Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

US Wants to Take Your Dollars -- and Replace Them With Coins
AOL news ^ | MARCH 7, 2011 | Joseph Shuman

Posted on 03/09/2011 1:27:21 AM PST by Jet Jaguar

Americans are a tight-fisted people when it comes to their dollars.

So in order to replace the paper currency with dollar coins -- a long-advocated move that could save the government an estimated $5.5. billion over 30 years -- the General Accountability Office called on Congress, the Federal Reserve and the Treasury to help yank the $1 note from circulation.

In the past 20 years, the GAO, Congress' investigative arm, has issued four recommendations for a switch to metal dollars in order to save all the money spent to replace worn-out dollar bills. Dollar bills last longer than they used to and now have a life span of up to 40 months. But the coins have an average life span of 30 years.

The most recent study suggests that if a transition to dollar coins began this year, the annual net benefits derived from the cheaper production costs of coins and their greater durability would exceed the initial startup costs of minting more coins by the fifth year. And over 30 years, it would save taxpayers an annual $184 million.

But so far, all the government efforts to get the public to use the more than 4 million dollar coins in circulation have met with only "moderate success," GAO official David Wise said in the latest report to Congress.

"The United States is one of the most conservative countries when it comes to the use of coinage," said Ute Wartenberg, executive director of the American Numismatic Society and a member of the government's Coinage Advisory Committee, a group of citizens that weighs in on currency policy and designs.

Several surveys commissioned by the GAO suggest that the public is wary of giving up its George Washingtons, simply because it's what they know and because they are reluctant to carry around more coins.

In the most recent survey, a Gallup poll conducted in 2006, 79 percent of respondents opposed eliminating the $1 note and replacing it with $1 coins. Even when respondents were told the replacement would eventually save taxpayers a lot of money each year, the opposition was still at 64 percent.

"You have to withdraw the actual dollar bills, because we already have plenty of dollar coins and no one even knows what they are," Wartenberg told AOL News. "They don't use them and people refuse to accept them."

That was how the British and Canadian governments dealt with similar popular challenges when they replaced their lowest-denomination notes in the 1980s. And once the notes were withdrawn, 1-pound coins, for example, quickly became the accepted norm in Britain.

The European Union, Australia, Japan and Russia, among others, have similarly dispensed with paper notes for their lowest denominations, and all have benefited financially.

The Canadian House of Commons initially estimated that its switch to coins for one Canadian dollar would save the government $175 million over the first 20 years. But Canadian officials later determined that between 1987 and 1991 alone, the savings totaled $450 million.

In Washington, though, it has been difficult to get Congress on board, in part because legislators from the South fear the end of paper dollars would be very tough on the cotton industry that supplies the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, Wartenberg notes.

Dollar production -- at a pace of 1.9 billion notes last year alone -- accounts for about 45 percent of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing's currency production.

In his report, the GAO's Wise said the agency has told Congress and the executive branch in the past that they "would have to lead rather than follow public opinion for a transition from the $1 note to the $1 coin to succeed."

"This point was reiterated by Canadian and U.K. officials we spoke with, who said that the only way to transition from note to coin is to stop producing the note," Wise said. "While observing that the public was resistant at first, they said that, with no alternative to the note, public dissatisfaction dissipated within a few years."

Wartenberg speculated that the increased popularity in recent years of the state quarter series -- with symbols of different states on the back of each new 25-cent piece -- might have helped by nourishing an affection for coins.

But, she added, "trying to change people's mentality is a difficult thing."


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Government
KEYWORDS: usmint
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-8081-86 next last
To: Jet Jaguar

In Australia we dumped the $1 note for a coin in 1984 and the $2 dollar note for a coin in 1988. We got rid of the 1 and 2 cent coins in 1990.

To give you an idea of scale, our 10 cent coin is the same size as your quarter and our 5 cent is a little bigger than your dime. Each coin is of a different thickness and weight and there is also a difference in knurl on the edge of most of the coins.

21 posted on 03/09/2011 2:56:30 AM PST by Dundee (They gave up all their tomorrows for our today's.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Jet Jaguar
Well, at least they are not thinking of replacing George with Barry.

*hurl*

22 posted on 03/09/2011 3:11:22 AM PST by rabscuttle385 (Live Free or Die)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: rabscuttle385

Give ‘em time. That’ll come in 2019 after he celebrates his 10th year in office.


23 posted on 03/09/2011 3:13:57 AM PST by COBOL2Java (Obama is the least qualified guy in whatever room he walks into.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 22 | View Replies]

To: COBOL2Java
That’ll come in 2019 after he celebrates his 10th year in office.

Will that be before or after they lop off a lot of zeros from the U.S. dollar?

24 posted on 03/09/2011 3:16:34 AM PST by rabscuttle385 (Live Free or Die)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 23 | View Replies]

To: Pentagon Leatherneck

” lose the penny first— “

Yeah - Bernanke’s dream is to replace the penny with a $10,000 bill...


25 posted on 03/09/2011 3:17:30 AM PST by Uncle Ike (Rope is cheap, and there are lots of trees...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: Jet Jaguar

its obamba and this govts own fault ...

NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — Sure, packs of T-shirts and socks are getting expensive because of skyrocketing cotton prices. Guess what else is made of cotton? The dollar bill in your wallet.

In 2010, the cost of making one note jumped 50% from what it cost the government in 2008.

http://money.cnn.com/2011/03/08/news/economy/dollar_cotton_prices/?cnn=yes


26 posted on 03/09/2011 3:30:12 AM PST by SF_Redux (Sarah stands for accountablility and personal responsiblity, democrats can't live with that)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: bruinbirdman

SBA dollar, AKA the “Carter Quarter”


27 posted on 03/09/2011 3:31:02 AM PST by kearnyirish2
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: Uncle Ike

Sounds like it would be tough trying to stuff one of these into a G String. The dancer might put up a fight.


28 posted on 03/09/2011 3:31:29 AM PST by libertyhoundusnr
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 25 | View Replies]

To: MAexile

I fully support getting rid of dollar bills. They’re filthy, disgusting, disease carriers. Ever get the ones the banks have fumigated and perfumed? Awful. They only last a matter of months before they’re shredded, and dumped into landfills.
The coins last decades, and the metal is actually anti-bacterial. You only need to carry 4 of them at most. One dollar bills are a huge waste of money.


29 posted on 03/09/2011 3:32:35 AM PST by Dr. Bogus Pachysandra ( Ya can't pick up a turd by the clean end!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 20 | View Replies]

To: aces

In Canada they yanked the paper dollars quickly, though to their credit all sorts of vending machines accepted the $1 coins very quickly. A few years later, the same story with the $2. It is a pain carrying it around, but you can literally buy dinner with pocket change.


30 posted on 03/09/2011 3:32:53 AM PST by kearnyirish2
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 15 | View Replies]

To: NathanR

The presidential dollars look like casino tokens.


31 posted on 03/09/2011 3:35:11 AM PST by kearnyirish2
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 18 | View Replies]

To: Uncle Ike
It is rather hard to dump the penny as long as you have sales taxes.
32 posted on 03/09/2011 3:36:14 AM PST by red tie
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 25 | View Replies]

To: red tie
It is rather hard to dump the penny as long as you have sales taxes.

Australia dumped the penny. They just round to the nearest nickle.

33 posted on 03/09/2011 3:39:02 AM PST by Doe Eyes
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 32 | View Replies]

To: Jet Jaguar

Bring back the “wooden nickel”.


34 posted on 03/09/2011 3:43:25 AM PST by broken_arrow1 (I regret that I have but one life to give for my country - Nathan Hale "Patriot")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Doe Eyes

” They just round to the nearest nickle. “

IOW, they raised taxes without legislative action...

“Taxation Without Representation” - haven’t I heard that phrase somewhere before??


35 posted on 03/09/2011 3:44:32 AM PST by Uncle Ike (Rope is cheap, and there are lots of trees...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 33 | View Replies]

To: Jet Jaguar
more than 4 million dollar coins in circulation

They minted at least a billion

36 posted on 03/09/2011 3:44:52 AM PST by palmer (Cooperating with Obama = helping him extend the depression and implement socialism.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Jet Jaguar

How about shells with holes in them or maybe we can swap trinkets and beads for goods and services.


37 posted on 03/09/2011 3:46:17 AM PST by bikerman (Where Has My America Gone?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: rabscuttle385

yet


38 posted on 03/09/2011 3:52:00 AM PST by hattend (Obama got his 3am call about Egypt. The call went right to the answering machine.- Sarah Palin)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 22 | View Replies]

To: Jet Jaguar
"The United States is one of the most conservative countries when it comes to the use of coinage," said Ute Wartenberg, executive director of the American Numismatic Society and a member of the government's Coinage Advisory Committee, a group of citizens that weighs in on currency policy and designs.

Wrong Wartenburg. Americans are smart enough to know they can carry more money on their person with paper currency than a pocketful of coins. This is another attempt to take wealth out of the private sector. BO/BS and his socialist minions know it will be far more difficult for people to conduct transactions solely with coins thereby discouraging people to acquire wealth. If the BO/BS regime is truly interested in circulating coins then they should just pull the all the Susan B. Anthony coins out of the vault and try to circulate them again since they went over so well the in the past.
39 posted on 03/09/2011 3:54:02 AM PST by Defend Liberty
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Jet Jaguar

I’m all for it if they use Gold or Silver to make the coins!


40 posted on 03/09/2011 3:59:01 AM PST by Mad Dawgg (If you're going to deny my 1st Amendment rights then I must proceed to the 2nd one...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-8081-86 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson