Here we go again.
Recent articles described the US Mint’s stockpile of presidential $1 coins. Could it be the general public just does not want dollar coins?
Years ago, people liked the “cartwheels,” especially in the western states where silver was mined and especially near the casinos. The cartwheels were the large diameter (1.5 inches) silver dollars minted through 1935.
After not being minted for several years, the large diameter dollars were reintroduced in 1971 (just not of 90% silver) honoring President Dwight D. Eisenhower and the moon landing. These coins were around for several years (1971-78), but people became disenchanted with their size and weight.
Once again, Congress argued that dollar coins would last much longer than dollar bills and save the government lots of money. Given the problems of size and weight, the new dollar coin should be smaller. After disgruntled debates, Congress finally approved a new dollar coin with a design featuring Susan B. Anthony.
Unfortunately, people frequently confused the new dollar coin with a quarter. Even though the new dollar was slightly larger than a quarter, the color was similar, and the differences were difficult to discern. As a result, people did not embrace this new, “much cheaper” alternative for the dollar bill.
The US Mint made almost one billion of the Susan B. Anthony dollar coins, and most of those were made in the first year, 1979. With the lack of acceptance, the Mint had to warehouse the coins when the banks did not order the Susan B. Anthony dollars.
Interestingly in 1995, the Director of the Mint argued that the American people did not want a coin to replace the dollar bill. But, members of Congress proceeded anyway with the legislation to produce more dollar coins, this time in a golden color. But, before the new coin could be designed, tested and minted, the Mint made more of the Susan B. Anthony dollar coins in 1999 supposedly to meet new demands.
The new golden dollar with the image of Sacagawea and her infant son became available in 2000 with over 1.2 billion coins minted for circulation. For 2001 through 2008, the Mint decreased their production of Sacagawea dollar coins significantly.
But in 2007, another golden dollar entered circulation in addition to the Sacagawea dollar. This time, the dollar coin would honor each of the presidents with four different presidential images per year in the order in which they served in office.
Adding to this increasing population of dollar coins, a new Native American golden dollar coin replaced the Sacagawea coin in 2009 though it continued with the Sacagawea obverse. The new Native American dollar coin would contain two separate reverse designs each year.
At one point, the US Mint’s web site offered free shipping if you purchased large bags of the dollar coins for circulation. They stopped this practice when several people used the purchase just to obtain points on their credit cards with the bags of coins being immediately turned into a bank. Still trying to encourage use of the dollar coins, the US Mint currently offers a similar option. They will pay for shipping of rolls of the presidential $1 coins, but the amount is capped at $500.
Now, the Mint finds itself once again warehousing dollar coins because people, businesses and banks are not ordering them in large quantities. The recent news articles claim the Mint has over $1.2 billion stored at a cost of roughly $300 million to make.
With the lack of accepted circulation and with the number of dollar coins being warehoused, the American people have made their preferences known.
Resources:
Mountains of 1.2 billion dollar coins unused in US vaults
Inside the Fed’s Vault: $1 Billion Worth of Unused Coins
Fed Sits On A Billion Unwanted Dollar Coins
The Government Spent $300 Million Making Coins No One Wants
Your take: Do you use $1 coins?
Commentary at the last monthly coin show.