Tweet
Despite the past history of people not using a dollar coin, Congress is looking to make another one. The House of Representatives passed a bill this week to create a new $1 coin by a vote of 422 to 6. If the Senate also passes the bill, the nation will have a new dollar coin.
While past $1 coins were introduced in an attempt to replace the dollar bill, the impetus for the new dollar coin is more financial than providing something that might be useful. For many in congress, the biggest selling point was that people may hoard and never use them.
<script type="text/javascript">google_ad_client = "pub-8949118578199171";google_ad_width = 728;google_ad_height = 90;google_ad_format = "728x90_as";google_ad_channel ="";google_color_border = "EAEAEA";google_color_bg = "EAEAEA";google_color_link = "4271B5";google_color_url = "99CC66";google_color_text = "000000";</script>
<center><script type="text/javascript"src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js"></script></center>
The idea comes from the 50 State Quarters series. After the 50 State series launched, the government discovered that large numbers of people were collecting the quarters and not using them. Since it only costs the treasury about 5 cents to make a quarter, every time a quarter is collected and not put back into circulation, it makes a profit of 20 cents. This process is called seignorage and has netted the government $5 billion from the quarter series.
The new $1 coins would also be produced in a series featuring the U.S. presidents. The current bill would have four new $1 coins produced each year beginning in 2007 honoring each US president in the order they became president.
While past $1 coins were introduced in an attempt to replace the dollar bill, the impetus for the new dollar coin is more financial than providing something that might be useful. For many in congress, the biggest selling point was that people may hoard and never use them.
<script type="text/javascript">google_ad_client = "pub-8949118578199171";google_ad_width = 728;google_ad_height = 90;google_ad_format = "728x90_as";google_ad_channel ="";google_color_border = "EAEAEA";google_color_bg = "EAEAEA";google_color_link = "4271B5";google_color_url = "99CC66";google_color_text = "000000";</script>
<center><script type="text/javascript"src="http://pagead2.googlesyndication.com/pagead/show_ads.js"></script></center>
The idea comes from the 50 State Quarters series. After the 50 State series launched, the government discovered that large numbers of people were collecting the quarters and not using them. Since it only costs the treasury about 5 cents to make a quarter, every time a quarter is collected and not put back into circulation, it makes a profit of 20 cents. This process is called seignorage and has netted the government $5 billion from the quarter series.
The new $1 coins would also be produced in a series featuring the U.S. presidents. The current bill would have four new $1 coins produced each year beginning in 2007 honoring each US president in the order they became president.
Comment