The Realm of the Coin

Once again, the United States displays incredible stupidity in matters of common sense, the proof again coming from our indifference and downright hostility to high-value coins. A recent poll found that 75 percent of people surveyed oppose replacing the dollar bill, featuring George Washington, with a dollar coin, Although people are split evenly on the idea of having both a dollar bill and a dollar coin, they're no so eager to use dollar coins, even as new dollar coins depicting U.S. Presidents, goes into general circulation Thursday just in time for Presidents' Day. Eliminating the dollar bill could save hundreds of millions of dollars each year in printing costs, and coins last longer, but no one is ready to follow the lead of Canada, which has been using $1 and $2 coins exclusively without regret for years and has never looked back.

It's not just the convenience of having the right coins for vending machines or the cost of printing all that currency. Here's a personal insight: I was in New York Wednesday night with a ladyfriend of mine that I rarely see (more about that later; she's someone I've previously mentioned here). As a New York resident, she always has a MetroCard handy; I, as someone who, being bridge-and-tunnel riffraff, doesn't go into the city very often, have relied mainly on single-ride cards. We walked into a subway station together; she was already through the turnstile with her MetroCard, but I stopped to but a single-ride card. Now, the process of getting such a card is cumbersome enough, but with the cost of a single ride on the New York City subway system at two dollars, and with me paying in cash, it was annoying to have to stick two Georges in that annoying slot. They were accepted, but if my singles had gotten rejected, I wouldn't have liked having to feed the machine weight quarters that I probably didn't have!

Why didn't I get a prepaid card like my ladyfriend? That's beside the point, Charlie. My only point is that high-value coins make so much sense in so many ways, yet we stoo-pid Americans can't even change for the better. But then, I've been told it takes time for Americans to embrace change. Even pocket change.

A poll respondent from Ohio was skeptical about a new high-value coin. "We tried it before," he said. "It didn't fly."

I can just imagine that argument used by the Topeka Board of Education at the Supreme Court some fifty-odd years ago. "We tried integrated schools, Mr. Chief Justice, but no one liked 'em."