I did not know until recently that the U.S. is producing a new $1 coin. It is called the Sacagawea dollar coin. I learned this through the Post Office. I needed stamps, which I usually order online but needed immediately, and was not willing to wait in the eternally long line at the post office. So, I used the stamp dispenser machine, which accepts bills but only dispenses change in coins - dollar coins, to be exact. I left the post office with no less than $18 in coins. I told Casey about this later and he thought I was making up the Sacagawea dollar coin until I showed him one, complete with a relief of Sacagawea and a child on her back.
This has me thinking that if neither of us knew of the existence of this coin, how popular is it? As it turns out, all the people that I've asked about it had no idea that there was such a dollar coin in circulation. The U.S. mint is trying to make the dollar coin more popular because they are cheaper to produce and last much longer than paper money. The problem is that we're not used to dollar coins and this one is really hard to distinguish from a quarter. There must be something that the Brits know that we don't because their one and two pound coins are quite popular. I think it has something to do with the thickness and weight of them. They are so satisfactory to jingle around in your pocket and you can distinguish them merely by touch from all other coins. U.S. Mint, take notice and learn.
4 comments:
Hasn't the Sacagawea coin been around for a while, now? I seem to remember it debuting several years ago. Or, am I thinking of something else ??
Also, I think that is all the DART train station kiosks give back in change also... dollar coins.
It is true, as Amberly pointed out, that the Sacagawea (my father-in-law likes to pronounce it Sa-COG-a-Way-a. He's is presently obsessed with Lewis and Clark) coin has been in circulation for quite some time.
But I too had the same experience in a post office, when I used a twenty in one of the machines, resulting in a great deal in change, all of course in coins. BUT, that was at least 4 or 5 years ago.
However, I also think I heard recently about another "new" dollar coin.
Yes, I thought it had been around for a while -- I have gotten them before. Plus, when I worked at the bank, people were always asking for them.
Personally, I would rather have a dollar bill -- but some people disagree!
I have had that happen at the post office too. I never think of using them once I have them.
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