When paper dollars are squared up against $1 coins, who comes out the winner and why? Clearly, as the "fun facts" money table shows, the one dollar bill wins out as the currency of choice by a wide, wide margin.
$1 Bill versus $1 Coin: Which is the Winner Today?
|
Although the table lists individual advantages bills have over $1 coins, when taken in totality it’s much harder to picture a winning scenario for dollar coins outside of the collector market while paper dollars exist.
In recent news, it was announced that the United States Mint has enlisted the help of GolinHarris to create a campaign promoting the use of $1 coins. Wendy Love, Golin EVP, was quoted as saying,
"We really need a compelling reason for people to change their behavior towards the dollar coin in general.
This campaign is designed to focus on the fact that these coins are 100% recyclable and that they last for a long time, which saves natural resources and money.
The thing we are testing with this campaign is the idea that there is a different sort of benefit with using this coin."
Will a public relations push emphasizing the environmental and economic benefits of coins over paper money work?
Will consumers stop using $1 bills because marketing ads tell them coins make the world a better place to live?
If paper dollar bills are a terribly bad idea today, why doesn’t the government stop making them?
- ANA Bebee Collection of Paper Money Gallery
- PMG to Grade ANA Bebee Paper Money Collection
- Ponterio Baltimore Currency Auction Features 825+ Lots of World Paper Money
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
$1 Coins are much more fun to collect than $1 Bills. But $1 Blls are much more easier to use.
/* “Blls [sic] are much more easier [sic] to use.” */
Please tell me that after a vending machine has rejected the last 4 $1 bills you tried to use because they’re too wrinkled, the wrong side up, etc. etc. – or while you’re trying to get on a bus in the rain while the farebox keeps spitting back every bill fed into it.
Get rid of the $1 bill, make more $2 bills and a better-sized half dollar, or even make a $2 coin. England, Australia, Canada, and the EU have all done so and it works there. That’s almost a billion people who have no problems with using coins – are they somehow all wrong?
If the Mint were really interested in a “campaign promoting the use of $1 coins”, they wouldn’t CHARGE citizens more than $1 to get their hands on “Dollar” coins. The Mint is treating these beautiful coins as collectors items, yet producing them as if people use them. I love these coins and would gladly be rid of filthy crinkly paper dollars, but it’s so hard to find any at local banks and credit unions.
@Tom
It’s easy to procure $1 coins at face value directly from the mint. There’s an article about it here.
Dollar coins are so much more convenient for so many things. I use them to tip street musicians–dollar bills would just blow away. I wish that parking meters and laundry machines would take them so I wouldn’t have to carry so many d-mn quarters. I wish people would use them on the bus so I don’t have to stand there waiting while little old ladies feed in their crumpled bills.
The Mint needs to stop printing dollar bills. That’s the only solution.
/* “The Mint needs to stop printing dollar bills.” */
Uh, the Mint only makes coins. The BEP prints currency.
And remember that here, unlike most countries, decisions about coins and currency have to be approved by Congress where every one-term back-bencher gets to have their say. Whenever anyone makes a serious proposal to stop printing $1 bills, the lobbyists from Crane Paper and Save the Greenback go ballistic and the politicians play right along. The law that authorized the Presidential dollars had a clause inserted into it mandating continued production of dollar bills!
In fact meddling’s been going on for over a century, like when the Virginia delegation hamstrung Congress for weeks because they were afraid Jefferson’s image might be removed from the nickel during the Lewis and Clark Bicentennial, or the fulminations and grandstanding over whether the lettering for “In God We Trust” is sufficiently prominent … or the flap over the “obscene” Standing Liberty quarters in 1916, or whether Victor David Brenner should have put his initials on the cent in 1909 … the list goes on and on.
/* “That’s the only solution.” */
You’ve got my vote there!
Our government just needs to stop making paper dollars and only make coins. Maybe the federal reserve needs to tell the banks to use them … you should not have to ask for them.
Canada does not use the paper dollar and only has 1 and 2 dollar coins. I had no problem with it. You have only one or two in your pocket at one time. I find that people have a hard time accepting change…and I don’t mean the change in your pocket. Get rid of the paper dollar.