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Old Jun 20, 2008, 5:36 pm
  #149  
steve32
 
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Originally Posted by Aus_Mal
I have to ask... how often do people see $1 coins in the U.S? Will there ever be a day when the $1 note is phased out?
I understand there is a lobby with considerable influence that is dead set against losing George Washington as the face of the basic unit of currency for the country.

Interestingly, when I was in Australia last year, there was an airport sign advertising a financial institution, and the person holding currency bills in his hand was holding US $1 bills. Not what I expected to see on the other side of the world, but indicative as to how much the US dollar is considered the standard for currency.


The oversize silver dollars were neat. I remember well the Eisenhower dollar with the Liberty Bell and Moon on the reverse.

Since the 80's, the dollar coin push has been blatantly political.

The Susan B. Anthony, to push a woman on a coin, was a bust mostly because it was hard to distinguish from a quarter--nearly same size, and same color.

Then there was the Sacagawea, trying to squeeze in both a woman and a non-Caucasian person into a coin. At least they made the color different from a quarter, but there is not a free tray/slot in cash register drawers to fit the coin, so stores would typically chuck the coins under the tray, taking them out of circulation. Sort of like what happened to the $2 bill--without room in the tray, it was inconvenient. Though the latter did work out for Barnum & Bailey, I heard, in that after lots of complaints from their home base community in northern Florida about them (due to accusations from animal rights protesters and such), B&B paid their entire payroll one month in cash--all $2 bills. This made a huge impression on that community when they saw the flood of those bills enter their local economy, and they realized how much B&B employees affected them--the rumblings ceased fast.

Now it's presidents.

They should have done the states as dollar coins, and so made that much more profit margin on those. Idiots.

Steve
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