GadgetKen

Vending machines I use tend to tell you the amount as you drop each coin in. Since generally small transactions, I would catch an error like this immediately and would report it to a manager to correct the transaction (or the police if they were truly committing fraud; what you are describing is a criminal matter that can be prosecuted). Typical use would be a supermarket self-serve line for a handful of items for an office lunch.

Dollar or 2 dollar coins (or their equivalents in local currency) are common in some countries, and they have done away with very small paper bills. Thinking like Canada (loonies and toonies), Bermuda (although US dollars can be used interchangeably on a 1:1 fixed float) and the Eastern Caribbean (EC dollar paper currency generally starts at $5; smaller usually in coin).

mikeef

You have correctly pointed out one of the problems with the whole program. If the banks don't know what to do with them or can't distribute them, it'll never gain ground among the general populace.

Just got mine, also. I completely forgot about them.

Mike

GadgetKen

Yeah, tell me about it. When I asked at a local bank about buying dollar coins, they practically snarled at me. Strange considering larger value coins are common outside the US and when the US was on the gold/silver standards decades ago, legal tender bullion coins were sometimes preferred over their paper counterpart.

Cheapskate Travels

Not just preferred, but expected. My grandparents talked about sewing $2 1/2 gold Indians into their clothing during the great depression...they only trusted gold and silver.

The banks complain about (relatively smaller -- compared to past silver dollars) $1 coins today...imagine having to vault $1 Morgan or Peace silver dollars, $2 1/2, $5, $10 and $20 gold coins.

The banks will complain about anything, their dream is to have a cashless society where all customer transactions are done online, they have no human tellers to pay and they still charge the same fee schedule.

Miami305

Agreed. Another year of increased profits for the major US banks, and they're complaining about having to pay Brinks to pick up coins?

I will gladly stick it to any of these banks, any day of the week.

Astrophsx

I the mint in reading this forum they will see that their household limit worked out very well for them, they are still getting orders and don't have to deal with bad press over people who order 99 boxes a week.

cordelli

deleted

Mike Wilson

[QUOTE=miller4isu

With people that like, $1 coins have no chance of replacing the paper dollar.[/QUOTE]


I agree. As long as the $1 coins are so close to the quarter in size this will continue. Why doesn't the mint make them large enough so you can tell by touch OR give it an edge or two? Doesn't make sense but since when has a government agency like this made much sense?

Astrophsx

I just noticed the podcast on the WSJ site, http://online.wsj.com/article/SB126014168569179245.html, I wasn't sure if anyone else had noticed it. Pretty entertaining, more details than the article, I think they should have had mrpickles call in!

dayone

A two-month old article and you're not sure if anyone else on this heavily posted and trafficked thread had seen it? Really?!?!

"Is the Mint Party Over?"

One of the most important FT Guidelines & Rules, to which everyone agreed to abide when they joined, is Use the Search Feature.

benmaller

I believe this issue is the retrofitting of vending machines, etc to accept a new dollar coin. The current coins have the same signature of the old susan b anthony so no retrofitting was required.

As others have said, until there is a significant commitment, i.e the pulling of dollar bills, to make the switch they will not become widely accepted.

Carl Johnson

---->podcast<----

moondog

The only podcasts I noticed were on mundane topics such as, "F is more comfortable than Y." No $50k coin deposits at the local grocery store Chase branch, sadly.

Astrophsx

To the left of the fourth paragraph down there is a little java applet that says "turning coins into miles" with play audio below it.

Thanks Carl.

orgopeach

Has anyone tried to USE these coins in bulk. The most I've ever tried so far is the gas station in $40-50s. I would love to use them for my real estate taxes but perhaps paying it in smaller increments (1k) rather than over 5K-10k at a time.