The US Dollar Bill Just Won’t Go Away

Does the US Government want to save $13.8 Billion over the next 30 years? According to estimates by the Government Accountability Office and others, that is the potential savings if we could just scrap the paper $1 bills and use coins instead. That is a lot of money, even by Washington standards. Senator John McCain introduced the COINS Act in June, along with Democratic Senators Mark Udall of Colorado and Tom Harkin of Iowa and Republican Senators Mike Enzi of Wyoming and Tom Coburn of Oklahoma. The bill seeks to phase out the paper dollar bills over the next four years.

     Previous attempts to introduce dollar coins have not been successful. The reasons are not always clear. Maybe it is because people think the coins are too big or too small or they will weigh down their pockets. There was a gold dollar in circulation from 1849 to 1889 but it was very small and easy to lose. That was a serious problem back in the days when a dollar could be a full day's wages. In 1979 the US Mint made the Susan B. Anthony dollar coins which were easily confused with quarters and widely disliked. That coin was discontinued in 1981. It was reintroduced in 1999 but still never caught on. Later there was the Sacagawea Dollar which was also widely disliked and short lived.

     Other countries have experienced great success introducing dollar coins. Canadians love their Loonies and Toonies which are $1 and $2 coins. Canada has experienced  ten times their estimated savings in their switch to coins. Britain and Japan have had similar success with their coins. The key to these successful conversions is that in all three countries they phased out or eliminated the paper dollars. Once you phase out the paper dollars and push the dollar coins into circulation, people will love them; at least that has been the experience in Britain, Japan and Canada.

     Government figures show that the Federal Reserve depots currently hold 1.4 Billion one dollar coins and the Mint has 51 million coins. The Mint has since reduced production of the one dollar coins.  We have plenty of inventory. The US Government has been slow to act due to Intensive lobbying by the suppliers of paper and ink used in paper bill production.

     The time has come to move this effort forward. The savings will be significant and the Federal Government should always be looking for ways to save money and reduce the almost $17 Trillion national debt.

Bruce Mitchell is an expert on currency equipment and is the owner of Mitchell Enterprises, a company that distributes money handling equipment and supplies to retailers and the banking industry. For more information visit the website at money counters