Dollar Coins Still Not Catching On

The Detroit Free Press: Congress explores ditching $1 bills for $1 coins

About every year it seems, we get the story of the Mint pushes for the dollar bill to be replaced with the dollar coin. Just like last year, it doesn't seem to be catching on with the public or Congress.

While its true that switching from the dollar bills to the coins will save money - allegedly about $146 Million dollars per year according to the GAO and the Mint, people just prefer the one dollar note to the coins. (I do love how they stretch the time period to 30 years so they can claim it will allegedly save 4.4 Billion dollars).

Do note that the $146,000,000 in alleged savings is the equivalent to about 24 minutes of federal government spending this year (Total federal spending divided by minutes per year). If the committee took any longer than 24 minutes to discuss it, they were wasting more time than the issue was worth.

And, just as with the Susan B. Anthony and Sacagawea dollars, the President's series of Dollar coins that first were released in 2007 are still not catching on:

Americans spurn the $1 coins featuring images of U.S. presidents. About $1 billion worth of the coins sits in government vaults, unwanted.

The real interesting part is the claim this year that the dollar coin costs 13 cents to manufacture, while last year the cost was quoted as 30 cents.

Is this the case of some great new manufacturing efficiency or did someone get their facts wrong?

In any case, until there is a decision for a total withdrawal of Dollar Bills from circulation, don't expect the coins to catch on any time soon.