US Mint to Try Again with Dollar Coin

The US Mint is going to try to get Americans to use $1 coins yet again. The only policy that has less success is American efforts in Iraq-Nam. The Eisenhower dollar, the Susan B. Anthony, the Sacajawea have all failed. Now, the Mint is calling on George Washington, John Adams, Tom Jefferson and James Madison, the big guns as it were. This won’t work either, but there is a way.

Long ago, when America’s economy was more primitive, gold and silver coins were the only game in tow. A silver dollar, a golden eagle ($10) and double eagle ($20) were common enough. Then, along came the depression, and FDR took the gold and silver out of money. Today’s fiat currency makes a lot of modern commerce possible, but money is now not just cash but the 0s and 1s of the computer screen. Indeed, William Gibson, the science fiction writer who coined the term “cyberspace,” defined it as the place where one’s money is before the ATM spits out cash.

Still, for small purchases, or illegal ones, there is nothing like currency. The trouble with paper money, though, is its lifetime, measured in months. Coins last years. Thus, the US government would like Americans to use the $1 coin. These things are so unpopular, though, that the only Americans who have them get them as change at certain commuter train stations. And they are taken to the bank or spent as quickly as possible. The reason is the dollar bill. So long as Americans have a choice, they won’t adopt the coin. They just don’t like it.

A couple decades ago, the Bank of England got rid of the £1 note replacing it with the pound coin. Suddenly, there was no choice (except in Scotland where the local banks still issued the note). People hated it. Depending on one’s politics it was dubbed a “Maggie” or a “Scargill” because the new coin was thick, brassy, rough around the edges and no one liked it. (The Scargill name also mean the 50p coin could be call “Arthur Scargill,” after the leader of the miners’ union, pronounced “Arf a Scargill”). It was forever getting lost behind the dresser and falling out the hole in one’s pocket. It wasn’t uncommon to discover one had 15 quid in one’s jeans -- something that wouldn’t happen if it were tucked into a wallet (but most welcome).

The dollar bill is not as useful as it once was thanks to inflation. Indeed, the coin might help bring the $2 bill into greater use. But putting out a new coin with a new president’s image every three months won’t work. Killing off the paper dollar will.

© Copyright 2006 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

Home