Some thoughts for your pennies

[SteveDallas]

Originally posted by tw

The Sacajawea dollar would have been successful if we could find one. I ask often but no one has any. Almost half were saved, like pennies in a jar, as collector items. (Pennies? Notice the segway.) Vending machines and pay phones did not have adjust - even though dollar coins are legal tender meaning they had to accept the $1 coin.

Have we already decided that the Sacajawea coin is unsuccessful already? Jeez. I say get rid of the $1 bill. Can somebody point to numbers that give the minting costs of the various currency? It's not hard to understand why a new coin has trouble gaining a foothold (vending machines have to be adjusted and cash drawers need an "extra" compartment). Well, when they came out with the new $20 bills they had to reprogram bill mechanisms in vending machines that took $20s. In my personal experience dollar coins (Sacajawea as well as even some Susan B. Anthonys) are readily available in the form of change when you buy train tickets from vending machines in both Philadelphia and St. Louis. This is exactly where people get most of their coins... in change when they buy something. So make it easier for stores to have the coins & give them as change. (OK, I said that, I have no idea how to do it. Except, as I said, discontinuing the $1 bill.)