Comments

1
It is not that the $1 coins looked too much like quarters, but because we already have a $1 paper note, which people like much more.

No one wants to walk around all jingly with $1 coins falling out of their pockets when they sit down, and no one made vending machines that accomodated them, so why carry coins when you can just easily put a bunch of bills in your wallet?

I say put Margaret Sanger on a bill and watch the conservatives and religious right tear their hair out over a birth control slinging trollop on our money.
2
I like dollar coins. Wish stores gave them as change. Sadly it seems they're not currently minting them in serious quantities.
3
@2, they're not minting them at all. In fact, the government has spent millions of dollars to build a huge warehouse just to hold the ones they've already made. No shit.
4
Who the hell actually believes "women have contributed nothing to history"?
5
The dollar coin should be roughly the size of a dime. That would solve the problem @1. Or a penny -- and kill the penny (it's way past time for that).
6
@2 If you're in Seattle, the Brown Bear car wash in Fremont used to give out dollar coins. I'm sure some of the others do as well.
7
Wasn't there some question about whether Alexander Hamilton had black ancestors?

And why Rankin, Perkins, and Wharton?

Why not Harriet Tubman or Ida B. Wells? Or Gloria Anzaldua? Or even Sacagawea again?
8
@2 You should be able to get dollar coins at the bank.
9
Helen Keller is on the Kansas Quarter.
10
I'm not sure about getting rid of Hamilton, given his direct historical connection to the US Treasury, but getting rid of Andrew Jackson seems a long time coming. How about replacing Old Hickory with Sandra Day O'Conner (you know, after she dies)?
11
Hamilton is the most dashing... and a Federalist to boot! Don't touch him.

We really ought to be taking that hypocritical, RACIST ASSHOLE JEFFERSON off the two dollar bill.
12
Don't dis Hamilton, Cienna. If there's anybody who deserves to be on money, it's Hamilton. This is Hamilton's America, and Hamilton's economy.

But you can wipe Jackson off our currency, and he won't be missed.
13
I vote for Liberace on the $2 bill.
14
Is it worth pointing out the a woman (Queen Elizabeth) appears on every single piece of British currency?
15
Helen Keller is also on a 50 USD paper series I Bond.

According to a newsfeed dot time dot com article, an English author named Jane Austen could appear on the 10-pound bank note. I did not see Ms. Austen's name in the SLOG post, so it is possible the SLOG post's author may not have heard of her and thus did not deem her important.
16
@13 That's $3 bill.

The dollar coin should not be round. Make it in the penny-nickle size range and octagonal (or better yet, 7 sided, just to be weird), so the fuckers can't roll so far. Or at least put a hole in the middle to make it distinctive. Oops, that fucks up the picture.
17
@14 I was thinking the exact same thing. Cienna, Fry isn't the "only woman" on british currency, the queen is also on every piece of money. I agree with your point, but facts matter.
18
@9 - Helen Keller was on the Alabama quarter, and it was only minted for a period in 2003.
19
Why don't Canadians complain about having too many jangly coins?

Does anyone carry so many one dollar bills now, that having the same number of dollar coins would be that much of a burden?

Did anyone really mistake the gold-colored Sacajawea coins for quarters?
20
Suffragists, not "suffragettes."

Unless you're blind, the bronzy/coppery color of the Sacagawea makes it a lot different from the quarter. The size makes it a lot different from the penny. (The silvery Susan B Anthony was too quarter-like) If you are blind, the ridges of the quarter distinguish it from the dollar.

@14, 17 Says right there: "...the only two women, other than the Queen..." The point is that the queen is on money by virtue of being born first to a man who became king, not because of anything she's actually done.
21
@17 - Well that clears that up then. Now if more women would just be born to the right family with no older brothers. Now that's an accomplishment worth talking about.
22
Next time they stick a woman on U.S. currency, they might try not using an ugly one. Just sayin'
23
Did anyone really mistake the gold-colored Sacajawea coins for quarters?

Feels the same in your pocket. They should get rid of pennies, dimes, and dollar bills, and add a dollar coin and a $5 coin.
24
@22 class the fuck up or just fuck off.
25
@19 - Because the Canadians got rid if their paper dollars (and $2) when they created the coin versions so there wouldn't be two sets of competing currency. Here in the US, Congress won't take that step because they fear the backlash. The nation would save millions every year if they did though.
26
Here's my comprehensive plan for changing our currency.

Use the following denominations and discontinue all others:

10 cent coin -- current design, unchanged (FDR)
20 cent coin -- size/color similar to the current nickel, but with a textured edge (Frederick Douglass)
50 cents coin -- size/color/texture of the current quarter (Jeanette Rankin, first woman in Congress)
dollar coin -- gold color, smooth edge, roughly the size of the dime (George Washington)
two dollar coin -- gold color, smooth edge, roughly the size of the nickel (Dolley Madison--until she can be replaced by our first woman president)
five dollar coin -- gold color, smooth edge, roughly quarter-sized (Lincoln)
ten dollar bill -- Sandra Day O'Connor (first woman on the Supreme Court)
twenty dollar bill -- Frances Perkins (first woman in the US cabinet)
fifty dollar bill -- Shirley Chisholm (first black woman in Congress)
hundred dollar bill -- Benjamin Franklin

That gets rid of the men currently represented that don't deserve the honor, and adds several men and women who do. Five men and five women; four Republicans, three Democrats, and three who are neither; a couple of people who aren't white.

It gets rid of denominations that are too small to be worth minting. It makes the more common coins smaller, and all coins easy to tell apart. It uses a consistent tiered system of values with no odd denominations (25 cents? Really? It only makes sense because we're used to it.)
27
One reason the dollar coin failed was vending machines: the dollar coins were sized to fit existing coin slots in existing vending machines; the recognition apparatus could be updated to identify the coins, but the slot couldn't be made larger without essentially replacing the machine. Thus: a dollar coin that feels an awful lot like a quarter in your pocket. And a dollar coin that isn't instantly recognizeable as different from a quarter is not the best design.
28
@26 - As long as you're redesigning all the currency, don't forget to make the notes of different sizes so as to be usable by the blind.
29
@ 23, "feels the same in your pocket."

Are you telling me that most people just play pocket pool when reaching for change, and come up with what they need without looking? Because years of retail experience tells me that people dig out their change by the fistful and look through what they have first.
30
@29, that's because change in its current configuration is meaningless. Anymore, I solve it by refusing to accept pennies, ever. So yes, I fish for my change by feel. If we did as I suggest in #23, you could carry a meaningful among of change, and recognize it by feel.

The attempts at dollar coins have not only been unrecognizable by feel, but once you did fish them out, both versions were eyesores. The U.S. has a history of beautiful coinage, including the female "standing liberty" figure used for more than a century that is widely believed to be the most beautiful image we ever used.

The presidential coins were a regression. Pennies were much more attractive when they carried an Indian head, and the buffalo nickel was much better than the Jefferson nickel. Sorry, but Sacagawea, as worthy as she is for a coin, was unattractively rendered. And Susan B. Anthony's grimace was truly unfortunate. No wonder it failed. That might be the ugliest American coin ever minted.

Andrew Jackson, a/k/a David Bowie, is probably the studliest picture on any banknote I've ever seen.
31
@26:

There also needs to be something done to allow those unfamiliar with US coinage to know how much a dime is worth. Unlike any other coin, there is nothing on the current one to indicate its value.

How is one to know what "ONE DIME" means? The penny says "ONE CENT", the nickel says "FIVE CENTS", the quarter "QUARTER DOLLAR", etc. Nothing to indicate that the dime represents 10 cents.
32
FDR's dime (as in, "Brother, Can You Spare A Dime?) would be today's dollar coin.
33
Planet Money did a podcast on dollar coins. US paper money is well-made and durable. There would be a net economic cost to going to a dollar coin. Up here in Canada our old paper bills and (new ones are plastic) were less durable amd we saved money going to dollar coins.
34
@1 is correct, dollar coins are obviously more durable than paper bills, but aren't popular. Buy a ride on Sound Transit with a $5 or$10, and you'll get plenty of dollar coins. I'm waiting for the dollar coin Presidential series to get up to the Nixon dollar! If the newer Presidential coins are ever released!
35
I would definitely vote for Frances Perkins on one of our bills. I recommend her biography "The Woman Behind the New Deal" by Kirstin Downey to anyone who would like to learn more about her. She was a great politician who was willing to work hard and compromise when necessary while keeping her eyes on the prize of the greater good.
36
@33, a dollar bill lasts for 18 months.
37
@35, not anywhere close to being significant enough to put on currency.
38
@36, 5.9 years lifespan for a dollar.
@all you no looking, pocket counting dickholes, quarters have ridged sides, dollar coins have smooth.(with "In God We Trust" inscribed in them. Just in case that was the next rant.)
39
@38, there are at least three answers.

http://www.federalreserve.gov/faqs/how-l…

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?…

http://youaskandy.com/questions-answers/…

https://www.richmondfed.org/faqs/currenc…

As far as recognizing by feel, the milled edge is irrelevant. When you fish for change in your pocket, you're not feeling the sides of the coins. I think the biggest reason for the failure of the Anthony coin was similarity to a quarter. It was a complete non-starter for that reason.

The Sacagawea coin is a little bigger and a little thicker than a quarter. I think there were several issues there. One is that it was the fifth coin (not counting the Kennedy half-dollar, which hardly anyone uses either), and four coins seems to be the limit. Also, it competed with the dollar bill, which in a typical cash purchase gets combined with other bills.

So if you're at the cash register, you'll more likely look for dollars in your wallet and change in your pocket -- by habit. But if we got rid of pennies and dimes, and added a $5 coin, then people (men, anyway) could make small purchases without ever going for their wallet.

It certainly didn't help either dollar coin that both of them are the ugliest coins we've ever produced.

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