Recently the Obama administration announced that the production of the Presidential Dollar Coin series would be halted, limiting its production solely to proofs and business strikes for collectors only (READ: you will now be able to buy a dollar for more than a dollar). This is being done ostensibly to save the Federal Government $50 million a year. Yes, you read that right...fifty million dollars from a government whose budget is over one trillion dollars per year. That's chump change and the rationale is that all these dollar coins being produced are just sitting in warehouses at cost to taxpayers because they are not being used (except in major transit hubs where they are dispensed by machines as change). Currently over 1.4 billion dollar coins are being warehoused and it is estimated that at current rates of consumption, that it would take about ten years to exhaust the supply.
This is not unprecedented. The Susan B. Anthony Dollar coin, released to much fanfare in 1979 before being immediately rejected by the public for its similarity in size and appearance to the quarter-dollar, also was produced in great anticipatory numbers only to be warehoused in similarly great numbers causing its production to be halted after just two years. SBA Dollar coins would be produced in 1981, but only released in mint and proof sets so if you've ever managed to get a 1981 SBA Dollar in your change (I never have), you are the recipient of a coin broken from just such a set. There those coins sat until a small draw began starting in 1993 when the USPS began giving them out in change from their stamp vending machines (I guess as punishment for not using exact change). This draw would continue until supplies were exhausted necessitating new production in 1999 making this mini-dollar quite possibly the only mini-dollar the United States has ever produced that was ever wanted. The downside of this was that these coins were not included in the 1999 mint and proof sets. Why alternate sets were not made to include this coin (precedented in 1942 when the nickel went from its normal composition to its "wartime" composition) or why mint and proof sets are not released to following year to account for such eventualities is beyond me. The coin was ultimately released as an individual proof.
The Sacagawea Dollar was released in 2000 following an ad campaign and also much fanfare (even Walmart got into the game). Hoping to fix the problem of the dollar coin, it was made smooth-edged and golden in color (it's an alloy of copper, zinc, manganese, and nickel...no gold obviously) to give it a distinctive look as the size issue as mentioned with the SBA Dollar was not actually the problem (the cent and dime have similar size differences but have you ever heard anyone complain about being unable to distinguish the coins?). In fact, the SBA Dollar was also supposed to be brassy in color, polygonal (11-sided, even though 13-sided would seem more American to me), and smooth-edged. If you look at the coin, you see the vestige of this proposed shape in the border design, but committees/objections by the vending industry turned the coin into a copper-nickel plating bonded to a copper core and made it round in shape with a reeded edge. Whether this was done ignorantly or to deliberately sabotage the coin is unknown but making it the same color as the quarter did not help and that was its biggest downfall. Had the coin been smooth-edged, it would not have mattered. In the 19th century, a 20¢ piece was created that was made of silver and although its edge was smooth to distinguish it from a quarter-dollar, it was rejected by the public for its similarity to the quarter-dollar.
So in that regard, the Sacagawea Dollar was the superior dollar coin but its failure was guaranteed because the paper dollar (recommended for elimination before the release of the SBA Dollar as well as recommended prior to the release of every mini-dollar series) remained in circulation and so long as this is so, the mini-dollars will not and cannot circulate and after two years of production, it too was halted but unlike the SBA Dollar, production continued for collectors only on an annual basis so if you have received a Sacagawea Dollar dated 2002-2008 (I've gotten a few), you are the recipient of a dollar coin not released for circulation and which may or may not have been the result of theft. Congratulations.
However, not heeding this advice, the dollar bill remained and Congress authorized the Presidential Dollar series thinking that it was not the continued presence of the dollar bill but rather the lack of a compelling design or set of designs that was hindering dollar coin circulation. The series was passed again released to much fanfare before being generally ignored by the public by the second year...arguably before the end of the first year. The Sacagawea Dollar would also see increased production as a Congressman protected the series from extinction (as his district was where Sacagawea was from) by requiring it continued to be produced in amounts of no less than 20% of the total production of the Presidential Dollars. The mint illegally ignored this provision in 2007 and 2008 without consequence and then the Sacagawea Dollar series (now called Native American Dollars) was amended to have an annually changing American Indian-themed reverse making the 2009-2011 Sac. Dollars fairly available from circulation unlike the ones dated 2002-2008.
So anyways, instead of doing the logical thing and ending the production of the $1 bill (something I would think both Thomas Jefferson advocates and strip clubs would be in favor of seeing as how production the $2 bill would skyrocket), saving tons more money - various estimates exist between $184 million and $522 million dollars a year because dollar bills need more frequent replacement whereas coins last for decades - the dollar coin's production is being curtailed hurting people who had been collecting the Presidential Dollar series at face-value from circulation and causing the same amount of money being currently spent on warehousing to continue. It's honestly ridiculous from a money-saving standpoint seeing as how much more money would be saved by eliminating the dollar bill than would be curtailing production of the dollar coin. From a Republican standpoint, it is bad for them. Their vaunted saint, President Reagan, will now not see the light of circulation in 2016. If the dollar bill were eliminated, production of the coin would increase and would likely begin peaking by 2016, just in time for the Reagan dollar. How could Republicans be against this especially given their attempts to put Reagan on the dime and on the $10 bill (all of which failed...obviously)?
It's also stupid because of the ravages of inflation. The dollar has only about 4¢ of purchasing power when compared to the dollar of 1913 (that is when the Federal Reserve came into existence along with its engineered inflation/debasement of the US dollar). Basically, the dollar is a nickel and you see it in prices everywhere. There is little that can be purchased for less than a dollar these days and it's fairly obvious that the quarter-dollar is the lowest meaningful unit of purchasing power in the US economy. In malls, I'm seeing vending machines accepting $5 bills now ([20¢ of 1913 purchasing power] and which dispense rolled-up dollar bills in change instead of dollar coins and in fact which do not accept dollar coins...sigh) making me think we need a five dollar coin as well but I'll settle for the dollar coin for now.
The fact that I read the common complaint that people don't want to carry a pocketful of heavy change only further points out how little purchasing power coins have. I don't think of people as being lazy when making that complaint. Using change effectively is annoying. You can't buy anything with cents, nickels, and dimes and you can barely buy things with quarters so change has gotten this reputation of being a nuisance. Using change is a form of recycling, making your way back up to a dollar. Pennies, nickels, and dimes are like those tickets you would get at ShowBiz Pizza (or Chuck E. Cheese for the younger readers) for crappy prizes. You hold on to them until you can get your dollar back.
But imagine if the quarter were the smallest denomination and a $10 coin were the largest. With ATMs dispensing $20 as the smallest denomination, you get the impression that the $20 bill is the "dollar" of our time. Anyways, you would not have a pocketful of such change. You might have a "quarter jar", but even one each of such coins (a 25¢, 50¢, $1, $2, $5, and $10) would be $18.75. You can buy things with that whereas in our current coin configuration (1¢, 5¢, 10¢, 25¢, 50¢, and $1), you get only $1.91 with which you could get something, but not much. And if you use only the generally encountered coins (1¢, 5¢, 10¢, 25¢), you only have 41¢. Enjoy your can of corn...or two packages of Nissin soups.
A pocketful of modern coinage is, at best, about a dollar. A pocketful of "proposed change" would be between $20-$50 assuming you would ever let it accumulate to that point to begin with. "Proposed change" would be too valuable to hoard so it would be spent and circulated, like the purpose money was created for. The forced introduction of the dollar coin is very overdue and I have resisted it for many years for the same reasons you likely still do, but I'm ready for it and you should be too. And maybe pulling some dollar coins out of your pocket and realizing you had more money than you had thought would be a nice feeling for you.
I'm gonna go look up my Congressman, and if s/he's Republican, suggest the forced introduction of the dollar coin using the "Reagan push" :-)
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