Here’s something else I’ve been meaning to blog about for months. In January 2007 the US Mint released the first of the US President Dollar Coins. They started advertising in four target cities, one of them being Grand Rapids MI.
I think these are cool for a bunch of reasons. One is that they last a LOT longer than paper dollars. When they came up with this idea in 1995, they estimated that they could save 500 million dollars per year, simply not having to recycle paper dollars every year. It’s unknown how much now, but assumed to be more.
They’re also releasing a different coin for each dead president. At this point they’re ending with Ford in 2016. I assume you know a president cannot be on a coin until he’s dead. I anticipate getting a collectors book for this, and collecting the whole set.
So, do your part to help the economy, and start using the coins!
The problem with coins is transport. Imagine having a $50 bill in your wallet vs. having 50 $1 coins in your pocket. That’s why all of the efforts to go to coins haven’t work over the last 1/4 century.
However, you know what is lighter than both coin and paper?…plastic. You can have a single card that can carry tens of thousands of dollars easily…And many people already have it.
We need to move to electronic currency.
Thoughts?
I think to make that analogy work you have to compare 50 $1 bills and 50 $1 coins. Neither is really workable.
As far as electronic currency goes, I’m enough of a privacy freak that sometimes I just like to buy things with cash to stay off the grid. The world is too electronic to go all cash to avoid problems with crashes, but I still think it’s a good backup.
It’s already been two years, and I haven’t seen *any* of these yet. What gives there?
Apparently vendors don’t like them. I first saw them at the gas station next to my work. The manager was bagging them up to take to the bank. She hated them, and never gave them out in change. The same goes for the doughnut shop near my house.
Funny, we have had the Loonie coin ($1.00) for quite some time in Canada. I have to agree that it can certainly weigh you down though…. And we have twoonies ($2.00) as well. They are just as heavy. The issue that I have with them is that you can be walking or maybe I should say clinking around with $20 in your pockets and not even know it!