Can a dollar coin make it - probably not if this is any indication...

Blade

Folks - This is a good one.

I have seen various threads on whether a dollar coin could circulate if everyone gave it a fighting chance. You will all appreciate this story.

So I flew into Boston today for business. I took a cab and the driver hit one of the toll booths coming into the city. He gives the attendant a $20 for the $4.50 toll. To st the stage, he has pretty good English but a pretty thick Northern Africa / Middle Eastern accent. I hear him say "What are you doing, trying to rip me off with this quarter?". The toll booth attendant said "Look at it - it's a dollar". He looked at it and went into a serious rant "You can't screw me... I'm going to report you". The attendant said "Ask anyone in Americas - that coin is a dollar". The driver says "You are ripping me off - I will never go through your booth again" First, like the attendant really cares. Second, I asked him to show me the coin. Yep - It was a Sac. I explained that it was a dollar even though it was about the same size as a quarter. I told him to make sure they are gold color and he said he didn't trust it. Go figure.

Looks like the mint has a lot of work to do to convince some people to accept these coins.

BlueCole

If he can't read "one dollar" on the sac, how can he read the road signs?

B.

(i hope it says "one dollar" on the sac, otherwise i'll have to pull the toejam off my tonsils.)

B.

Blade

B - I assume it said one dollar - if not I would be glad to buy it as an error.

We were driving at night. You couldn't see the details on the coin in the dark. And typical of a Boston cabby - he was a complete maniac. I'm GLAD he didn't try to read the coin or I wold be a road pizza.

All - Not slamming the cabby here - just making a point that despite mint marketing efforts, many people don't know about Sacs, have never seen one and may not understand that a dollar coin even exists.

jtryka

It would only work if it was bimetallic and they withdrew the dollar bill. Otherwise its a worthless effort. The main problem is that Americans are so ingrained with the sizes of coins, they've been the same since what, 1853? Yet somehow the mint believes that if they keep everything the same, and change the dimensions of the largest value coin people will just be thrilled with it. Of course it's confusing. Imagine if they tried to change the dimension of the dime when the silver was removed in 1965? After all the only reason it's smaller than the nickel is that it used to be silver (hence worth more than nickel despite its size). That would have been pure chaos!

JD

Being from Boston I can picture the exact situation, my sympathies to you. Were you at the Sumner or William's tunnel? I agree they need to get rid of the bill for a $1 coin to take hold. I also think the $1 & 25 cent coin sizes are too similar. One will need to change. Better yet, they should keep the $1 coin at it's current size, retire the quarter after 2008 and reduce the 50 cent piece in size. Then you'd have 1, 5, 10, 50 & 100 cent coins. That's all you need. That's what Japan has (plus a $5 coin) and Japan's a total cash society, that combination works very well for the world's second largest economy...it would work very well in the 1st.

airplanenut

<< <i>If he can't read "one dollar" on the sac, how can he read the road signs? >>

This is why we learn shapes/colors of signs in Drivers Ed

DIMEMAN

Never understood the problem with the quarter and dollar being the same size. The 1$ and 2$ and 5$ and 10$ and 20$ and 50$ and 100$ and 1000$ bills are all the same size and everyone seems to know the difference there????????????????????????????

But your right, the only way people will stop using the dollar bill is for the government to take them away from us plain and simple. Heck I don't use them (dollar coins) because they are so butt ugly.