Will The One Dollar Coin Ever Catch On?
Most likely, you imagine a paper dollar if you think about a dollar. A dollar, like all paper money, fits in your pocket with other dollars without being cumbersome. What if we didn’t have paper currency? What if there was a one dollar coin instead of the paper dollar? Would people respond positively to the one dollar coin or would they reject it as they have in the past? In reality, the majority of individuals like paper bills and prefer to just collect dollar coins instead of spend them.
The Silver Dollar
The one and only good quality that has come from the one dollar coin is the way that it looks. There have been various versions of the dollar coin in the past. There was the silver dollar, which has been around for a long time. You rarely see the silver dollar coin any longer as most of them are in the hands of collectors or have been melted down for their silver content. When you do find a silver one dollar coin, it’s almost as if you’ve found a treasure. You can either save it as part of your collection or you can spend it, as it is worth the same as your one dollar paper notes.
The Sacagawea Dollar
More recently, they have released a gold colored one dollar coin. This coin is called the Sacagawea dollar, named after the famous Native American woman printed on it. This one dollar coin quickly fizzled out, just like the silver dollar, and today it’s very rare to see one in circulation. The Sacagawea, too, is most likely in the hands of collectors. This coin probably didn’t gain acceptance for the same reason that the silver dollar coin never caught on. It is too thick and will not fold up like dollar bills. So, will the one dollar coin ever catch on? Maybe, but the government may be going about it the wrong way.
The Presidential Dollar
In 2005, President Bush signed the Presidential $1 Coin Act authorizing the United States Mint to strike $1 coins honoring America’s Presidents in the order in which they served. This coin is similar to the Sacagawea Dollar in size and color. These dollar coins began circulation in 2007 with the George Washington coin. The Presidential coins are seldom seen in circulation for many of the reasons that the Sacagawea Dollar wasn’t accepted by the general public.
Europeans Have It Right
Europe will abandon the paper currency if they begin to distribute coins like the one dollar coin so that people can’t have a choice. If the United States government wants people to use the one dollar coin, they are going to have to stop giving people a choice. People are going to want the less cumbersome, foldable version of the dollar, the paper dollar, leaving the one dollar coin to the collectors.