One of my colleagues at work asked if he could buy one of the Presidential $1 coins off of me. His daughter lost a tooth, and she had requested that he ask the Tooth Fairy for “one of the new gold dollars.” My colleague, not 100% sure he could get hold of the tooth fairy in time with her request, said he'd do what he could.
Luckily, he found me and asked me because I was one of the few guys around work that actually used the $1 coins. He told me that he hadn't gotten any back as change yet — frankly, I haven't either — and that they were hard to find without asking for them at the bank. This is some evidence that these coins really aren't catching on.
Why the reticence?
- People may not like change, as in $1 bills are lighter and more convenient to carry than coins.
- People may not like change, as in they don't like switching around their habits.
- People may sense that money just isn't worth what it used to be worth.
- People may think the coins are goofy-looking. (Up close they're not as goofy as the pictures make them look, but beauty is in the eye of the beholder.)
- Businesses may be reluctant to take them. Their current cash drawers really aren't made for the new coins.
- It's just not as easy to spend the $1 coins as it is to spend $1 bills. Even vending machines are more likely to have a dollar bill changer than they are to accept the $1 coins.
When the chips are down, though, these reservations won't make much difference:
- The Mint can stop producing $1 bills if Congress legislates it. This may be a while off, but coins are more economical to use as legal tender than bills because they're more durable than bills. The Mint, to its credit, is doing what it can to not be abrupt about switching the form of our money, but the cost of replacing $1 bills is certainly a driving factor. Taking the $1 bills out of circulation would be the most expedient route for adoption of the $1 coin.
- Cents and nickels are very expensive relative to their face value. The melt value of the “cheap” copper-plated zinc cents is now about 60% of its face value. A nickel's melt value is more than its face value now. (It's illegal to melt these coins for their metal content, so don't.) The melt value of the $1 coins is less than 7% of its face value. Inflation is increasing the Mint's cost of doing business, so the $1 coins are a manifestation of this. Maybe we'll get rid of the cent and nickel, get a dollar coin, and re-issue the $500 bill into common circulation. (This is postulation.)
- Legislation can force businesses to accept the coins. It's already law that vending machines on federal property and within transportation systems that accept federal funding must accept the dollar coins. Why not all vending machines? Why not all businesses? (“Trust us. You really want to use the $1 coins, don't you?”)
- The younger generations may grow up with the dollar coins, because the Tooth Fairy handed them out.
Oh well. I'll be content to help the Tooth Fairy for now.
Well being Canadian, we don't have $1 bills but we do have $1 coins.
Working at a bank I deal with the bills all the time and I must say I prefer the coins. Small denomination bills get really dirty really easily as they pass through hands so often, whereas metal coins are normally not as bad. And yes, they do weigh more than bills, but are much easier to sort when pulling out of a pocket, etc. They're also smaller.
Having used both I prefer $1 coins, personally!
I've been getting dollar coins often from the bank. Every couple of weeks I ask for some of my cash back in a roll of dollar coins.
They make decent conversation pieces and get noticed when I use them.
I'm not the biggest fan of the Sacajawea coins, preferring the classic Susan B. Anthony ones. Especially the back side of them which had an eagle gliding in for a landing on the Moon with the Earth in the background.
The new George Washington is one I like mostly for the Statue of Liberty being on it. I hope that continues through the rest of the presidential dollar coins.
Oh, and I bet there's a reason why no businesses use the coins in making change. The added time in dealing with customers who don't recognize the coins.
When comparing the bulk and weight of $1 coins to $1 bills, I think the bills win hands down. I mean, it's survivable…I've spent a little time in Canada and Europe where the 1 $/Euros are in coins. But it's not optimal.
And then there's the cash drawer problem, as you say. I'd probably throw one in with the quarters…or put it under the drawer.
This must be a trend or something.
My stepson also requested the coins when he lost his first few teeth.
Last week, I found out my boss bought a roll of them (which she hid so well she can't find!) for her kids' tooth fairy visits.
At least kids like them!
I love the £1, £2, €1 and €2 coins, and I would love for the US to get rid of the $1 bill.
I haven't noticed how the cash drawers are arranged in Europe, but there are also coins worth 2 pence – this adds three slots. I have noticed that after a few days of using them (if you make yourself use them, and don't keep changing £5 or €5 notes), it becomes much easier to tell them apart. The only drawback that I've found is that banks won't convert foreign coins to dollars – so you have to make sure to use them all before you come home.
I've never seen one of the new presidential dollar coins in person, but I drove an ice-cream truck when the Sacajawea dollars were new – the few times I received them, I tried to make sure I gave them back in change to someone else (usually a kid). Unfortunately, dollar coins are rare enough in circulation that people are more likely to hang on to them when they receive them, rather than spending them. Until the Mint starts taking more $1 bills out of circulation, I don't think we'll see much of a change.
I've spent time in Canada and in the UK, which has convinced me that dollar coins are great; although they're heavier than bills (obviously), that's the only real downside.
Also, most cash registers that I've seen have five coin "buckets" – the fifth one is usually just used to store an extra roll of pennies or nickels.
Last year I worked a register job, and I gave presidential coins out to people all the time. Amazingly, older customers would always demand bills instead, and little kids loved the coins. If school cafeterias gave out dollar coins I swear they'd catch on within a decade.