Why The New Dollar Coins Won't Fly

[The Rabbi]

Here's the new Adams dollar coin:



Here's the Peace dollar from the 20s:



Which one looks like currency and which one like tokens for Roy's House of Thrills?

[glockfan.45]

 "IN GOD WE TRVST"  . I do like the design of the old coins much better however.

[roo_ster]

At least they put an American citizen on the dollar coin this time, rather than Sacajewia.

Good Gooberment types are always pimping a dollar coin, but the rest of us disdain them.  I need more change like I need a hole in the head.

[Perd Hapley]

Excellent.  You can pay me one dollar coin for each hole I drill in your head.   

[MattC]

Dollar coins make sense because they save the government money, but they aren't user friendly and that's why they fail.  Paper bills are just so much easier to carry due to weight and flexibility.

And Rabbi is absolutely right about the game token appearance.  It's mainly the $1 stamp rather than spelling it out.

Something I noticed right away was the lack of "In God We Trust" and "E Pluribus Unum" in the pictures.  I did a little Google search and it turns out that both of these will be printed on the rim of the coin instead.

[meinbruder]

The only problem I've ever had with a dollar coin is the telling the difference from a quarter without looking at it.  On the other hand, I've received more than a dollar in change from a less than a dollar purchase on more than one occasion.  The last time I saw any here in Portland, they were being kicked out of the light rail ticket vendors and automated post office equipment.  The look on peoples faces was priceless when I commented on the Wojohowicsz dollars.
}:)>

[K Frame]

Every dollar coin the government comes out with is fated to fail until Congress has the testicular fortitude to eliminate the worthless dollar bill.

[Manedwolf]

At least they put an American citizen on the dollar coin this time, rather than Sacajewia.

I do hope that was sarcasm, being that her people were here first and all...

[Perd Hapley]

What do you mean, sarcasm?  She wasn't an American citizen, so far as I know.  But I don't understand the objection either. 

[The Rabbi]

"IN GOD WE TRVST"  . I do like the design of the old coins much better however.

Yeah, the archaizing tendency was to substitute v for u, just like the Romans did.  It was classy.

[HankB]

Another difference between the "new" dollar coin and the Peace dollar from the 1920s . . . the latter was made of a material that gave it an intrinsic value.

[Creeping Incrementalism]

Every dollar coin the government comes out with is fated to fail until Congress has the testicular fortitude to eliminate the worthless dollar bill.

Personally, I would like to see the trend go the other way.  Make paper notes for sub-dollar amounts.

[Art Eatman]

Yuck!  I've dealt with paper small-money in several foreign countries.  Yuck again!  Terrible idea!

Sacajawea?  Hey, she was here first, wasn't she?  Me, I'd figure her citizenship was a given!  Lewis and Clark were illegal immigrants.  The advance guard of a pack of thieves.

But I prefer the sculpture of the Morgan dollar to the Peace dollar.

I grew up with real silver money, and half-dollars were in regular circulation.  Silver dollars, not so much.  Silver dollars were heavy on one's pocket lining.  Made holes.

Now that our socialist policies have pretty much wiped out the buying power, I don't see the point of a dollar coin, other than some sort of unworldly view of the world of money...

Art   

[Perd Hapley]

Sacajawea?  Hey, she was here first, wasn't she?  Me, I'd figure her citizenship was a given!  Lewis and Clark were illegal immigrants.

No, they were not illegal immigrants.  They were emissaries of the U.S. govt, and stopped to treat with the various tribes or nations they encountered.  At best, the other European powers might have protested their presence on land they claimed as their own.  If the expedition broke any native "laws," it would be interesting to learn of them, and why they were granted "amnesty" by the native leaders which they encountered.   

[doczinn]

I like the idea of a dollar coin - but you've got to be able to tell the difference, with a hand in your pocket. Personally, I'd go smaller, not larger, and make it the circumference of a dime, but about 3 times as thick.

[Sindawe]

Something I noticed right away was the lack of "In God We Trust" and "E Pluribus Unum" in the pictures.  I did a little Google search and it turns out that both of these will be printed on the rim of the coin instead.

Of course such phrases are stamped on the rim.  It is a symbolic way of marginalizing basic American ideals.

As others have noted, it looks like a game token.  Also reminds me of some of the Euro coins I've seen.

[K Frame]

Something I noticed right away was the lack of "In God We Trust" and "E Pluribus Unum" in the pictures.  I did a little Google search and it turns out that both of these will be printed on the rim of the coin instead.

Of course such phrases are stamped on the rim.  It is a symbolic way of marginalizing basic American ideals.

As others have noted, it looks like a game token.  Also reminds me of some of the Euro coins I've seen.

Uhm.... Yeah.

Whatever. 

[HankB]

I grew up with real silver money, and half-dollars were in regular circulation. 

Art, are you SURE the coins you grew up with were dollars? I thought in your day they might've been denarii . . . 

[lee n. field]

Can you say "brass dollar"?

More dead presidents.  Bah!

[Matthew Carberry]

Why they won't catch on?

two words: not garter friendly

If you aren't on the meatrack and toss one up on stage when she zigs instead of zags?

-bang- somebody's got a chipped tooth. 

Spike heel comes down on top of one during a pivot?  Acrylic stage, oil, little metal disk?  That's a recipe for a twisted ankle or worse.

Won't someone think of the strippers? 

[K Frame]

"Spike heel comes down on top of one during a pivot?"

She should stay on the pole where she damned well belongs...

[Matthew Carberry]

"Spike heel comes down on top of one during a pivot?"

She should stay on the pole where she damned well belongs...

There's far more to the art than just the pole dancing Mike.   

There's the perfunctory dance steps completed by the reverse naked toe touch and the meatrack crawl with complementary bosom face massage for a couple examples.

Which leads to another coin-related problem.  Knee bruising.

[Firethorn]

Due to sheer inertia alone any dollar coin is doomed to obscurity unless they eliminate the dollar bill.

Personally, I'd eliminate the penny, substitute the dollar coin, then re-release the $2 bill.

I figure that I've just eliminated about 50% of the paper in people's wallets as well as chopped change in pockets by 5-10%.

[K Frame]

"There's far more to the art than just the pole dancing Mike."

Art is what one makes of it, how one views it.

Charlize Theoron twiring on the pole? Art.

Paris Hilton twirling on the pole? Obscene.

You twirling on the pole? The end of the world as we know it.

Get off the stage, you hump!

[natedog]

Value is always relative; nothing has intrinsic value.