Citizens Against Government Waste: "urges the administration and Congress to increase the circu
Goldbully
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Today, Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) issued a spending cut alert for the dollar coin. CAGW urges the administration and Congress to increase the circulation of the $1 coin and phase out the use of the $1 bill.
Thirteen years ago, Congress passed the U.S. $1 Coin Act of 1997, giving the U.S. Treasury the authority to get $1 coins into
circulation. The advantages of using a $1 coin are substantial. According to an April 7, 2000 Government Accountability Office (GAO) report : , replacing the $1 bill with a coin would save taxpayers $522.2 million per year. The savings would likely be even higher today.
Most of the cost savings associated with coins comes from their comparative durability. The Bureau of Engraving and Printing produces approximately 3.4 billion $1 bills each year, each of which costs 4.2 cents to manufacture. Each bill has a lifespan of approximately 21 months. By comparison, the $1 coin costs slightly more to produce - 12 to 20 cents - but has a lifespan of 30 years or more. The $1 coin saves money because it is cheaper to handle and process. Mass transit agencies have found that processing $1 coins costs 83 percent less than processing $1 bills. Other benefits include savings on the processing of money by banks and businesses. Coins cost 30 cents per thousand pieces to process at Federal Reserve Banks, compared to 75 cents per thousand for $1 notes. Large-scale private-sector users reap even more savings.
Processing bills costs them more than 500 percent above processing coins. Coins are also much more difficult to counterfeit.
The Federal Reserve and the U.S. Mint are required by law to remove barriers to the $1 coin´s circulation. However, the Federal Reserve issues the United States´ paper currency and doesn´t like the competition from the $1 coin, which is issued by the Mint. The Fed´s leaders have instituted regulations and red tape that restrict access to $1 coins for banks, businesses, and individual Americans.
The elimination of the $1 bill has been among CAGW´s targets for spending cuts and is included in CAGW´s Prime Cuts : database, a compendium of 763 waste-cutting recommendations that would save taxpayers $350 billion in the first year and $2.2 trillion over five years.
"While Prime Cuts is not the only answer, it will help reduce the $1.3 trillion deficit, the $13.7 trillion national debt, and keep more money in the hands of individuals and small businesses that can more directly address the stubborn 9.6 percent jobless rate," said CAGW President Tom Schatz. "Taxpayers now recognize that President Obama and his congressional allies will say anything to sound fiscally rational, but their actions tell a different story. The spendthrifts in Washington, D.C. should read and adopt every recommendation in the 2010 Prime Cuts," Schatz concluded.
Citizens Against Government Waste is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating waste, fraud, mismanagement and abuse in government.
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I agree, Make a 5 dollar coin with Reagan on it and do away with the one, two. and five bill's entirely. The five dollar coin would be like a ten dollar bill used to be 10 years ago.
People would get used to it and it would save us billions of dollars.
<< <i>The five dollar coin would be like a ten dollar bill used to be 10 years ago. >>
Are you sure about that?
Worry is the interest you pay on a debt you may not owe.
"Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value---zero."----Voltaire
"Everything you say should be true, but not everything true should be said."----Voltaire
<< <i>
<< <i>The five dollar coin would be like a ten dollar bill used to be 10 years ago. >>
Are you sure about that?
My point was that a ten dollar bill ten years ago would have had the purchasing power of FOUR five dollar coins today.
Worry is the interest you pay on a debt you may not owe.
"Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value---zero."----Voltaire
"Everything you say should be true, but not everything true should be said."----Voltaire
We each have our own points of reference about how much money was worth; we each remember different times, largely because we are not all the same age, but also because of our different life experiences. But, we pretty much all remember one dollar being worth more then than it is now. For me, I remember being a child and a young teenager in the eighties. Toys and books that cost about $8 to $10 back then, are, well, out of production today, but their modern counterparts generally cost over $40, or an inflation greater than 400% over the last 25 years. By that, a nickel today is worth scarcely more than a penny back then--and there was talk even then about phasing out one cent coins from mintage.
To make a dollar coin work, one would pretty much have to stop paper dollar bills, something that will likely produce an outcry as it pulls people out of their familiar and comfortable way of doing things. But, it'll also be a wake-up call that fixing the government budget really is about our own daily lives, that it's not just something about other people on the news. A Reagan $5 is an interesting suggestion, as Reagan certainly has been on the waiting list of coin-worthy figures. But, eliminating pennies and nickels removes Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln from coinage, not counting the Presidential Dollar series. If we must continue with portraits of Presidents, Founding Fathers, and other historic figures, a Lincoln $5 would be the least shocking, since Lincoln is already on the $5 bill. Washington already has the quarter, so a Reagan dollar coin would be a plausible replacement for the convoluted mix of two different running series right now, with ever-changing designs more fitting postage stamps than numismatics. Admittedly, I like the Sacagawea dollars--I'd rather keep those and drop the Presidential dollar series.
A $5 coin would need to be distinguishable from the $1--maybe the double colored ring we see in Two Euro or Canadian Two dollar coins, or a coin the size of the Kennedy half but in the "golden" color scheme of the dollar.
It would actually make money via seigniorage (I'm sure I spelled that wrong)
and it would reduce the amount of paper we're borrowing from the federal reserve.
I'm already actively avoiding items made in China, which is hard to do and more expensive most of the time, but worth it.
I think I'll actively seek to spend dollar coins, instead of paper dollars.
http://coinflation.com/
It isn't that we don't have enough of the coins already minted, that is for sure.
Banks would be urged not to cash mass roll quantities. People would havfe to spend them.
circulation of the $1 coin much easier since it opens up another slot in cash registers.
A small amount of additional savings can be made by switching nickel composition to
aluminum.
The public will come to love the new dollar coin so much that they'll want a $2 coin in
the near future and possibly even a $5 coin. The vending industry will grow by leaps
and bounds and consumers will have more convenience and be exposed to less disease
as is carried on paper currency.
It's not natural for small transactions to be made with paper. It's not sensible to have
to get out your wallet to buy a newspaper or soft drink and it's not healthy. There
will be an increase in the sales of small items if people have a viable means to tender
payment.
<< <i>Coins are better for your back too! Just ask any chiropractor, those bulky wallets in your posterior pocket from filling them with paper dollars throw your back out of alignment over time from sitting on them. If you added a two dollar coin in addition to the current dollar coins, you will also cut down on the number of coins required to make change and thus carry. >>
Yes. Very true.
Trying to keep your wallet thin when it's full of what is essentially small change
is a hassel. If there weren't any singles it would help tremendously.
Everywhere real coins have been reintroduced the people prefer it. Of course
no one's going to notice he gets sick less or that th vending industry improves.
He's not going to notice his back feels better or parks and sidewalks are safer
for babies and animals since they aren't littered with toxic one cent coins. No
one will notice that transactions require less time and the lower cost is spread
among the entire population. But all these things will happen.
There will be less polution from mining zinc, fabricating it into pennies, and haul-
ing it all over the country.
The one thing that might get noticed is the increased amount of money that
comes in with "penny drives". The increase in nickels and dimes will probably
more than offset the the loss of pennies and reduce the amount of work in
redeeming them.
It will be noticed in a few other places as well but the benefits would be huge.
Everyone with real "common sense" is a winner.
The only losers are the ones passing out money and claiming to know anything
about "Common Cents".
<< <i>The Federal Reserve and the U.S. Mint are required by law to remove barriers to the $1 coin´s circulation. However, the Federal Reserve issues the United States´ paper currency and doesn´t like the competition from the $1 coin, which is issued by the Mint. The Fed´s leaders have instituted regulations and red tape that restrict access to $1 coins for banks, businesses, and individual Americans. >>
The FED doesn't like the competition from dollar coins because it transfers the power of creating money back to the government instead of to the FED member banks, which currently enjoy the privilege of creating money out of thin air and then loaning it to the government at interest though the direct purchase of treasuries. Coins issued by a sovereign government are debt free and retain seigniorage for the issuing government, thus lowering the revenue burden of the government (instead of increasing it via interest payments) and as a result the population as a whole is better off instead of just a few privileged bankers.
<< <i>The FED doesn't like the competition from dollar coins because it transfers the power of creating money back to the government instead of to the FED member banks, which currently enjoy the privilege of creating money out of thin air and then loaning it to the government at interest though the direct purchase of treasuries. Coins issued by a sovereign government are debt free and retain seigniorage for the issuing government, thus lowering the revenue burden of the government (instead of increasing it via interest payments) and as a result the population as a whole is better off instead of just a few privileged bankers. >>
Yes, and these are the same FED bankers directly and indirectly involved
with loaning out your money to several different entities and charging each
of them 5% interest while deigning to give you half a percent.
Your money is working for the wall street bankers.
We may be running out of it.
Which is why we have pennies and no dollars. No one wants people looking at the man
behind the curtain.
http://www.youtube.com/user/bstill3