New dollar coin?

The only way for the dollar coin to become successful is to get vending machines to accept them.

For starters, the machines at the USPS that dispense the dollar coins, should accept them. Otherwise, they're as worthless as the fake quarters from Canada.

The coins also have to be different enough from other coins so as to be unique. This is a real issue for blind people, and a convenience factor for the rest of us.

Sadly, the thing that makes the most sense about a dollar coin is that inflation has made a dollar worth what a nickel was worth to my grandparents. I'd rather see us do something about inflation, but fiscal responsibility hasn't been a congressional trait during my lifetime.

THe problem with change is that it weighs you down to much. I throw all mine in a bag & take it to the bank every once in a while.

This thread is off topic, but as a former coin collector (in my teens), I still have a fondness for coins and "oddball" ($2) currency. I still ask for them at the bank in the hopes of keeping them circulating. My opinion on this is that we need to do away with the paper dollar. I've rarely had any problem finding a machine that accepts the dollar coin (all but one of the local post offices around here take them), as well as the vending machines at the mall. Do away with the dollar, and the coin and $2 bill will begin to circulate. That at least is my $3 worth (one bill and one coin :-) ).

I still remember a few years ago (before the gold dollar, in the mid 90's) I spent an Anothony dollar at the local drug store. The (young, probably just out of high school so the coin was before her time) cashier stared at it and told me to wait, she had to ask the manager if she was allowed to accept this. I just smiled, but was laughing inside. (Actually, kind of sad too.)

Craig (I miss the Eisenhower dollars...those were fun to spend! Made a dollar really feel like a dollar.)

Speaking of clueless cashiers... in Baltimore last year, a guy was actually ARRESTED and locked up for several hours, when a Best Buy employee got suspicious because someone tried to pay his bill with $2 bills.

Snopes has details, on the end of the classic Taco Bell story:

We've already been through all of this, over here on the other side of the Pacific. We HAD a currency similar to yours except we had a 20c coin instead of a quarter, a $2 note that was common and a 2c copper coin as well as the 1c.

First, the $1 note was replaced by a 'gold' coin of medium size. Then a few years later, the $2 note was replaced by a smallish but thick 'gold' coin. Soon after, the rest of the paper notes were replaced with plastic ones and then the 1 and 2c coin were withdrawn from circulation.

Ironically, it was the smallest coins that caused the biggest fuss. It took people (esp. the elderly) some time to get their heads around the idea that when paying cash, one rounded off to the nearest 5c, while all other payments use the actual amount.

Ten years on and nearly all items are priced to the nearest 5c anyway, and everyone wonders what all the fuss was about. Now they are starting to talk about doing away with cash altogether!

Yea, then it will be a microchip implanted in everyone where you pay for stuff by placing your hand on a scanner. Its a Brave New World.... big brother is always watching.

Everyone is waiting for VISA debit card implants, model #101001101.

Right after your telephone implant. TPA

Vending machines at work take $1 coins, which is ok, but the bill changers -only- give $1 coins. If you need to change a $20 to get a candy bar, be prepared to lug around a big heavy bulge of coins in your pocket for the rest of the day.

If you want more fun with money, spray starch your $100's. That'll make the baloney "counterfeit detection pens" show a positive mark. Staples here uses them - and they sell the pens. Gotten them to twig on them a couple of times, went like this:

Chashier swipes the pen on the bill; does a doubletake 'cause I doubt she'd ever seen one make a mark before. Calls over the manager - he looks at the (obviously real) bill and says "OK".

I ask: "What's the pen for?"

"To detect counterfeit bills."

"Did it detect one?"

"Um, no."

"Then what good is the pen? Don't you sell the pens? You mean they don't work?'

"Move on."

Hoping to get a stronger reaction sometime, but I don't get to Staples that often.

GC

-- Roger

Nope, I'm waiting for the model "11001001"...

For those without LA Times logins, use:

Specifically:

"We see this as offering consumers choice," spokeswoman Becky Bailey told The Times.

Screw choice. Choice costs money. Money taken from U.S. taxpayers against their will.

It's as stupid as multiple postal stamps of the same denomination. Multiple stamps that accomplish the same thing costs money. Money to develop and print and distribute the multiple vehicles and do not streamline the operation of the postal service. Money taken from U.S. taxpayers, again, against their will.

The 101001101 model is "new and improved."

Actually, the postal service isn't funded by tax dollars. It's a self supporting entity that (usually) operates at a small profit.

Craig

You've overflowed your byte size. And you missed the reference...

0xc9?

He maintains odd parity.

Phil