[JesseHousman]

These weasels have too damned much time on their hands.

[Natty Bumppo@frontier.net]

Will a roll of 20 of these coins be known as a Lewinsky?

[jocon307]

If they EVER want to have a usable $1.00 coin they better make it NOTICEABLY BIGGER than the other coins.

[MinuteGal]

Cripes, I still haven't got used to the 10's that look like 20's and vice-versa.

Leni

[HamiltonJay]

Interesting idea from a purely collecting standpoint. At least they aren't going to try to force them into circulation....

Simply make em larger than a damned quarter, and you might be able to get them to be used! Why they required the 1999 coins to meet the old Susan B specs in size and weight was beyond me... the only damn vending machines that ever accepted the Susan B were the ones at the POST OFFICE... so who cared about backwards compatibility.

[vetvetdoug]

Jefferson Davis would make a good new Dollar. At least it would not be political correct.

[MineralMan]

When they make them look like this, and make them of silver again, I'll be interested. Until then, I'll settle for the worthless paper one:

[ctdonath2]

The buried truth:

The Treasury estimates that it has earned about $5 billion in seignorage profits from the quarters so far.

Ergo: the goal will not be to replace the paper dollar with a cheap metal one. The goal is to, practically speaking, move billions into the Treasury without taxation or inflation.

Bad money drives out good. The gov't just realized that by injecting cheaply-made ($0.05 each) yet relatively good fiat money (hereby declared value $1.00), people will spend relatively bad (coin is better) paper money to obtain and hoard it.

Comprehend it - it's freaking brilliant:
Billions of dollars CASH go into the fed's coffers in return for coins which get hoarded.
Because it's a mostly obligatory transfer of cash from citizens to feds, it's basically a tax - but with no tax increase.
Because the billions of minted-for-dirt-cheap coin dollars are exchanged for paper dollars and then hoarded by recipients, the feds effectively print billions of $$$ - without inflation.

No-tax no-inflation hot-off-the-cheap-press dollars printed and spent by the billions by the gov't. Twisted. Friggin' brilliant. And probably a future chapter for Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds.

[Tuba Guy]

Design suggestion .......

[One_American]

I thought they did a nice job with the state of Arkansas 'Clinton' state quarter.

[AbeKrieger]

In fact, although the coins would enter into general circulation, their biggest selling point is that people might hoard them.

Maybe I am an economic newbie but doesn't the failure to spend money HURT the economy? Or does the hoarding of coins count as money spent... they don't collect interest... what is the real deal on this ?

[Eternal_Bear]

A Klintoon 3 dollar coin that is coated with a perpetual slimey substance might be kind of fun.

[Calvin Locke]

These weasels have too damned much time on their hands.

No, I'd bet they get contributions from ad firms. The amount of $87M seems to stick in my mind on what they spent on
advertising the Sakajawa coin.

[R. Scott]

The last two attempts were failures because “The People” didn’t want them. The People, or the banks and retailers? There are few banks and credit unions even carrying them anymore, but I often overhear customers asking for them. Of course, the customers are just ordinary people, not major retailers with large accounts.
I prefer the dollar coins. A buck won’t buy much these days, and pulling my wallet out for a dollar purchase is a bit more hassle than it’s worth. A dollar is pocket change – and it should be a coin.

[Boundless]

The only way this will succeed (as in: the coins get used
by people) is if:
* the coin is tangibly larger than the quarter
* and the paper dollar is discontinued
* (and probably the half dollar as well)
Otherwise people won't use 'em, and vending machine
makers/operators will not re-tool for them.

Dollar coins have never been particularly popular.
The traditional large dollar (up thru Ike) is too big.
The Anthony and the Saccy are too small.
The Ant and Sac debacles entrenced vending machine
resistance.

And if Bubba is on it, half the country won't touch
it no matter what size it is.

[bert]

yesterday I made a small transaction and the man didn't have proper change but he did have a .50 cent piece he carried around. He decided to part with it.

This morning I bought a ham biscuit through a fast food window and gave the girl the same .50 piece.


She looked at me as if I was retarded and said it wasn't a quarter, it was a dollar. I told her no it was a half dollar. She gave it back to me and I showed her the obverse clearly saying half dollar.

She was probably 18 and didn't know a half dollar existed. Her boss confirmed it was real.

[6SJ7]

If someone is broke, you can now say, "he's so broke, he doesn't have two Clintons to rub together".

[Centurion2000]

Make it look like this. Make it for 2 dollars in a base metal the size of a half dollar, and 10 dollars in Silver. the size of a silver dollar

[Centurion2000]

Here's another dollar coin that would be awesome.

[razorback-bert]

We have a new dollar coin now.

[narby]

I thought the Sacagewea coin was pretty cool.

But the feds screwed up because they re-shipped all those feminist Susan B. Anthony dollars that were sitting in the warehouse at the same time as the Sacagewea dollar.

Sorry, I'm not going to spend a dollar devoted to a political feminist icon.

But a dollar devoted to a teenage girl that carried and nursed a newborn baby from the Great Planes to the Pacific Ocean and back I could spend. Sacagewea was a real woman, a mother, and an explorer, all before the age of 20.

When they melt down those feminist coins, dollars that jingle will be accepted.