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.