Congress and Treasury want the dollar coin to succeed, they should simply stop printing dollar bills. If they’re even more eager, they can pull the old bills out of circulation, but the lifetime of a dollar bill is short enough that they’d all be gone soon enough. <\/p>\n

Problem solved. People would adjust. Businesses would adjust. Nobody’d be giving it a second thought in five years.<\/p>\n

Which, of course, means that this particular answer won’t be adopted. Instead, Treasury is going to try to encourage use of new dollar coins by (da-da-da-daaaah!) making them collectable<\/a>.<\/em> Giving up on actually making them necessary, or even desirable, the intent is that folks will simply keep them. Which, I suppose, makes the government some added dollars.<\/p>\n

Supporters realize that the dollar coin is the Rodney Dangerfield of American money. So they make clear that any new coin would augment — not replace — paper currency. In fact, although the coins would enter into general circulation, their biggest selling point is that people might hoard them.<\/p>\n

The idea steals a page from the popular 50 State Quarters series, in which the engraving on the 25-cent piece rotates to honor all the states. That legislation was also the brainchild of Rep. Castle. The subjects depicted on the dollar coins would be the U.S. presidents. The plan is to introduce four new ones a year beginning in 2007, honoring each of the nation’s chief executives in the order of their service.<\/p>\n

Uh … yippee?<\/p>\n

Frankly, I doubt lightning will strike twice. Folks were willing to collect commermorative state quarters because (a) quarters are cheap, and (b) it was a new idea. Dollars are four times as expensive (duh) and the novelty has worn off.<\/p>\n

On the bright side, at least we’ll soon have close to fifty poorly circulated and unhelpful dollar coins to write about.<\/p>\n

(via K2<\/a>)<\/small><\/p>\n

(This is an update from this story<\/a>, I discover.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

First off, it’s clear that a dollar coin should be practical. Almost every other Western nation, including our nation to the north, has something like that, and it works just…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8200","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics-law"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":25855,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/02\/01\/coin-coin.html","url_meta":{"origin":8200,"position":0},"title":""Coin! 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Oh, well ... #ddtbReshared post from +Les\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":31594,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/12\/02\/and-on-cue-the-annual-news-story-about-going-to-dollar-coins.html","url_meta":{"origin":8200,"position":1},"title":"And, on cue, the annual news story about going to dollar coins","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 2-Dec-12 6:19pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Because it does seem like, once a year, some congressional committee or treasury committee produces yet another report about how dollar coins are cheaper to make and last longer and will therefore save us money, and that the only way to put them into circulation and have them accepted is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10681,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2006\/11\/21\/coin_coin.html","url_meta":{"origin":8200,"position":2},"title":"“Coin! 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Sure, collectors grabbed some for their collection, but very few people (and businesses)...","rel":"","context":"In "Politics & Law"","block_context":{"text":"Politics & Law","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/politics-law"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10247,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2007\/03\/08\/in_god_less_we_profit.html","url_meta":{"origin":8200,"position":4},"title":"In God-less We Profit","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 8-Mar-07 10:58am","format":false,"excerpt":"Not quote sure how a glitch like this gets through, but ... 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