The USA would be fine if they stopped printing $1 bills. Everyone would be over it in 1-5 years.
I think the problem is that the manufactures of the linen the bills are printed on is head-quartered in Massachusetts and that the Senators from that State help ensure the $1 bill keeps being printed.

I have no plans to visit the US, but if I do, the first thing I'll do is get myself a huge batch of dollar coins!

Time for them to stop me thinks & time for them to follow the rest of the Western world, I've nothing against $1 notes but their shelf life could only be a week before then need to be pulped again?

They actually have a decent life. 2001, 2002 and 2003 are real common some times you see stuff from the 1990's still around.

Decent life you say? Most of the pound coins I get are from 1983. It is not actually possible to find an older example.

"Eight hours later, *looks at coin, looks at Doc, looks at coin, looks at Doc*"...

Tumbleweed rolls past in the background.

With the exception of the tumbleweed that's kind of how I pictured the situation!

We were in a meeting with the Buisness center manager so he couldn't go directly to the machine. I watched him turn it in his hand and check it out for some time.

No tumbleweeds.

I stepped on my train this morning at Penn Station and found the car full, so I moved to another one.

The moment I stepped inside I spotted gold on the floor! I bent down and found three brand new James Madison presidential dollars.
I'll hazard a guess that someone bought a subway token for $2 with a $5 bill and got these in change.
I'll guess again that this person looked at the coins for a few minutes and then threw them down in disgust.
"What am I going to do with this stupid play money?"

Gotta love New Yorkers!

I admit I like the various Euro designs more than the new presidential dollars but I'm not too cool to bend over and pickup free money.
Especially uncirculated free money...

$3 is $3, even if that's not worth alot over her now

Guess that for €2 or so, even I would bend over. But I'm used to the idea that a coin could actually be worth something ...

Christian

Well, I'm in Edinburgh and taken the opportunity to try and spend some £5 coins.... with 100% success rate!

The first one I spent in a McD's (had been hungry for hours, we where passing it) The guy took it off me, stopped to look at it for a second and then said "I'll be keeping that!"

The next two we spent on cinema tickets, the guy wasn't to sure about them, and wondered where on Earth I got them but he took them all the same, my friend who was behind me in the line requested them as change though so we got them back to spend again!

The third (and funniest one) was in a casino. I ordered drinks to the value of £4.30, I haded him the £5 coin and without looking at it he walked off towards the till, a few seconds later he suddenly realised that I had handed him only one coin, and normally that could only have been a £2 max. He looked at it, double taked, then turned round and seemed quite interested in it! They processed my order as normal but I did see one of them take the coin away for a while before returning and placing it in the till.

Today we also used one on a bus, though we did ask the driver before placing it into the machine (in case it would jam the mechanism) he glanced at it briefly before telling us it would be fine.

Still have a few more to get rid of.

It still buys breakfast here in the States.

I turned up to an near-empty bar way early for a gig. handed over a £5 coin for a bottle of scrumpy, the the two guys where going to till it when the bar manager came over and claimed that it "wasn't legal tender", I told him it was but handed him a note (which isn't actually legal tender!) instead.

The second bar I was in the guy spotted it before he even asked for payment (I had it and a £5 note out ready to pay for the drinks.) He seemed quite interested in it and accepted it.

Wasn't legal tender???

Yes, because he hadn't seen one, he effectively refused to take a legal tender Royal Mint coin, instead accepting a Scottish banknote which is not legal tender at all!

Scottish banknotes aren't legal tender? Did the Euro replace it?

Scottish banknotes are private bank issues, i.e. Bank IOUs.

No. Only British coins are legal tender in Scotland. The Bank of England (!) notes are not, and the notes issued by various banks in Scotland and Northern Ireland are not legal tender anywhere. Not that it practically matters much - the concept of "legal tender" only affects paying a debt. The only problem is that, when it comes to paper money, some merchants in England are reluctant to accept anything but BoE notes ...




Christian

I wouldn't be laughing yet, With the SNP ever growing in popularity, Scotland may be using the Euro sooner than you think!

I don't get it, but that's probably because I'm in the US.

I normally leave them as tips so I don't really see the reaction, but recently I dipped into the tip money (pres. dollars) to buy myself a snack at a Safeway grocery store, and the cashier exclamed in exasperation "More? How do people keep ending up with these?"

I took it as a positive sign that I am not the only person in town trying to circulate some of the odd bits of currency.

What did you say to the cashier when he/she made that statement?

I just asked if she'd been seeing a lot (at least a few every day, apparently) and told her that I got interested in coins when someone spent one I'd never seen before when I was working as a cashier. I also mentioned I used them as toothfairy money, and she got excited about that idea. So maybe there's hope that even if she wasn't corrupted into coin collecting by my efforts, she'll unwitting sucker in her kids or grandkids .

Nice story!

When I went to NYC last summer I used alot in the subway and train stations. If I lived there I'd likely use many. Here in FL I almost never use them.

My understanding is Chicago Transit Authority is big on these as well. I hardly go to the windy city and I never ever take public transportation when I'm down there.

Well, I went into the windy city today (not very windy) and spent 2 GW's and a TJ at the auto show for food. Cashier just took them and never gave a second look. I'm guessing she must see these more often. I could tell that the drawer she dropped the coins in had no other change as the coins didn't clink against any others.

I need to start spending these. I just never get to my bank while they're open! I want to see if I can get any reactions.

I spent 6 today for lunch. I really wanted to spend 7, but miscounted. The cashier had to point that out to me. Imagine my reaction. I didn't have any $1 bills so I gave her 4 quarters which is just as good as I need to spend some quarters so I can pick up more rolls to check for statehood quarters.

Side note until later in the day I haven't had $1 bills in my hand for probably a month. I got 2 $1 bills back in change as I decided not to spend the coins in my pocket because I wanted to see if what I had collected at home was better quality for the coin books I was purchasing .


I think you should. Everyone's doing it! No pressure. Seriously thought it's fun!

Figured I would revive this thread. I started using the one dollar Sacs and pres dollars. I haven't gotten any reactions but I must say it's nice to use! I don't like having 50 in my pocket but I can definitely see how useful they actually are. No fumbling around unfolding a dollar bill. I might say I actually like them! I think everyone should give them a try. What originally prompted me is I buy coins from this older gentleman that gives great prices and I figured I could give him some fresh pres dollars rather than paper money, at least with the new pres dollars he can resell them. I guess they are a hot commodity for him in my area. So when I paid him $38.00 in pres dollars he was appreciative. He knew right away what I was doing. It was funny. I got a brand new roll at face value which made him and I happy, I held on to a couple of course. Maybe I got an MS70? Doubtful but I'm waiting on my Jewelers Loupe so I can really start seeing everything.

Forgot to say! I've been doing rather the opposite in the last few weeks. I am looking to find as many commemorative pound notes as possible, so whenever I need money I go in to the bank and withdraw £20 in pound notes.

I must say, I end up fumbling round like an idiot at checkouts, trying to count out the right amount, and making sure I'm not handing over more notes than I intend. People are usually happy to see one every now an again, but whenever you hand over a handful of pound notes you can see that the cashier is not happy about it. I paid a bus fare with three the other day and the bus drive actually started ranting about how he "bloody hates" them. The guy after me was a little tipsy and only had a tenner on him, so he ended up with them as change, he sat in the seat across and said "I thought they got rid of these things", I said nothing

I'm guessing that if the masses over there where forced into using dollar coins they would rather quickly see how much easier they are. There is never any reason you should have more than four at one time anyway, and compared to our pound coins dollar coins are much more compact.

I just hope they give us adequate warning when they plan to get rid of the dollar bill(I feel it's inevitable) so I can hoarde them all!! MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHA

I would love to spend dollar coins like that lol. It would be awesome to see the reactions.

Welcome Spartan! It's nice to use an underused form of currency.

$38 worth at one time! Wow, you didn't just get your feet wet you dove in head first to the $1 coin spending! Your pocket must have been weighed down quite a bit!


LOL That is like opposite world to what we go through here in the US. Interesting, thanks for posting!


Agreed!

I actually Just picked up 50 Jeffersons, two mint rolls, alas, no errors. WAIT! Were there any Godless Jeffersons? I may have to check. If not, I have a nail file and some time

I don't think there were for Jefferson. Makes no difference to me as I get all D mint coins and I have not found any errors for any of my coins. I question how much these "Godless" dollars will be worth in the future. I think as time goes on the $1 pres coins that do get used may start to wear on the edges, hence creating "Godless" dollars.

insightful assumption, never considered that.

Yeah, I've noticed this with some of the $1 pres coins that I have gotten new from my bank. Some have more dynamic or bolder edge lettering than others.

So the mere fact that a pres dollar coin has scratches on it may not hurt it's future value if the edge lettering is on it. Kind of a neat twist of fate if the dollars with edge lettering eventually end up being worth more than those without edge lettering!

I'm going to get myself cryogenically frozen so I can be a billionaire in the future.

It only works if your coins last until you wake up.

I remember a Twilight Zone episode in which 3 crooks cryogenically freeze themselves so they can wake up in the future and spend their stolen gold bars. It turns out when they wake up one of the crooks is dead and the other 2 end up getting at each other's throats. Turns out it was all for nothing as we learn that gold can be manufactured in the future and as a result is no longer a precious metal and is completely worthless!

Of course I'm sure the pres dollars will be worth something in the future.

My plan was to take all 50 of them to the bank and put them in a 3,000 year certificate of deposit. tell me that wouldn't cross a tellers eyes!

Twilight Zone irony: Kris wakes up, greatly refreshed. Goes to bank and discovers the bank is no longer in existence Money is no longer used and anything can be easily replicated out of thin air so his coins would have been worthless anyway. Kris then decides he can't do anything about it and has a Pepsi.

Excuse me Mr. Nightwing, if that is your real name!? I would not replicate a pepsi, I would replicate a coke! But first I would replicate a Lamborghini to console myself at unneccesarily high speeds.

Pfff! Cola! I'd replicate a can of Irm-Bru, but not before I had replicated a Zooey Deschanel.

I was originally going to put in a Coke, but then I thought I'll put in the pop that I typically prefer. In reality though I drink them both.

Yes, Nightwing is my real name.

I see. Well honestly, if you put them both into cups they'd probably taste the same to me, coke just did a better job of brainwashing me. As for the drinks above, I believe those are alcohol and I don't drink alcohol, but cheers my friend.

I got a cashier today who almost mistook one of these for a quarter. It wasn't until she actually looked at it did she realize what it was. It was a situation where I put the money down on the counter and slid it across and she never looked directly at it, but saw 3 coins out of the corner of her eye and assumed they were all quarters. It's kind of my fault as I like to give the untrained eye at least 2-3 if not more. It's just the situation didn't call for it.

I've found that gas station attendants never give these a second look. I imagine they must see more of these than others and are the most familiar with them.

Kinda like me and the Casino guy, he just assumed that I had handed him a two pound coin and started to walk away, before realising my bill was over £4 and I had only handed him one coin.



In the UK you find that all the service stations on the main motorways are happy to accept Scottish notes, even if the towns around them would look at them funny Petrol stations are kind of a nessenity during travel, so it makes sense that new notes and coins will appear at them quicker and more frequently.