Getting the Public to Use Half Dollars and Dollars

Blasphemy.

"A.E. Gelat" wrote in message ...
After reading all the input on this thread this evening, I sense that many
are
numismatic slanted, as if coinage is minted for collectors. Ninety
percent of the people do not care about numismatics, they just want a
useful a coin.

Tony

"A.E. Gelat" wrote in message ...
"Steve Okonski" wrote in message
...
Ami . wrote:

What are your ideas on getting the public to widely use half dollar and
dollar coins in everyday transactions?

The designs don't matter, the utility does.

Or, make use of Gresham's Law and give the other denominations some
real value by adding silver and copper, and suddenly people will
gladly spend the halves and dollar coins.

Do you really think that putting 50 cents' worth of silver will make the
coin circulate? Paper money has no intrinsic value, and it is no longer
backed by gold or silver, so this is an old-fashioned idea that whose time
has passed. It is the size that matters!

Tony

Have you thought about going back and relearning your first grade
reading comprehension? Steve Okonski said to put silver or copper in
the OTHER denominations (e.g. cents, nickels, dimes, quarters) so
Gresham's law would drive them out of circulation. He didn't say to
put it into the halves and dollars.

What's unatractive about Disney cartoons?


Nothing. I would love to see Donald
Duck on a US coin. (my favorite Disney
character).

"James McCown" wrote in message
om...
Blasphemy.

"A.E. Gelat" wrote in message
...
After reading all the input on this thread this evening, I sense that
many
are
numismatic slanted, as if coinage is minted for collectors. Ninety
percent of the people do not care about numismatics, they just want a
useful a coin.

its probably more like 99%.


Tony

Ami . wrote:
John Q. public doesn't look at the designs on his coins when he
receives or spends them. Who or what is depicted on a particular coin
has no effect on whether the public will find that coin comfortable to
use.

If the design doesn't matter, why is the state of Virginia kicking up
such a fuss over the design of nickels?


As a Virginia resident, I can assure you that the "state" isn't kicking
up a fuss over the nickel design. Some local politicians and Jefferson
descendant groups are posturing and blustering when the press is around
to cover them, but 99.9% of the citizens here could care less what
happens to the nickel and don't consider the coin to reflect any state
pride. George Washington lived here, too, so I suppose there would be
an outcry among a few local politicians if it were proposed to change
the design of the quarter and eliminate the dollar bill. All proposed
coin design changes usually bring some local group of outraged critics
to the microphones to spout their case. This has nothing to do with the
utility or general acceptance of the coin itself.

Bruce

Ami . wrote:

The obvious solution is to adapt every coin-op machine to take only
pennies. That way changes would rarely have to be made to the mechanism
and there would never be a need to dispense change. People would
warm to the cent again, return the contents of their piggy banks to
circulation, and enjoy that $1.50 Diet Coke more because of the work
they had to go through to get it.

So, people would appreciate their pennies more if they had to invest
sweat equity in their use? Hmmm...


Possibly. And they would finally have a use for them again, too.

Bruce

A.E. Gelat wrote:

"Bruce Remick" wrote in message
...

Ami . wrote:


The designs don't matter, the utility does.

I think the design on a coin does matter. Take a look at the Susan B.
Anthony dollar. People complained that its an "ugly" coin as well as
rejected it because it was too easily mistaken for a quarter.

Also, people complain that the Sacagawea dollar design appears to have
been based on a Disney cartoon.


What's unatractive about Disney cartoons? What about the Kennedy half?
I can't recall, people ever calling it ugly. See one lately? I
don't think the quarter and dime are particularly attractive, but I
blindly use them because they're dimes and quarters. We could put an
ivory cameo Mona Lisa on the dollar, people would comment pro and con
for a few months, and then they'd go back to ignoring it.

Bruce



After reading all the input on this thread this evening, I sense that many
are
numismatic slanted, as if coinage is minted for collectors. Ninety
percent of the people do not care about numismatics, they just want a
useful a coin.

Tony



Amen, brother!

Ami . wrote:

The half dollar is a hopeless cause. Most vending machines don't even
have slots big enough to accept them. My idea for the half is to
discontinue JFK, and make the half a circulating commemorative, with the
design changing every year. For example, this year it would be the First
Flight coin -- rather than just releasing them in mint sets, release
them to circulation as well. (They are CuNi clad, after all.) Sure, they
won't *really* circulate, but then -- neither does the JFK.

The only way that would work is if the yearly half designs had some type
of public input, like the state quarters. People like the circulating
changing state quarters because there's an emotional attachment to
having your own state on a coin, they're easy to collect and the public
has input on each state's design.

There are so many different state quarters now that most people don't
pay attention to the designs anymore. Once the novelty of seeing your
state on a quarter wears off, do you honestly still get emotional every
time you notice one in circulation?

Most state residents have no idea where the design of their state
quarter came from. We have already seen how little "public input" ends
up in a coin's final design.

Bruce

Getting to the original subject, I suggested this a while ago and did it myself
this past Veteran's Day. While shopping for electrical supplies, my supplier
had a note on the counter, "We need $1s and $5s." Promptly, I went to my truck
and took a roll of Sacs inside. With no FBI-RDs to disburse, they were kind of
"forced" to use the Sacs. I came to learn that most of their other customers
didn't bat an eye when they received them as change.

I, again, offer that all of us should keep a roll or two of Sacs in our cars
for situations as I've just described. When banks are closed we could be their
only salvation,

From my own experience, the novelty for the Sac has worn off, and people would
use and accept them if they received them in their daily transactions.

Jerry

"Ami" asks:

What are your ideas on getting the public to widely use half dollar and
dollar coins in everyday transactions?

remainder of post snipped

There was a dollar coin rush in 2000! People were making special trips
to Wal-Mart just to get golden dollars in change. The news media had a
field day.


Exactly. And what has that done for the dollar coin in the long run?