Posted on 09/13/2002 1:58:35 PM PDT by GeneD
Filed at 4:44 p.m. ET
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Gold dollar coins weigh down the pockets. They are costly to ship. And few Americans think they're better than the good old greenback.
Dollar coins are a flop even before their third birthday, even after a $67.1 million, three-year marketing campaign by the U.S. Mint, a government report says.
While initial public awareness generated by the advertising was strong, the new dollar coin, like the Susan B. Anthony dollar coin, ``has failed to achieve widespread use,'' the General Accounting Office reported Friday.
According to July, 2001 statistics from the U.S. Mint, people use the dollar coin in just 1 percent of dollar transactions, the report said.
U.S. Mint Director Henrietta Holsman Fore acknowledged her agency has yet to overcome public and commercial resistance to using the coin dollar and generally concurred with the report's findings, she wrote in response.
It is the second time a dollar coin has failed to catch on -- the last being the silvery Anthony coin, which often was mistaken for the quarter. To rectify the problem, Congress in 1997 required the new coin dollar to be golden in color.
But the GAO reported Friday that banks, retailers and others are widely mixing the two together, since they are both $1 denominations.
``Until we minimize commingling, many people will continue to avoid using dollar coins in general,'' the Holsman Fore wrote.
So formidable were the cultural bias and other problems that the U.S. Mint earlier this year stopped circulating the gold dollar coin until it could reconsider its viability. The GAO report recommended that the U.S. Mint not spend any more money on marketing unless it found a plan that it could show would persuade more people to choose the coin over the paper bill.
Among the problems pointed out in the report:
--Widespread use of the dollar bill and public resistance to the dollar coin. ``Until individuals can see that the coin is widely used by others and that the government intends to replace the dollar bill with the dollar coin, they will be unlikely to use the coin in everyday transactions,'' the GAO wrote.
--A chain reaction that preserves the status quo. Retailers will not stock the dollar coin until they see the public using it. The public is unlikely to use the coin until they see retailers stocking it. And banks and armored carriers are reluctant to invest in new equipment to handle the coin until there is wide demand for it, the GAO said.
--``Some people consider the ease of carrying the bill to be more beneficial than the durability of the dollar coin,'' the GAO wrote
--Higher delivery fees for the heavier dollar coins than paper bills.
It didn't start out this way. Hopes for the new currency were high five years ago when Congress passed, and President Clinton signed, a law authorizing the new dollar coin to replace the Anthony dollar coin. Its face would bear a rendering of Sacagawea, a Shoshone interpreter who assisted the 1804-1806 Lewis and Clark expedition to the Pacific Ocean.
The act directed the department to start a marketing program for the new coin. And it prohibited the paper dollar from being removed from circulation.
The GAO estimated that the dollar coin would save taxpayers about $500 million each year because coins last longer than paper notes and cost less for the government to distribute. The coin is profitable per unit, since it costs the mint about 12 cents to produce one, for which the government receives $1.00 in spending power.
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On the Net: General Accounting Office: http://www.gao.gov
U.S. Mint: http://www.usmint.gov
Let me put my MBA to use and suggest a plan:
"Quit making dollar bills!"
DUH!
Also DUH! :)
The article is correct...everyone here hates the coin and resists its use...I have a solution to this clumbersome and anoying "goldtone" $1.00 coin:
Simply gather up any of the annoying things you have laying around and send them to me so I can ride the retail world of them as soon as possible (I figure it's the American, patriotic, responsible and noble way to help rid the nation of this pesky thing).
"Quit screwing around with dollar coins. They don't meet real people's requirements."
DUH!
I suggest John Adams for the dollar coin.
Regards, Ivan
No kidding. In order for a dollar coin to be feasible, you've got to instantly be able to identify by touch it in your pocket.
BINGO
The Act did NOT do this as it was originally written. Some lamebrain offered it as an amendment as a rider to some other desireable bill - and the act was so amended.
The golden dollar coin will enjoy wild success - the very minute that someone has the spine to tell the Fed to start replacing the bill with the coin.
Since when did every little nit-sh*t item about this country have to be a goll-darn popularity poll? Do what's right and move on. If some pipple don't like the golden dollar coin, tough bananas. They can ship 'em to me freight collect.
Michael
I have one of those too. I wasn't advocating dollar coins, just proposing a plan. The idiots can't see that there won't be a change as long as they provide both options.
As far as real people's needs: I have traveled in many countries, they all have coins in denominations similar to the US dollar. The people survived.
The only two term president since Ike that didn't disgrace himself in office.
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