Mountains Of Unused $1 Coins
Wow.From Bankrate.
The federal government will stop minting unwanted $1 coins, the White House said Tuesday. The move will save an estimated $50 million a year.
Earlier this year, we reported on the mountain of $1 coins sitting unused in government vaults. The pile-up—an estimated 1.4 billion coins—was caused by a 2005 law that ordered the minting of coins honoring each U.S. president.
We calculated that the unwanted coins had cost taxpayers some $300 million dollars to make. There were so many coins piling up that the Federal Reserve was redesigning a vault in Texas to help hold them all.
We got to see a vault in Baltimore. It was the size of a soccer field, filled with bags of dollar coins.
I’ll bet that they could clear those warehouses if they gave them away.
It’s encouraging that the current administration is putting an end to another inane initiative promoted by their predecessor that winds up saving us $50 million a year.
I’ll bet that they could clear those warehouses if they gave them away.
Ya think?
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on February 17, 2012 at 2032 hrs
Darn you Owen. You’ve just given Obama the perfect idea for the October surprise. He’ll open up those warehouses next fall and give away plastic pails. Fill up as many as you can carry. Stimulus II.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on February 17, 2012 at 2122 hrs
You used to be able to buy coins at face value using credit cards giving air miles, and the Mint would ship them to you for free. I know of people that got free flights to Europe/Asia/Hawaii for free by doing this, but the Mint shut off the gravy train last summer.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on February 17, 2012 at 2219 hrs
Darn you Owen. You’ve just given Obama the perfect idea for the October surprise. He’ll open up those warehouses next fall and give away plastic pails. Fill up as many as you can carry. Stimulus II.
Billions given out, but since nobody would really spend them & actually cause any stimulative effect, it really would be just like the first stimulus.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on February 17, 2012 at 2245 hrs
Or we could save $180 million a year, get rid of our ridiculously outdated dollar bills and force everyone to use coins. You know, like the rest of civilization does.
Posted by Recess Supervisor on February 17, 2012 at 2256 hrs
Gotta agree with RS on this one.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on February 18, 2012 at 0833 hrs
“...force everyone to use coins.”
That is civilization?
Forcing crappy choice B (coins) on people when they clearly like choice A. (paper)
Typical liberalism. Force people to an option they would not choose to make.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on February 18, 2012 at 0842 hrs
Don’t lie, Kevin, we all know you’re just opposed to saving taxpayers $180MM/year (according to RS).
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on February 18, 2012 at 0911 hrs
VA Politico
As usual, I’m confused by your somewhat, logic defying, point.
We save $50 million a year by just getting rid of coins. (Good thing)
It’s $180 million a year cost for paper dollar bills.
Unless we are going to a total cashless society the government needs to provide either a $1 paper bill OR a $1 coin.
I’m fairly certain that if we got rid of $1 bill printing and minted enough $1 coins to compensate, the cost will be far more than $180 million a year. Coins are more expensive than paper, by far, in terms of materials.
Lets just get rid of the $50 million per year expense.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on February 18, 2012 at 0923 hrs
Relax, Kevin. VA is just a libtroll that sits in the far left corner of the room and takes illogical shots at people in order to poke them with a stick. Essentially it’s ideological masterbation - he doesn’t care about the process, just the reaction. Don’t give him his climax.
The reason all those $1 coins sit in a soccer field sized vault is because most money handling machines aren’t engineered to handle the coins, only the dollar bill. I’ll believe we’re serious about eliminating the dollar bill when we eliminate the penny, which costs over .06 cents each to produce.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on February 18, 2012 at 0933 hrs
I’m fairly certain that if we got rid of $1 bill printing and minted enough $1 coins to compensate, the cost will be far more than $180 million a year. Coins are more expensive than paper, by far, in terms of materials.
It might cost more, but the $1 coins last a LOT longer than a paper $1 bill lasts. So in ten years, I’d wager that there’s a decent ROI on switching over. I’ve never had problems with either the coin or the dollar. But I would like to see us pick one and stay with it.Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on February 18, 2012 at 1129 hrs
Jason,
That is possible, but it gets back to the original idea…people still prefer the paper!
If we want to save money, let’s stop wasting money on the penny.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on February 18, 2012 at 1139 hrs
Jason is dead on in #11. The whole reason for the relatively high ROI on the coins is that the average coin stays in circulation ten times longer than the average dollar bill (which is replaced by the treasury every three years). Allowing for inflation, it costs over $1.50 to keep a paper dollar in circulation for thirty years. It costs a scant fraction of that to produce a single dollar coin. And the rapid natural rate of replacement for dollar bills allows them to be quickly and easily removed from circulation.
What people prefer is an exceedingly costly preference in a time when government shouldn’t be indulging such folly. And yes, the penny also should have been done away with long ago in retail transactions. Just round everything to the nearest nickel. The sheer randomization of product combinations and prices makes it impossible for sellers to game that system anyway.
If our government can’t make the easy decisions to save taxpayer dollars, why should we ever expect it to make the hard decisions?
Posted by Recess Supervisor on February 18, 2012 at 1252 hrs
RS - usually so pragmatic. Currency above all else is for enabling transactions. People simply don’t like coins in general - by and large, they are used for change of larger transactions rather than directly purchasing anything. Sure coins are more durable - but much less convenient. What percentage of coins in “circulation” are sitting in a piggy bank or coffee cup somewhere? Sure metal lasts longer than paper - but it’s especially true when said metal sits for days, months and years at a time vs. paper that’s exchanging hands much more frequently. Who wants to carry around that weight & jingling? Sure, it’s a shame that it costs more to make - but it’s like buying a gallon of mayo or something at a bulk store. It’s only cheaper if you actually use it.
Of course ultimately, these are all short-term problems. I’ve seen numbers from the Federal Reserve that almost two-thirds of all transactions are electronic (credit & debit card over 50% and the remaining being other electronic transfers). If the Federal Government is really concerned about the costs of minting/printing currency (I don’t believe they’re truly concerned over the cost of anything) then they’d be working to aid & speed the transition away from hard currency entirely.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on February 18, 2012 at 1408 hrs
Cashless society? Good to have an electronic record of every single transaction? Let’s also get rolling with the mandatory gun registry too?
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on February 18, 2012 at 1502 hrs
Locke is exactly right. The dollar coin sits because the dollar coin lacks utility. Eliminating the dollar bill will result in no dollar bills. The dollar coin will continue to sit idly.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on February 18, 2012 at 1553 hrs
Not to worry -HR 2977- yet another $1 coin is being proposed in congress ..... but this time to replace the paper dollar bill
See section 3 - http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=h112-2977
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on February 19, 2012 at 1850 hrs
What we need is new currency. It would be minted as one New Dollar equals ten Old Dollars.
Then, a New Dime coin would be a “dollar” coin. And you could actually buy sutff (a candy bar?) for a (new) nickel.
Which is to say, a New Dollar would be worth about as much as a dollar was worth ... in 1947.
Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on February 20, 2012 at 1258 hrs
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