Yet Another Dollar Coin?
Dateline: 05/07/99
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| The Susan B. Anthony Dollar coin will be replaced
in 2000. (US Mint) |
The Susan B. Anthony Dollar coin (left) will be replaced in the year 2000 by the Sacagawea Dollar. You may have an Anthony Dollar or two, but according to the US Mint reserves of the coin had grown so low that the "United States Dollar Coin Act of 1997" calling for the creation of a new dollar coin had to be passed.
Where did all the S.B. Anthony dollars go? Most are sitting in our "spare-change jars" because as consumers, merchants, or vending machines, we just won't use them. The Anthony dollar simply looks to much like and is too often confused for a quarter. No wonder. The Anthony dollar measures 26.50 mm in diameter compared to 24.26 mm for the quarter, and is a mere .25 mm thicker than the quarter. If you find it hard to quickly tell the two coins apart, imagine the difficulty experienced by a vision-impaired person.
The U.S. Mint hoped making the Anthony dollar smaller than the Eisenhower coin would encourage Americans to once again use dollar coins in commerce. Dollar coins cost less to produce and last far longer in circulation than paper bills. Clearly, we should use dollar coins, so why don't we? What keeps dollar coins out of circulation?
Hoarding in the name of collecting: Since America left the gold standard, $1.00 has been the largest denomination US coin made. Until the S.B. Anthony, dollars were the largest and heaviest American coins, thus containing the most of whatever "precious" metals were used at the time. The larger size of older dollar coins allowed them to carry more creative and attractive engravings than smaller coins. All of these factors appeal to coin collectors, some of whom cross the line between "collector" and "hoarder."
Just Too Darn Big: People do not like carrying large coins in their pockets. You can pack around a lot more dollar bills than dollar coins and who ever heard of "flashin' a wad" of coins? (This could be one big problem for E-commerce. As physical evidence of success, we like possessing many non-virtual bills and coins.)
The most popular US coin is the quarter. It's not too big, or too small, or too heavy and worth enough to bend over and pick up out of gutters. The Mint figured that what works for the quarter should work for the dollar and so we got the Susan B. Anthony.
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The Sacagawea Dollar Coin selected to replace
the Anthony Dollar in 2000 |
While the new Sacagawea dollar is a truly beautiful and unique coin, will it turn out to be the "working" dollar the Mint hopes it to be? Sacagawea's golden color and smooth "non-reeded" edge design will help make it stand out from the quarter and it's almost sure to be popular with collectors. But, will we use the coins the same way we do quarters?
It comes down to a question of whether American's even want a dollar coin for everyday use or not. If we won't use the Sacagawea, then we don't.
Metallic Content of US Coins
Minting of US gold coins ceased in 1933. By 1970, silver had been completely
eliminated from all US "silver" coins. Dimes, quarters, half dollars, and Susan
B. Anthony dollars are made of "cupra-nickel clad," an alloy of a core of pure
copper with outer layers (the surfaces of the coins) of 75 percent copper and 25 percent
nickle alloy. Nickels use the same 75 - 25 alloy without the copper core. The cent is now
made of copper plated zinc. (Source: The US Mint - Coin Composition)
