Does anyone remember the Susan B. Anthony dollar coin?
And is anyone actually using those gold-tinted Sacagawea dollar coins? Or those presidential or Native American coins that replaced them and are still being minted?
Despite that, a first-term Arizona congressman Republican thinks he can convince Americans to do what prior efforts have not: scrap their dollar bills in favor of coins. And he is undeterred that none of the prior efforts have gained widespread public support.
But Rep. David Schweikert is not relying on Americans to voluntarily trade in their bills for dollar coins that have so far proven unpopular. His legislation actually would force people to give up the greenbacks in their wallets, purses and pockets.
Schweikert said he does not intend to make the same mistake as one former member of the state’s congressional delegation.
It was Rep. Jim Kolbe who in 1997 pushed through a measure to replace the wildly unpopular Susan B. Anthony dollar with what became the Sacagawea coin.
But as Kolbe later conceded, the bill he was able to get through Congress had a shortcoming: It allowed the government to keep printing those dollars bills. And as long as those bills remain available, the public has shown little interest in replacing them with more coins jingling in their pockets.
Schweikert’s legislation, by contrast, would require federal reserve banks to stop issuing dollar bills when the circulation of dollar coins exceeds 600 million a year -- but no later than four years after the measure becomes law.
He conceded that telling constituents he knows what’s best for them could be politically risky. But Schweikert said the prior efforts failed because of “half-hearted’’ efforts or when “a handful of politicians get nervous and run away from it.’’
And Schweikert has an answer for critics: It’s one way to deal with the mounting deficit.
“There’s this hunger out there for ways to save money,’’ he said.
A report by the General Accounting Office puts the cost of minting a coin at about 15 cents, compared to less than 3 cents for a bill.
But the GAO puts the average lifespan of a bill in the neighborhood of three years.
“A coin has about a 30-year life,’’ Schweikert said.
He put the annual savings at $184 million. Multiply that out over just the first decade, he said, “it starts being real money.’’
Schweikert contends it will not be necessary to force Americans to give up their dollar bills. He said the experience elsewhere proves that people will accept coins over small-denomination bills.
The five euro bill is the smallest paper money among countries that use it, with one- and two-euro coins.
And Canada replaced its one dollar bill with a coin commonly called a “loonie’’ because of the waterfowl image it carries.
He acknowledged that there some “obvious parochialism’’ behind his proposal: The current crop of dollar coins contain 85 percent copper.
“It’s good for Arizona,’’ he said.
Number of coins produced, 1979 - 2009
| Coin design | Number as of 11/09 | Production years |
| Susan B. Anthony | 932 million | 1979-1982 and 1999-2000 |
| Sacagawea | 1.47 billion | 2000-2008 |
| Presidential series | 1.72 billion | 2007-ongoing |
| Native American series | 92 million | 2009-ongoing |
| Total | 4.2 billion* |
* U.S. Mint reports that about $1 billion is held in reserve and not in circulation.
Source: General Accounting Office
ScullyCute posted at 11:26 am on Wed, Sep 21, 2011.
Really? This is his plan? It's a joke right? Is David Schweikert's plan to reduce the debt his party ran up really just "eliminate medicare and the dollar bill"? What planet does the congressman live on? Are there not more important issues, like say, THE ECONOMY? We really did ourselves a disservice when we elected this consummate politician.
Seems to me that this has been tried several times, and quite simply, Americans won't use dollar coins. Good leadership congressman! Given what we already know about his his me-first character, I wouldn't be surprised if he owns a minting press or something.
az2008 posted at 12:14 pm on Wed, Sep 21, 2011.
It's a shame how Schweikert got into office. IMO, it constituted election fraud. His supporters behaved menacingly at Mitchell's townhalls, essentially bullying him into communicating with constituents through teleconference calls. Then they surrounded his campaign signs with add-on messages like "Hides from constituents."
Schweikert conveniently claimed to have nothing to do with it -- while benefiting from his opponent being menaced into silence. He basically used brown-shirted thugs to eliminate the competition.
I'm not exactly a Mitchell fan. But, what Schweikert did was shameful. It was contemptuous of the democratic process. He couldn't win on the merits of the topic. He had to use intimidation tactics.
\To those who did the intimidation -- where's the bill to repeal healthcare and the Republican-created (2003) Medicare prescription program that is bankrupting us? All we get is replacing 1s and 5s with coin?
NanDarrow posted at 1:20 pm on Wed, Sep 21, 2011.
This coin deal is Deja vu all over again.
Bringing it up again in these tough times is one more sign that Representative Shweikert is not taking people's troubles seriously.
My neighbor was foreclosed on yesterday. What is Shweikert doing to help people who are losing their homes? What is he doing to help neighborhoods full of foreclosed houses? And the businesses that depended on serving homeowners?
What is he doing to help cities cope with this and with the needs of increasing numbers of people who can't afford the basics?
Slabside posted at 2:19 pm on Wed, Sep 21, 2011.
Sorry Schweikert, it won't help things. President Obusto will print these just like paper money to derail America's economy just the same.
RationalHuman posted at 4:26 pm on Wed, Sep 21, 2011.
Hey Slabside!
While I agree that this is just another media scheme - you DO realize that the Federal Reserve prints paper currency, while our Treasury Dept. mints the coins?
And if you don't understand the significance of that...well as I like to say regarding your ilk: "disappointed, never surprised"
Slabside posted at 6:00 pm on Wed, Sep 21, 2011.
RationalHuman, I will admit that I didn't know that. Thank you for the education!