Wow, new $1 coins go into circulation today...and I never heard a peep. Is this news to everyone else, too? I wouldn't have even known if I hadn't spent a little extra time reading the news today. The new coins will feature George Washington, and later issues will have the face of succeeding Presidents on them, continuing well into the next decade.

I personally like using coins, but people seem really resistant to using $1 coins. Granted, the Susan B. Anthony's were easily confused with quarters, but the gold-colored Sacagawea $1 coins seemed like a nicely identifiable coin. I thought it was a shame that that the Sacagawea's were a flop.

From a preparedness standpoint, one could argue the merits of having rolls of $1 coins for emergency use rather than paper $1 bills (for small purchases when power and phones are out, so no ATM's or credit cards). The coins are heavier in case you need to bug out with them, obviously, but besides that, they're impervious to water damage, completely durable, you can bury them as they are, I think they could survive a house fire, etc. Well, having said that, I do not have a stash of Sacagawea coins anywhere, so I haven't exactly put my money where my mouth is. (Sorry, early morning pun <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> )

Anyway, just an interesting tidbit of news I ran across today. If someone tries to give you a $1 George Washington coin today, you'll know it's actually real money. <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Read about the new coins the other day and thought it would be nice to have some on hand. The key, in part to their potential success will be the ability use them in vending machines. If the machines will not accept them without modifications, I doubt the coins will catch on.

Interestingly, the gold Sacagawea coins are popular in Ecuador, where they use US money (at least for now). In the rural areas, many people do not use wallets, but instead crumple up their money in to wad. Almost all of the US paper one-dollar and five dollar bills look quite worn. The dollar coin, partially because of its gold color and durability are favored over the one-dollar bill.

Pete

It was news to me also. Maybe we should do like the Canadians, who have Loonies and Toonies, and no bills under $5. I wonder if our new one will be called a Georgie???

Cool, I love coinage. Not enough to be a collector, but I like the feel of carrying and spending coins. The pictures of the Presidents on the Mint's website are about as unflattering as is possible though.

New $1 coins my dad is going to be so gitty!! I love dollar coins!!!

Just a recurrence of an errant thought I had at work a few months ago:

First, I work in a cash-counting room in a Native casino, so I see a lot of money every day. I was running a batch of quarters through the machine one day, which came soon after an amazing amount of new paper money, all denominations.

Now, I know that a lot of decrepit money goes back to the government, where it is taken out of circulation and shredded. But it occurs to me that new money, new colors of bills, new designs, and new coins (specifically the state quarters), is a great way to add to the inflation rate without people paying much attention. Not that Americans pay much attention to anything unless it hits them in the face.

Is this too cynical even for me? (Wait-- what am I saying... ?)

Sue... beyond cynical?

To paraphrase what I heard Paul Harvey say about postage stamps years ago, maybe the mints should sell advertising space on coins and currency. Considering what compaines will pay for 30 secs of time during the Super Bowl, consider what they might pay to have their logo, whatever, on a $20 bill, or a new dollar coin. The federal budget could be balance in a year (or less)!!!

I still fail to get it. The government has tried this before, with uniformly bad results. What makes them think that this time will be any different? How many times to you bang your head agains the wall before you figure out that it hurts, and the wall is not coming down?

You know, in my younger days Silver Dollars were still in use, and a lot of people used them. I think that the main problem today is that a dollar won't buy you much anymore. One dollar used to get you a cup of coffee, cover the tip, and you got change to boot. Today it would take a whole pocket full of Georgies to buy one cup at a designer coffee place...

Somewhere I read that all paper money that has been in circulation has traces of drugs on it from being in the hands of someone buying or selling drugs. Weather that is true or not, money is still very dirty, people will cringe if you walk out of a restroom without washing your hands when urine is the same chemical make up as sweat but no one thinks to wash their hands after handeling money that has been handeles by many many poeple and exposed to a lot of nasty stuff.

I remember when the susan b anthony coins came out and everyone msitook them for quarters and they were getting stuck in vending machines. I use my debit card for most things so I don't have to carry and handle a lot of money (though I doo keep a stash for emergencies).

Yeah the whole Susan B Anthony thing was a fiasco. I still remember the arguments I got into when some clueless clerk kept telling me I gave her a quarter and not a dollar. At least this time the dollar coins are gold in color, larger and thicker than a quarter. Now if the vending machines will just take them! Maybe we can work on getting rid of the penny next.

I love dollar coins, 50 cent pieces, and $2 bills. I always have a ton of fun spending them. You would be suprised how many people have no idea what they are and refuse to take them. It always makes me chuckle a bit. These new dollar coins should be fun since no one knows about them yet. <img src="/images/graemlins/smirk.gif" alt="" />

Actually, OBG, you've hit on one of the reasons given for why the US Mint keeps trying to popularize a $1 coin--inflation. Instead of the long gone days of being able to use a $1 coin and getting change back, as you mentioned, the reason is sort of the flip side. Now that items in vending machines routinely cost more than $1 and since the machines accept paper currency, the need for returning $3+ in change to consumers is a headache for both the consumer and the people who maintain the vending machines with enough change. Much easier if the machine can return a single $1 coin versus 4 quarters.

Anyway, not the only reason, but one of the reasons for another $1 coin.

Another reason that I read for the ambivalence towards a $1 coin is that merchants don't have any place for it in their cash register drawers. It depends on the business, of course, but for many/most places, simply squeezing another slot into the cash register drawer is impractical because each slot gets much smaller and won't hold enough coins. So one argument I read for helping win over merchants was to get rid of the penny to make room for $1 coins. Sounds rather radical, but it's an interesting angle to the continuing saga of the $1 coin.

Of course, we could be the like computer or electronics industry and just force people to buy newer, wider cash registers with an extra $1 coin slot and stop making the current ones! <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Good point! I think the days of the penny are definitely numbered. I read somewhere recently that due to the increase in the price of copper and other metals that it now cost the US Mint more to mint the penny than it is even worth.

Name one single time the Decision Makers made a good decision? Just one will do...

Sue

I have read that the new $1 coins will have the same "signature" as the Sacagawea coins, so any vending machine that accepts the Sacagawea coins should accept the new coins without modification. So, you could put in a $5 bill and get both Sacagawea and George Washington $1 coins back in change now.

And the Sacagawea coins have the same electromagnetic signature as the previous Susan B. Anthony dollar coin, so vending machines have been unaffected for quite a while.

From http://www.usmint.gov/kids/coinNews/circulating/dollarCoin.cfm
The Golden Dollar shows Sacagawea, the young Shoshone woman who traveled with and helped Lewis and Clark to explore the Louisiana Territory. The golden color is not gold, but a mixture of metals, specially chosen to not only look golden to human eyes, but to look the same as the Susan B. Anthony dollar to vending machines. The new dollar has the same "electromagnetic signature" as the old one. That means the makers of the machines don't have to change the machines so they can "see" the new dollar.

The other day I saw or read, can't remember which, that paper money carries all sorts of nasties on it including bacteria, traces of drugs, viruses and even plain old dirt.

Next time you pull a dollar out of your pocket think about where its been and whether or not you should be wearing a hazmat suit just to handle it.

I also read that coins don't "hold on to" bacteria and viruses like paper money but that may something someone just made up.

porkchop

In Australia they don't use pennies. They round up or down, unless it is a plastic transaction. They don't seem to have any problems with it at all. There are a lot more 50 cent pieces in circulation, and they have a $1 and a $2 coin as well, so no $1 bills anymore either.

I think coins are much dirtier than bills. People are dropping coins all the time, and most panhandlers and beggars are paid in coins. Coins have a lot of nooks and crannies for stuff to lodge into.

I think we should go back to shells and beads.

It will be interesting of how many of these new dollars will actually be in circulation. My understanding was that only 300 million of the first coin were minted. That is a tiny number for the mint.

By the end of the day on Thursday ebay had the coins selling for $3.95 each. The Home Shopping Network were offering mint rolls for $49.95 plus shipping and handling this weekend!

I picked up 8 rolls the first morning and my credit union ran completely out by the end of the first day. The federal reserve bank was limiting distribution of the coin.

Thats annoying, I was going to stop by the bank near my work and pick up a few, I bet they are all out too.

I like saving all coins, roll them up, store them in an ammo can, and know they are available if a hurricane shows up, or some other kind of problem, and I need to leave quickly. I call this my "up anchor" money after a comment made in the book, "Reilly's Luck" by Louis Lamour.

I went and got $30 worth today. Put the roll of $25 in the safe to hold onto. They're pretty neat. I'm going to try to use them more frequently.

Personally, I love odd money. I love the look on the faces of people when I pay in 2 dollar bills or dollar coins. And I really love it when they (mostly teens and 2 dollar bills) freak out and try to say that I am trying pass counterfeit bills.

I was only able to get one roll of the new coins from the bank but got 10 dollars worth from a friend. It has been fun spending that ten bucks

Had a chance to handle some just the other day and they feel too much like quarters, Again! Actually they Will be mistaken, or not, for quarters. I carry very little change and especially don't carry those pesky pennys that seem to get everywhere. I will Not be carrying any of the new gold quarters, I mean dollars. Now were can I get a heavier belt to hold the 511's up?

They have to be roughly the size of a quarter or smaller to fit in the coin slots we have in use today. If they made them bigger, than every machine that accepts coins would have to be redesigned (which would cost buisness owners a lot of money, it would even cost me a few grand because of the change machines in a laundry mat I own). By making them the same size it is just a matter of a simple software upgrade.

The point of the dollar coin is they are trying to catch up with inflation. Now it takes a dollar to pay for what a quarter used to do. If you go to a big arcade/boardwalk all the games are now dollar games, in the 90's the majority of them were quarter games.

"...in the 90's the majority of them were quarter games..."

I can remember when they were called "Penny Arcades" for a reason. Sometimes I feel really really old...

My grandmother told me that when she was a little girl her father would give her a quarter. That quarter was enough to ride the bus to the movie theater, buy a ticket, buy popcorn and a soda, than ride the bus back and still have change left over for penny-candy.

Today, that would cost somewhere in the neighborhood of $30.

I would skip the bus and walk, more money for a box of Jujubees...

Hey, if any of you guys have these make sure you check them to see if they have the words printed on the rim. Apparently a bunch of them got out that missed the rim printing machine and now they are going for $50 on ebay.

Make that over $100 Paul. If you have any, better get them to the auction quickly as I don't believe they will sustain this price for long.

It has been estimated that there are around fifty thousand coins without the edge inscription. I hate to have to open the mint sealed rolls I have to find out if they are part of the fifty thousand.

As a long time coin collector, I have always believed that mint errors should be worth nothing but face value but they still seem to be popular with collectors.

Boone

I got a few in one of the rolls I bought, I stuck them in my safe with the two error twenty dollar bills I have. I don't really have any reason to sell either, so I'll just hang onto them.

By the way, both bills are missing the green seal and serial numbers. I wonder what they are worth?


I used to be really into coin collecting when I was younger, but it just got to be too expensive. Now I just collect the odd coins I get in pocket change, new coins the mint puts out, and the occasional gold eagle (my favorite coin). I've been wanting to pick up a platinum eagle proof set, since I don't have any platinum coins, but the price keeps scaring me away.

On the new dollars: a couple in Denver found one with the print on the edge, but nothing on the face or back... nothing. It was verified by a coin dealer. I wonder how much that one will sell for?

Sue

Yeah, but the movie is A) in color, and B) a talkie! And was her bus a "bus" or a street car?

When my parents were first married, once a week they would walk downtown to the soda fountain in the drug store on main street (that was not the name of the street, just what it was called), and share a nickle soda. On a really good week it would be a cherry soda (the cherry cost more you know). The times they have a changed...