All:

Anyone have any thoughts on the elimination of the Dollar Bill and the full introduction of the Dollar Coin?
To go one better, what about a 2 Dollar coin? In ? Canada (2 dollars)?, England ( 2 pounds) Europe ( 2 Euros) are in circulation and are accepted. Can we do likewise?

An idea could be to make all Commemorative coins 2 dollars with the traditional Silver dollar size. Would make for interesting pieces.

I like the dollar coins and use them whenever I have the opportunity. No tolls or parking fees here, so I use them mostly for small purchases and for tips. I also use Kennedy Half Dollars for the same reasons. I firmly believe that a dollar coin would take off it the dollar note was eliminated or seriously cut back.

I like your 2 dollar coin idea. The 2 dollar has been quite successful in Canada. I'm not sure it would make it in the US. Too many people are already using debit cards for everything.

EUR2 - this was introduced in a currency change, and thus forced on the people
Canada $2 - denomination always circulated
England £2 - Introduced after the £1 coin replaced the £1 note. Too many £1 coins is really hard on the pockets!

I just don't think that a $2 coin be introduced without any particular reason.

Try getting in & out of Orlando! They got that city locked in with tolls via the highways. Cost me $6.50 in tolls to get to that coin show on Saturday.

As for the $2 coin, I'm all for it. Never see it in the U.S.A. but I like the idea. Whenever I'm filling in for a missing teller at the bank I always stock up on dollar and half dollar coins and get em out there.

Most look at them as a curiousity.

I like the idea. Too bad the other 99% of America would hate it.

The main reason I think this idea would fail is that the kids working in the stores were never taught how to do math in the public schools, so it would take even longer to get your change if they had to start thinking in 2s instead of just ones. The $2 bill never really circulates here, and hasn't since they were used at horse tracks. I doubt we will see any changes at all since the one-dollar bill has become too deeply ingrained in our society. The only possible way they eliminate it is if inflation runs rampant and gas costs $97 a gallon and lunch at Burger King can be ordered from the $100 value menu. Then the $1 bill through the $50 bill will be eliminated, sort of like in Mexico. I just don't see that happening anytime soon.

So true. I paid for dinner at Taco Bell using dollar coins once, I laughed more then I do watching stand up comics. It took THREE people to get my change back, it was still wrong.

One even asked "are these gold coins fake?". Yes, I took all the trouble of creating a band new, never before seen US coin to fool you super troopers at Taco Bell.

I think they ought to have a $2 coin, yank the paper dollar from circulation, and have done with it.

As for me... I like to get half dollar rolls when I can (almost never anymore) and spend those. People have seen dollar coins. Youngsters have no idea that there's a Kennedy half. Girl at Tim Hortons thought it was a $2 coin (since it was bigger than the dollar). I repressed the urge to take advantage--I had a pocketful of the things, and could've asked her for a $10 for five of 'em.

Ah, poor insufficiently evil me... no wonder I can't get ahead.

I think we have to ramp up the production of change purses for men before we can successfully transition to a $1 or $2 coin.


I already have a messenger bag so I guess I could get used to a change purse over time.

Easy. Make 'em integral to anything you clip on your belt: cell pod, PDA case, Leatherman...

Glad my pants have deep pockets! There's always a couple bucks in change (dollar coins as always).

Yeah, right. Aren't all coin (note) denominations that do not exist as paper (coins) as well "forced" on the people?

Here in Germany we used to have a 5 mark coin (worth €2.56) and a 5 mark note. The latter was hardly ever used; nobody really wanted it. Now we have a "biggest" coin that is worth less, and I would have preferred a €5 coin too, but if you "merge" currencies, compromises have to be made.

Same thing in the Netherlands; they had a 5 gulden coin (€2.27). I don't think there was a 5 gulden note in the last NLG phase.

Yes, in some countries the pre-euro coins/notes setup was, and is, different. But I don't think it would be a very good idea to have €1, €2 and €5 made in coins and notes just in order to "give people a choice" ...

Christian

Nope. We used to have a 5 gulden note, but that was phased out when the 5 gulden coin was introduced, back in the late 1980's. (actually: re-introduced, we did have a gold 5 gulden coin in the early 1900's)

The note was replaced by the coin because the denomination was very often used and the notes would wear out pretty fast. Coins have a much longer life span, so it was simply a cost saving measure. I don't remember any complaints about the coin replacing a note.

The real issue is, if it is so hard to circulate dollar coins or even half dollars in the public, why would there be a 2 dollar coin?

That's definately a project ready to be doomed.

The same argument was applied for the Japanese 2000yen banknote.

Obuchi, who was the prime minister at that time, argued that if the US had 20 dollar bill, the French had 20 franc note, Australian 20 dollar bill, and the rest of the world did, why Japan could not have a 2000 yen note, especially to coincide with the millenium anniversary. Another historical reason would be that there used to be 2 and 20 yen gold coin, as well as 200 yen banknote.

Sadly, he did not get to see his dream come true, as he passed away just one week before the release date. To top up with that, the banknotes did not circulate very well, thus ending its effectiveness.

The state quarter series and the nickel series have blown one myth out of the water...that USians didn't want, wouldn't accept and couldn't handle new designs.

If we did eliminate the bill and replace it with a coin, I don't think there would be a huge outcry. But, I still think the bill would have to be eliminated for a coin to gain any meaningful public acceptance. There has been no signs that it will happen spontaneously or by choice. That is the way it has had to happen in most countries from what I understand.

Imagine all those vending machines! 90% of the ones on campus don't take the dollar coins.

True enough. I'm hoping that the Presidential dollar series, if it does finally come to pass, will do the same for the dollar coin. Much like a coup d'état, though, I think such major changes need to be done with brashness and authority--just do it, remove the dollar bill from circulation, bump up the production of the dollar coin, even bring a new $2 coin into the mix, and people will end up using them because that's all there is.

Oh, there will be wailing and gnashing of teeth if the dollar bill is eliminated, but after a burn-in period of two to five years, depending, I think the coins would be accepted just fine. It just needs to get past the oddest possible political odd couple: Trent Lott, who opposes elimiating the dollar bill in defense of his home state's cotton growers, and Ted Kennedy, who opposes in defense of his home state's paper mill that makes the paper they're printed on.

1$ and 2$ coins but I don't ever see them happening.

Strange, the UK seems to be in favour of coins. None of them really get rejected over here (although some don't like the small 5p's & apparently £6.5Billion have gone missing since 1971) there's even talk of a £5 coin been introduced as a common circulating coin over here (although alot of people do object to having a coin the size of the current commemorative ones).

Personally I would have a $1 & $2 coin in circulation in America but unfortunately it would just cause some people to be idiotic and say it was no patriotic to do away with the $1 note, etc. All you need to happen in order for it to work is for the next President to push it through as one of his plans right at the beginning of his reign & you should have no problem.

I think if it does happen though the whole range of coins need a complete overhaul, I mean look how great most of the early US coins were, the new designs they keep pushing through just don't work, especially seeing as the portraits are face on rather than a side profile.

The biggest problem in the US is that any changes to any coins have to go through parliment, over here they just show a board the design, the Queen (or King) gets to see the new profile for them, approve and itgoes into circulation next year. That's what happened with the yet to be revealed designs, people were invited to design them, they were shown to a group of people, they voted, the majority won, the Royal Mint are minting them as we speak, simple.

Hmm... One practical issue against $1 and $2 coins is that the metal would cost more than face value...

but...

since $1 bills need to be replaced so often (vs coins that see circulation for decades), coins would reduce costs of printing so many new bills that often.

Now, which costs win over? The cost of minting coins on metal worth more than their face value? or the costs saved from not printing billions of notes year in, year out?

The SAC & Presidential Dollars each contain only about 5.5 cents worth of material. I'm not sure what the material costs are for $1.00 notes but the overhead is probably substantial.

It costs 5.5 cents in material, but you have to consider the cost of wages I would guess those guys make a lot of money. Also the cost of overhead such as electric and water. So I can see a dollar costing a little more but as many as they can put out in a day the cost still wouldn't be over a dollar.

In the US I believe people want a small denominational bill. That is why the $1 coin has such a resistance. If the dollar bill was eliminated and the production of the $2 bill increased dramatically then people might be more open to the idea of a dollar being a coin and not a bill.