The Barnum Dollar

There are some ideas that just won’t die. The dollar coin is, apparently, one of them:

U.S. Sen. Mike Enzi is co-sponsoring legislation introduced Tuesday that would phase out the $1 paper bill and replace it with a $1 coin. The move, the Wyoming Republican said, could save taxpayers billions and reduce the federal deficit.

That’s because coins last far longer than paper currency. Coins circulate for about 25 years, on average, while each $1 bill has an average lifespan of 4.7 years.

The switch would save about $5.6 billion over 30 years, according to a Government Accountability Office report issued last year.

If memory serves there have been a number of attempts at getting a dollar coin to take hold over the period of the last 40 years:

  • The Eisenhower dollar in the late 1970s
  • The Susan B. Anthony dollar in the early 1980s
  • The Sacagawea dollar (and variants) in the early 2000s
  • The President series dollars beginning in 2007

The only one of those that served any really useful purpose was the Eisenhower dollar. Las Vegas casinos stopped issuing their own tokens and used Eisenhowers instead. We’ve got, literally, billions of unused dollar coins sitting around in storage.

The beneficiaries of a new dollar coin would, presumably, be mine owners (if you’re wondering why this story originated in the Casper Star-Tribune). I strongly suspect that any amounts that might be saved by issuing them would be overwhelmed by the costs, particularly to vending machine manufacturers.

Here’s my proposal. Let the federal government issue a new dollar coin. On one side would be an image of P. T. Barnum, encircled by the words “There’s a sucker born every minute” (which he almost undoubtedly did not say). The coin should be gold-toned (in honor of something he actually did say: “I am a showman; no amount of gilding can tarnish that”). On the reverse side there should be a picture of the Brooklyn Bridge. Possibly with a “For Sale” sign superimposed.

14 comments… add one
  • sam Link

    “The only one of those that served any really useful purpose was the Eisenhower dollar”

    I dunno, the Susie B and the Sacagawea make nice ball markers on the green.

  • PD Shaw Link

    At least they are not talking about eliminating the penny.

  • michael reynolds Link

    I’ll tell you a savings that comes with dollar coins. In Europe you plug a euro into a shopping cart and you don’t get the euro back unless you return the shopping cart to the queue. No shopping carts smashing into parked cars, no employees sent to retrieve said carts. The carts are always right where they should be.

    I estimate the savings in wages and in body-and-fender work at $3.87 billion dollars. Because why shouldn’t I be allowed to pull numbers of thin air like everyone else?

  • Icepick Link

    I estimate the savings in wages and in body-and-fender work at $3.87 billion dollars.

    Why do you hate the working man? How many bag boys, ahem – front service personnel – will be put out of work by this idea? Not to mention the lost wages at the body shops, and fewer jobs making and transporting shopping carts.

    Michael Reynolds, destroying America one job at a time….

    [W]hy shouldn’t I be allowed to pull numbers of thin air like everyone else?

    Because you don’t have the the right kind or enough of the appropriate fancy pieces of paper.

  • Icepick Link

    One had to use a Susan B or Sacagawea coin to get the apprpriate subway passes at the Ownings Mills subway station just outside of Baltimore. They had change machines that would convert bills into the coins and then you would put the coins into separate machines to get the tickets. Yes, it was as dumb a set-up as that.

    Worse still, one couldn’t get any OTHER kind of change at the station, so if you needed to use the pay phone (way back when everyone didn’t automatically have cell phones) you couldn’t because you couldn’t get change in smaller amounts than the Susan Bs or Sacas, and the payphones didn’t take anything bigger thana quarter. (I know this because I got stuck in the subway station for several hours once during a snow storm, and I wasn’t about to hike over to the Owings Mills Mall dressed as I was in hopes of getting change. Couldn’t call my wife collect at her office, couldn’t find anyone to loan me their cell phone, the battery had died in mine, etc, etc. Baltimore sucks during snow storms.)

  • Icepick Link

    And Reynolds, you’d best stop “creating” numbers like that, or I will get the Pulling Numbers Out of Our Asses Guild to come down on you like a ton o’ bricks. We can’t have a bunch of unaccredited amateurs fucking up our life’s work like that.

  • PD Shaw Link

    Reynolds hates the very poor; free shopping carts are a crucial part of this country’s social safety net.

  • Icepick Link

    free shopping carts are a crucial part of this country’s social safety net.

    In fact, the wire pattern on the metal carts even LOOKS like a net!

  • Reynolds hates the very poor

    Maybe he’s Mitt Romney in a cunning disguise. I mean, have you ever seen the two of them together?

  • michael reynolds Link

    Clearly none of you are aware that the government is already moving forward on a project to design a green anti-terrorist shopping cart to be distributed in major cities.

    This joint project of the Departments of Energy and Homeland Security would create shopping carts for the very poor that are recyclable, low carbon-impact, and equipped with radiation-detection equipment to warn of radiological weapons in city centers.

    We are way out in front of the Chinese on this, by the way.

  • Icepick Link

    We are way out in front of the Chinese on this, by the way.

    I’m not sure that this is even the craziest idea I’ve heard today. These are strange times we’re livin’ in.

  • Drew Link

    Maybe he’s Mitt Romneyin a cunning disguise…….

    The sun glasses might give you pause on that……but really, who could do such a good baldy pate…..

    Sorry, Michael, couldn’t resist.

  • michael reynolds Link

    Drew:

    I’m still 20% less android than Mitt.

  • Icepick Link

    You’re 80% Google/Mormon?

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