On the plus side, our local (San Antonio) small businessmen have configured their coin-op car washes to take the dollar coins. I keep my change from the Post Office in my ash tray (no butts in MY car), and I'm always ready for a quick wash. Now we know the candidate pool to pick the next Postmaster General from.

Good write-up - but it seems as if the points you're making aren't so much that "people don't like them" for some intrinsic sake, but that "people don't like them" because of the inherent hassles in having/using them.

If the government would get off their duff, and instead of saying that they will introduce this option and expect people to lap it up, just stop printing dollar bills, I'd suspect that you would see the take-up rate rise dramatically.

It's apparent that machines can take the coin, they just don't always do so. Your post office story is classic. The government wants to get the coins into circulation, great - why don't they make it so people can actually use the coins at their facility?

It's also apparent that cashiers can learn new tricks. They've handled different bills in recent years - the $20 going under it's second revamp in just a few years. If the cashiers are trained properly, and more importantly, get the opportunity to see more of the coins actually being used, then I'd suspect they'd pick up on it quickly enough.

As to Sacagawea? I have no preference. I don't think that it makes me feel any better about the money I'm carrying that it has a certain representation on it.

The real question is: Why does the government go through the process of developing a new coin, spending a ton of money to promote it, and then drop it? That's where I have a problem with it. If they want to tout the advantages, then why on earth aren't they doing so in their actions, as well as their (expensive) words?

In any case, thanks for reading. :)

We live in a world where the people who operate cash registers need pictures of the items they're selling on their register keys so that they can ring us up. We're just a few more graduating classes away from them having to have pictures of money so that they can make change. How could anyone expect them to be able to deal with not one, but TWO things that are worth $1?

>If the government would get off their duff, and instead of saying that they will introduce this option and expect people to lap it up, just stop printing dollar bills... It's apparent that machines can take the coin, they just don't always do so... why don't they make it so people can actually use the coins at their facility?<

Because it costs money, to bring in a technician, to adapt the machine, to take the coin? How many machines, at how many post offices, at how much per hour?

What it would cost to do the same to all vending machines, coin-operated laundries, car washes, peep shows, coin-counting machines, etc.?

Who pays for it?

We the public do. As always. As the price of vended products have gone up, the vending machines have been taking dollar bills for a while. They didn't 20 years ago. Why did they do that? What was the cost? etc etc etc...I don't think that was mandated in anyway, so the "Its going to cost too much" argument is weak, at best.

And if everybody was really into saving money, you would see the mint stop print dollar bills. Of course, many would scream that it was an insult to G. Washington. (but like Lincoln, he's now on both a coin and a bill).

If it was up to me, I think I'd ditch both the $1 and the $5 bills and replace them with coins. I'd bring back $20 Gold pieces too.

I recently spent some time in Canada and there are no one dollar bills there. Just one and two dollar coins. It actually seemed to be easier overall but you did end up with a lot of change at the end of the day. I was touristing so there was a lot of small transactions.

The Metrocard machines in the NYC subway give dollar coins as change.

I wanted to buy a 30-day pass this week. Cost? 70 bucks. Okay, I'll use my ATM card, I thought. Five different machines; not one took the card. Tried it the next day. Different machines, same result. But I really needed the new card. And all I had on me was twenties. Did I really want to get 10 dollar-coins back? No. Instead I stood on line and dealt with the token booth clerk.

I only learned about the dollar-coin in change from the machines, however, the first time I used one. There is no warning that the customer is about to get screwed with Sacs if he or she gets change.

Wacky: after you get through tormenting cashiers with Sac bux, pay the rest of your tab with $2 bills from the race track!

That's the only place I've ever seen those coins. They're postalbucks, or something. It's like those "55: It's a law we can live with" bumper stickers that festooned government cars in the 1980's. (Replaced by the execrable D.A.R.E. or Drug Abuse is Life Abuse bumper stickers on police cars.) In that way, the government is like a cult that drinks its own Kool-aid. They can't get the general public to do something, so they force it upon themselves.

>We the public do. As always. <

Of course. Vending isn't a social service.

You're right - it wasn't a mandate. It was a consumer/business arrangement, driven by demand, convenience, and marketing. Both parties were willing to put up with the costs as a result.

Back to the Post Office: it doesn't cost them anything (except a bit of goodwill) to hand out dollar coins. It will cost them to refit all their vending machines to accept those coins.

If the government is serious about people using the $1 coin, they have to change a few things. First, print and circulate more $2 bills. People don't want to carry a lot of coins around, this gives a paper change option, and you need (about) half as many. At the same time, stop circulating $1 bills. Sorry, George, but we need your slot in the register. As the current $1s deteriorate and people save them for nostalgia, they'll disappear quickly.

Yes, vending machines will need to be upgraded to handle the dollar coins and the $2 bills, so that can happen at the same time. Vendors will do it if it's the only way to get paid. Since the new Sacs have many of the same properties as the old Susan Bs, there's really no excuse for machines that don't take the coins already.

Finally, our hard working strippers and lap dancers will get a much deserved and long delayed pay increase, as the easiest minimum payment doubles from $1 to $2. Tucking a coin into a thigh-mounted purse is just not the same as tucking a bill into a g-string. Remember that the next time you feed a bill into a snack machine. At least you can wash your $1 coins, if you want to.

...I've taken to referring to the $1 coins as "Post Office Scrip".

It's the only place I know of where they are used instead of real money.

The Canadians have one-dollar coins they call "looneys" because there's a loon on the back.

The two-dollar coin, of course, is a "twoney." So much for Frostback humor.

The only way to get people to use dollar coins is to shred the bills. Given inflation, the coins make sense. If popular sovereignty reigns, of course, they'll melt down Sacajawea. Maybe an Iwo Jima dollar would do better.

And what happened to the 50-cent piece.