Congress looks at doing away with the $1 bill

[pwaldo]

http://news.yahoo.com/congress-looks...nlwYWdl;_ylv=3

American consumers have shown about as much appetite for the $1 coin as kids do their spinach. They may not know what's best for them either. Congressional auditors say doing away with dollar bills entirely and replacing them with dollar coins could save taxpayers some $4.4 billion over the next 30 years.

Vending machine operators have long championed the use of $1 coins because they don't jam the machines, cutting down on repair costs and lost sales. But most people don't seem to like carrying them. In the past five years, the U.S. Mint has produced 2.4 billion Presidential $1 coins. Most are stored by the Federal Reserve, and production was suspended about a year ago.

The latest projection from the Government Accountability Office on the potential savings from switching to dollar coins entirely comes as lawmakers begin exploring new ways for the government to save money by changing the money itself.

The Mint is preparing a report for Congress showing how changes in the metal content of coins could save money.

The last time the government made major metallurgical changes in U.S. coins was nearly 50 years ago when Congress directed the Mint to remove silver from dimes and quarters and to reduce its content in half dollar coins. Now, Congress is looking at new changes in response to rising prices for copper and nickel.

Wow saving $4.4 billion over the next 30 years! The US hands out $50 billion a year in foreign aid so if they needed to save a couple billion they could EASILY just do it by cutting foreign aid and they wouldn't have to spread it out over 30 years to try and make the number sound somewhat impressive.

[habsheaven]

Before you know it they will be proposing switching to the metric system too. lol

[TyrantsASupremeBeing]

It costs .03 to make a dollar bill, how much to make metal coins ?!?!?

[Wickabee]

Less, apparently.

[TyrantsASupremeBeing]

Then you would be wrong !!!! According to About.com / coins, it costs .16 to make a dollar coin so keeping the dollar makes sense to me
http://coins.about.com/b/2008/05/10/...t-us-coins.htm

[Wickabee]

Well if it's on About.com

Quick question though, how do they know how much it costs to make a coin that doesn't exist yet?

[pwaldo]

It doesn't cost less to make a coin out of metal. It is assumed that the cost will go down over time because a typical dollar bill's lifespan is pretty low but I still get quarters from the stores that were made in the 1970s. So if they have to replace a bill every 5 years on average but a coin every 25 years then projected over many years it becomes "cheaper".

The problem is this isn't taking into account the public's disdain for coins in general. People don't want to carry around a lot of heavy coins and strippers don't like them either I would assume. This is another example of something that would work in theory but it doesn't work in the real world.

[mrveggieman]

Yeah imagine going to your favorite adult entertainment establishment with a pocket full of silver dollars and making it rain.

[ensbergcollector]

it works in the real "world" just not in america

[BGT Masters]

Well if it's on About.com

Quick question though, how do they know how much it costs to make a coin that doesn't exist yet?

That is simple, lets say you want to put on a porch roof. You haven't built it yet, but figure out your blue prints and what materials you'll need, what they cost and it is pretty easy to figure out how much it'll cost to build it.