Wasn't it Einstein who said insanity was doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results?

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"U.S. gov't to release new dollar coins By WILL LESTER, Associated Press Writer , Feb 11, 7:13 AM ET WASHINGTON - Two recent efforts to promote wide usage of a dollar coin proved unsuccessful. But maybe Susan B. Anthony and Sacagawea should not take public rejection personally. It's not easy overcoming people's indifference to dollar coins, even those honoring such historic figures. An AP-Ipsos poll found that three-fourths of people surveyed oppose replacing the dollar bill, featuring George Washington, with a dollar coin. People are split evenly on the idea of having both a dollar bill and a dollar coin. A new version of the coin, paying tribute to American presidents, goes into general circulation Thursday. Even though doing away with the bill could save hundreds of millions of dollars each year in printing costs, there is no plan to scrap the bill in favor of the more durable coin. "I really don't see any use for it," Larry Ashbaugh, a retiree from Bristolville, Ohio, said of the dollar coin. "We tried it before. It didn't fly." A quarter-century ago, the dollar coin showed feminist Susan B. Anthony on the front; then one in 2000 featuring Sacagawea, the Shoshone Indian who helped guide the Lewis and Clark expedition. The latest dollar coin will bear Washington's image, followed later this year by those of John Adams, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. A different president will appear on the golden dollar coins every three months. People have strong feelings about their money, even the penny, which occasionally is threatened with elimination. When people were asked whether the penny should be eliminated, 71 percent said no, according to the poll of 1,000 adults conducted Nov. 28-30 that had a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points. Some fear that getting rid of the penny will cause product prices to be rounded up, perhaps increasing inflation."

2/11/2007 11:35:39 AM

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"Two recent efforts to promote wide usage of a dollar coin proved unsuccessful."

What efforts? SBAs were poorly designed overall and the sackies were cool, but the mint did nothing to promote their use.
These new ones are ugly as sin (you can see them on the mint website) so they'll fail just the same.

This is how we move into modern times with our currency:
-Start making dollar coins in greater quantities.
-Stop printing paper dollars, its a huge waste of money compared to coins.
-Even if you dont stop making paper dollars, require banks to purchase at least half of their dollars in coin form. (this is the major stopgap -- people can't use dollar coins if they cant get dollar coins. And Americans are so retarded as a group, they wont use them unless forced.)
-Eliminte the penny while we're at it. It has so little value that many people simply discard them.
-Once people stop crying about no more paper dollars, replace paper 5/10/20/50/etc with plastic versions. Cheaper to produce and much more durable.

2/11/2007 11:49:47 AM

How are we supposed to tip strippers without $1 bills?

2/11/2007 12:25:11 PM

i think that the mint is trying to follow the success of the state quarters with that of presidential dollars. it's hoping people will collect them and then actually use them.

i'll use them: i tend to get a couple rolls of dollar coins every so often, and then i make a point of using them for tips and whatnot. it amuses me that some people don't know what they are.

[Edited on February 11, 2007 at 12:32 PM. Reason : ^and i've wondered about that, myself]

2/11/2007 12:31:54 PM

If the stripper is halfway decent, she'll have no problems handling change.

2/11/2007 12:34:58 PM

coins are so much less convenient to carry around.

2/11/2007 2:38:31 PM

^ that's what I thought, until I spent a year in Germany. The Euro has a 1E and 2E coin, and the smallest bill is 5 euros. I got used to using the coins a lot, and I really ended up liking it.

2/11/2007 2:47:16 PM

keeping track of coins is so much more cumbersome than just sticking some paper into your wallet.

dollar coins in america is like soccer in america. shit is never going to catch on, ever

2/11/2007 2:54:02 PM

its much easier to lose a coin than a bill -- unless we all start carrying purses, like those fags in europe

[Edited on February 11, 2007 at 3:03 PM. Reason : fgd]

2/11/2007 3:03:25 PM

i never have cash

so i'll never be using those anyway

2/11/2007 3:04:27 PM

my professor in sweden said we haven't adopted the dollar coin in america because of lobbying from the stripclub industry. LOL.

2/11/2007 3:06:30 PM

I have it on good authority that canadian strippers have no problem accepting dollar coins in a variety of ways.

2/11/2007 3:33:30 PM

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"People have strong feelings about their money, even the penny, which occasionally is threatened with elimination. When people were asked whether the penny should be eliminated, 71 percent said no, according to the poll of 1,000 adults conducted Nov. 28-30 that had a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points."

The penny should disappear just cause it costs more than $0.01 now to manufacture a penny, it's like $0.015 or something now. So they're creating money out of thin air and still losing money on it.

I got dollar coins at the post office when I was receiving change for my book of stamps a month ago. I was like "huh?" at first and then said "oh, dollar coins".

There's an easy solution Fed. Stop manufacturing one-dollar bills. People would have no choice but to use dollar coins. Then restart the two-dollar bill.

[Edited on February 11, 2007 at 3:46 PM. Reason : .]

2/11/2007 3:45:18 PM

^ why can't they make the penny out of something else?

2/11/2007 7:08:28 PM

I can't wait for the Nixon coin

2/11/2007 7:33:16 PM

The US government will make pennies for as long as people in Illinois get to vote for president.

2/11/2007 8:00:30 PM

I'll be one of the people collecting these.

But have you seen them? The portraits are terrible

http://www.usmint.gov/mint_programs/$1coin/index.cfm

John Adams looks like John Belushi and Madison looks like Christopher Walken



[Edited on February 11, 2007 at 8:15 PM. Reason : .]

2/11/2007 8:09:12 PM

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"my professor in sweden said we haven't adopted the dollar coin in america because of lobbying from the stripclub industry. LOL."

Please tell me the professor is joking. Like the strip club industry really carries any weight on monetary policy.

No one uses coins because no one wants to carry a change purse.

2/11/2007 8:40:40 PM

1. Aren't you supposed to tip more than $1's?

2. I strongly doubt that strippers have interest groups.

2/11/2007 8:42:28 PM

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"John Adams looks like John Belushi and Madison looks like Christopher Walken"

A Walken Dollar, now that would be cool. It could have a big cowbell on the reverse.

I wonder if the Prez-coins will turn the same ugly brown tone that tarnished all the
Sqaw-bucks.

2/11/2007 11:39:21 PM

Why is Washington scowling?

2/13/2007 10:54:07 AM

- I need more cowbell gentlemens . . .

And I know its supposed to say 4th President, but in this shot it looks like "teh president"

2/13/2007 11:39:38 AM

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"How are we supposed to tip strippers without $1 bills?"

go to a canadian strip club for the answer to that

2/13/2007 3:12:25 PM

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"The penny should disappear just cause it costs more than $0.01 now to manufacture a penny, it's like $0.015 or something now. So they're creating money out of thin air and still losing money on it."

come on. how much does it cost to produce a $100 bill? not $100.

Australia has it right. Their dollars are made out of a plastic material that is nearly indestructible. you can wash it, and its hard as shit to tear without first cutting. I couldn't tear one. We should switch to that system. Counter fitting would also be cut down because a portion of the bill is clear. Plus actual holograms can be put on the bill.

2/13/2007 6:40:39 PM

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"teh president"

2/13/2007 6:53:47 PM

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"It has so little value that many people simply discard them."

yeah, i never really understood throwing away money, but i've seen others do it.

2/14/2007 3:07:21 AM

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"come on. how much does it cost to produce a $100 bill? not $100. "

?? not sure you saw the point. the actual cost of getting enough copper alloy and minting a single penny is greater than 1 cent. It's always cost money to make money, but it's insane to pay more per unit the make money than the eventual value of the money.

and yes, Australia's money is very nice. it probably costs 5 times as much to make as paper money (or maybe it's comparable, i dunno), but it lasts forever.

2/14/2007 8:35:14 AM

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"Counter fitting"

2/14/2007 3:08:31 PM

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" yeah, i never really understood throwing away money, but i've seen others do it."

Every time I go to the airport I always seem to have a huge pocket-full of change and after I go through the metal detector I just hold out a hand and dump it out of the little dish. Half of it always goes all over the floor but I don't bother to pick it up, I've been inconvenienced enough as it is.

2/14/2007 3:49:53 PM

Got some today at the bank. I wish they'd make them a little bit bigger. They're a little bigger than the quarter. It's kinda hard to tell the difference between quarters in your pocket too, but their nice and heavy.

2/15/2007 12:51:49 PM

THEY NEED TO GET RID OF THE PENNY!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2/15/2007 1:11:28 PM

^^ are they they same as the sacagawea dollar? i figure they should be..... even though that one never took off, it would really help if we picked a size and stuck with it.

^ hear, hear

2/15/2007 1:44:48 PM

Just looked it up, same size as the sacagawea. I agree though, stop producing the dollar bill and the penny.

2/15/2007 1:59:11 PM

Any dollar coins have to have the same dimensions, weight, and electrical resistance as the Susan B. Anthony dollars.

2/15/2007 2:05:25 PM

I don't like that they are gold. Looks like crap after they float around in your pocket for a while. I guess it's supposed to make it easy to tell the difference between the dollar and the quarter.

2/15/2007 6:11:01 PM

Let me get that coin...

2/15/2007 11:53:55 PM

I don't want them to get rid of the penny. I like collecting change and at the end of the year pulling it together and going on a vacation on that money. Or buying something nice. Last year it was $340

This year will probably be around $500. And before you ask... yes... I am that asshole that comes in once a year with 50ish rolls of pennies.

2/16/2007 7:28:22 AM

Quote :

"An AP-Ipsos poll found that three-fourths of people surveyed oppose replacing the dollar bill, featuring George Washington, with a dollar coin. People are split evenly on the idea of having both a dollar bill and a dollar coin. ... People have strong feelings about their money, even the penny, which occasionally is threatened with elimination. When people were asked whether the penny should be eliminated, 71 percent said no, according to the poll of 1,000 adults conducted Nov. 28-30 that had a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points."

Probably because either consciously or subconsciously they realize that eliminating the penny/coining the dollar is a strong indication that a dollar isn't worth as much as it used to be.

Quote :

"A new version of the coin, paying tribute to American presidents, goes into general circulation Thursday. Even though doing away with the bill could save hundreds of millions of dollars each year in printing costs, there is no plan to scrap the bill in favor of the more durable coin. "I really don't see any use for it," Larry Ashbaugh, a retiree from Bristolville, Ohio, said of the dollar coin. "We tried it before. It didn't fly." "

The reason it never worked before is because you gave people the option of a dollar bill or a dollar coin. Take one option away and the other is bound to "fly." Besides, I haven't actually used cash in several years. I carry some with me for emergencies and for places that are still in the stone ages and don't want to accept widely used forms of payment - haven't had to use the cash yet.

^Just take the coin jar to a bank. My bank has one of those machines like you see in the grocery store and they don't charge you for using it if you are a member. You can turn an hour of counting into a few minutes of dumping coins into a machine.

[Edited on February 16, 2007 at 8:24 AM. Reason : -]

2/16/2007 8:22:01 AM

yeah raige in fact if u want to i will take it to my bank for you and just give u the cash so u dont have to roll all that money. State employee's credit union ftw. as for the coins i think they should get rid of all change except the quarter. And make businesses adjust for the taxes to keep everything even. that would make life sooo much easier hehe

2/16/2007 8:33:48 AM

It was funny, I went into the Bragaw C-Store last night to buy a coke, and I paid with a Sacagawea coin (The Reynolds deck gives them as change). She stood there for a minute saying "What is this?" and "I dont think we can accept this".....it took an unusually long chat with the C-Store manager before she would accept it was legal US currency.....it didn't help that my friend was standing behind me talking about how I like to make fake coins....

2/16/2007 1:24:11 PM

^ those c-store ladies are dumb

2/16/2007 3:13:09 PM

I am currently studying in europe, and now that I am accustomed to them, I think I like the dollar coins better. Regardless, the strip club thing is an issue.

2/19/2007 5:28:15 AM

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"it amuses me that some people don't know what they are."

Yep. Last year, I tried to pay for a drink at a concert and my Sackies went through 6 employees before they finally accepted that I was giving them actual money.

2/21/2007 3:31:57 PM

^
Didn't you point out that the coin depicted one of America's most beloved historical characters?

2/21/2007 11:37:53 PM

I saw something about this in USA Today Tuesday. You forgot to metion that switching entirely from paper to coin for dollars would save taxpayers 500 million bucks (i think per year but i forget)

2/21/2007 11:44:22 PM

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"Probably because either consciously or subconsciously they realize that eliminating the penny/coining the dollar is a strong indication that a dollar isn't worth as much as it used to be."

2/22/2007 4:40:18 AM

it doesn't work because we still have 1 dollar bills. Get rid of them and force us to use one dollar coins, it will save us a lot of money.

2/22/2007 4:46:48 AM

Madison looks a little like Ditka.

2/25/2007 9:38:58 AM

[Edited on February 25, 2007 at 12:34 PM. Reason : ]

2/25/2007 12:33:17 PM

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2/25/2007 12:53:21 PM