Many newspapers over the weekend carried a lengthy Associated Press story on a pending push for still another $1 coin to replace the dollar bill in efforts to “save taxpayers some $4.4 billion over the next 30 years,” notes Grumpy Editor.
The move comes despite past efforts (some continuing) to go metal rather than paper for $1 have proven to be unpopular with the public and businesses.
Over the past four decades, attempts to utilize coins in place of $1 bills have been snubbed.
With $1 in coins rather than in paper, it means carrying extra weight, now in addition to cell phones and other modern gear. Imagine the additional pounds in lugging $15 or $20 in $1 coins.
The latest effort to go to $1 via coins route stems as lawmakers --- rather than putting a critical or investigative eye on fraud, waste and duplication in federal operations --- explore ways for the government to save money. So, for them, switching to more durable $1 coins seems one way to go.
Along with a change in composition, the $1 metal version would require new equipment to be purchased or existing production methods overhauled --- using taxpayer funds, of course.
Most noteworthy (not mentioned in the AP story), is that the Susan B. Anthony $1 coin, minted from 1979 to 1981 with another try in 1999, fizzled.
Circulation of the Sacagawea dollar coin, minted since 2002, also has been unpopular.
Then there was the Eisenhower $1 coin, issued from 1971 to 1978, which saw limited circulation.
But an Eisenhower coin will return in 2015, as part of the Presidential $1 Coin Program. Coins in that program now are minted only for collectors.
Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D., N.Y.) sums up the feelings of many who frown on the $1 coin:
“If the people don’t want it and they don’t want to use it, why in the world are we even talking about changing it?”
