U.S. Mint May Replace Sacagawea Dollar

WASHINGTON (AP) - Putting the faces of U.S. presidents on dollar coins would entice collectors, but there still would be challenges in getting the coins into cash registers and people's pockets, the chief of the U.S. Mint said Wednesday.

The comments of Mint Director Henrietta Holsman Fore came during a House hearing that, among other things, explored a legislative proposal aimed at breathing new life in the little-used Sacagawea dollar coin, also called the Golden Dollar because of its golden color.

The proposal would replace Sacagawea, a Lemhi Shoshone Indian who helped Lewis and Clark find their way to the Pacific Ocean, now on the front of the coin, with a rotating design approach honoring presidents in the order they served the country. The face of the coin featuring a president would change four times a year. The back of the coin would feature the image of the Statue of Liberty.

``A design change will make the coin more attractive to collectors, but likely will have no appreciable effect on how many are used in retail transactions,'' Fore said during the hearing in the House Financial Services' subcommittee on domestic and international monetary policy, trade and technology.

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-4032991,00.html

the new reverse with the amateurish picture of two hands shaking. Talk about a lack of imagination! I collected Jeffs for years.... and though the Monticello is old and boring, the new one is plain grade-school quality.

As has been explained in endless news reports and DU threads...

I think the same people who design these dollar coins must have designed that great new Iraqi flag...

It's all cause for great smugness in Canada. When the dollar coin was brought in, it didn't even vaguely resemble any other coin and all dollar bills were pulled out of circulation; same with the two-dollar coin. Only trouble is that you wind up with ten tons of loose change jangling around in your pocket. Which is great for panhandlers, of course:

"Spare change, sir?"

"Oh, thank God you've come--Here! Help me get rid of this!"

It's all a conspiracy...

:silly:

I understand why it's better than paper but I just can't stand loose change. As long as paper is around, I won't use the coins.

Understand why it's better than paper, that is.

At least, from my (the guy who uses it) point of view. I've lurked along several convos on the net where Canadians express wonder at how bungled the American attempts at instituting a dollar coin have been, that always seem to miss the point: Americans just don't want them. Not the guy in the street, anyhow -- you'd have an easier time circulating a 25-cent bill than a $1 coin, precisely because spare change is a bother.

They last longer. I think something like 30 years for the coin vs. 2 years for the paper bill. I agree with you though, it's a bother and would be hard to get used to.

The coins are really not hard to distinguish at all, as they're bigger than a quarter and have a smooth side. Plus, a quarter will "lock" perfectly within the interior rim of the coin.

In Canada and the UK the change over was instant and painless because their treasuries stopped producing the bills, which forced businesses and banks to use the coins, which put them into the public hands and pockets, which made people realize they're not a bother.

A $1 bill lasts 18 months; $5 bill, two years; $10 bill, three years; $20 bill, four years; and $50 and $100 bills, nine years

That's reason number one through 486 million.

And actually most Americans DO want them, but don't use them because businesses won't get them from the bank to use as change because they have to rearrange their cash drawers.

If the treasury stopped using half-assed tactics and a) stopped producing the bills and b) gave away trays to put in the dollar bill slot of cash drawers (like in Canada), dollar coins would be used the US within 2 months.

They are so fake looking and they rust.

That's amazing that you got brass to rust :-)

and i enjoyed using them when they fist came out (my dad sent me a bunch back when i was in grad school. they were perfect for everything but vending machines)

and mixed all three when paying for things just to watch the buffoonery. :evilgrin:

And a lot of older ones too. In fact, one of the problems faced by the designers of the new coin was to create a brass coin with the same electrical properties as the nickel-clad-copper Susan B Anthony dollar so that vending machines would a) identiffy it as the same thing as a Susan B Anthony dollar and b) identify it only as a dollar. Plus, it was the exact same size and mass as the old coin.

The Golden Dollar is a clad coin and the alloy layers on each side of the core are manganese brass, a golden-colored material composed of 77% copper, 12% zinc, 7% manganese, and 4% nickel.

Taking account of the copper core, the overall composition of the Golden Dollar is 88.5% copper, 6.0% zinc, 3.5 % manganese, and 2.0% nickel. The coin's composite construction provides security features that allow machines to distinguish it from slugs, tokens, and foreign coins.

But the alloy in the coin had to "look" the same to a vending machine, as well as be the same mass, and size.

Ain't it the truth...ain't it the truth. The final exam was a Bell telephone. Nothing got through those.

Don't you know Ashcroft monitors this place!?

LOL