Why don't we have loonies? (As in, dollar coins)

Went to Canada this summer, they have $1 and $2 coins--loonies and toonies. Their currency--5s and up--is plastic, with a see-through window in the middle and all sorts of holograms. Very cutting-edge.

Made me think of our various disasters trying to introduce a dollar coin. The Morgan and Peace dollars were last made in 1935. The Sacajawea quarter--oh shit, wait, that's a dollar. The Susan B. Anthony quarter--oh, wait, that's a dollar, too. The best and longest-lived was the Eisenhower dollar. That was made for roughly eight years. They were useful not just as coins but as weapons--one of them weighed as much as a garbage can lid and would work its way right through a hole in your pocket.

I saw those Ike dollars gradually go out of circulation and wondered where they all went. Then I found out where--the Cal-Neva casino in Reno. They had slurped up all the Ike dollars in the vicinity and were using them as $1 chips on their table games. They were also good in the slot machines. It must have saved them a fortune not having to manufacture any $1 chips.

I understand that the new gold-colored dollar coins are only being minted for collectors and aren't being released into general circulation. Why the %^%$#$ doesn't the American consumer like dollar coins? To me, they're a lot easier to handle than dollar bills. Just like with universal health care, we're the only Western nation that doesn't have a freely circulating coin version of its basic unit of currency. We're idiots--we should be loonies.

Cause politicians keep trying to introduce CONFUSING coins.... too similar to an existing one, won't work in vending machines, doesn't have cash drawer receptacle, etc. Now introduce one that is a rectangle and it might work.

Quote: Fleastiff

Cause politicians keep trying to introduce CONFUSING coins.... too similar to an existing one, won't work in vending machines, doesn't have cash drawer receptacle, etc. Now introduce one that is a rectangle and it might work.

I doubt that shape would work, but make it the size of an old silver dollar or even half dollar. Tell the vending industry it is coming, would take 10 years but would work.

The looney was designed to be the same diameter as the Susan B Anthony dollar, with just a different thickness. It was felt that vending machines could be designed to accept both coins.

It seems as if the day that coins are seen as an efficient replacement for banknotes has passed the USA. The new interest among the intellectuals is abolishing coins altogether.

No dollar coin, but hang on to the penny with a death grip.

Mexico's not much better. the biggest denomination coin is ten pesos, which is under 50 cents of a dollar. There were 20 peso coins, but they didn't stick. At one time they had silver (I mean as recently as the late 90s), but people collected them rather than circulate them. Latter versions without silver were issued as commemorative coins with a limited run.

As to vending machines, I recall the Vegas Monorail ticket machines gave change exclusively in dollar coins (the gold ones with bad portraits of different presidents). I assume they took them, too, though both times I bought a 3-day pass I paid with bills.

Quote: Pacomartin

The looney was designed to be the same diameter as the Susan B Anthony dollar, with just a different thickness. It was felt that vending machines could be designed to accept both coins.

It seems as if the day that coins are seen as an efficient replacement for banknotes has passed the USA. The new interest among the intellectuals is abolishing coins altogether.

Coins, bills, all cash. Easier to keep the population as slaves when you can shut them off from commerce at the flip of a switch. But we really should give coins a try. Not just the $1 either.

$5 today is what $.70 was in 1970, when there were still a few dollar coins floating about. Make the $5 a shade bigger than the old silver dollars and make the $1 the size of the old silver dollars. Just kill the penny and nickel. Vending would hate the change but long term machines that took $5 coins could sell a lot of things. Yes, they take credit cards now, but people would probably accept putting a high value coin in than a credit card.

Then the Fed can have more fun inflating value away since a $5 is just a coin.......

Quote: AZDuffman

Then the Fed can have more fun inflating value away since a $5 is just a coin.......

Coins worth $5 are very rare. The Swiss have a 5 franc coin worth US$5, and the Japanese have a 500 yen coins worth $4.60 right now. AFAIK nobody else has a coin worth that much.

The British 2 pound coin is worth US$2.50

I remember the Susan B Anthony dollar coin. Every time I got one , I would try and be careful not to spend it as a quarter. But somehow that always happened.

Quote: buzzardknot

I remember the Susan B Anthony dollar coin. Every time I got one , I would try and be careful not to spend it as a quarter. But somehow that always happened.

That is what killed it. Had they made it copper or smooth sided it might have made it. The USPS was using them as change in stamp machines in the mid-1990s. Might have been to get rid of old stock.