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="" />