Oh absolutely! These conservative politicians have to get with the times!
A dollar today is worth the same as one of those bicentennial quarters from 1976. Check the government's inflation calculator at the BLS website -- if you ask it how much 100 in 2011 would have been worth in 1976, it tells you 25!
http://www.bls.gov/data/inflation_calculator.htm
If people back then were willing to carry around coins worth that amount, then it's the same as us carrying around dollar coins nowadays.
If only there was some way to get these things from the Mint circulating to the banks....
