Hurry! Only 1.4 billion left!

The news that the United States has halted the production of circulating dollar coins  is already fish and chips paper.  The treasury's problem now is to get rid of the 1.4 billion dollar coins that are on hand.  One way the treasury gets rid of the coins is through the circulating dollar direct shop program of the US mint.  The mint, however, has altered the program for the worse (from a consumer standpoint).  For every box of dollar coins ordered, there is a new $12.50 "order fulfillment charge."  Credit card payments are no longer accepted.  Instead, payment must be by wire transfer, check, or money order.

If the public didn't want the coins before, now they really won't want them.  It took the treasury over 75 years to get rid of all the unwanted morgan dollars .  I wish the mint luck in getting rid of the presidential dollars.  They will need it.

The Dollar Coin is Dead

It's over.  The United States has pulled the plug on the much ballyhooed dollar coin .  The announcement was made by vice president Joe Biden.  The obvious problem was that they were unpopular.  The treasury is currently sitting on 1.4 billion dollar coins that they cannot get rid of.  Making more dollar coins would be silly.  And so, it's back to the paper dollar for us.

I'm sure I sound like a broken record, but we've heard this song and dance before.  It seems like only yesterday we buried the Susan B Anthony dollar , which replaced the equally unpopular Eisenhower dollar .  The government policy had been similar to the policy of the late 1800's when millions of Morgan dollars  were minted with no apparent purpose.

Collectors of presidential dollars need not fret. The mint will still be making enough of them to satisfy their needs.

For more information about the presidential dollar or my cynical history of the US dollar, please go to my presidential dollar page .

Plastic Money? Good for Canada. Would it be good for the US?

The Canadian Government has just announced that it will be using plastic currency to replace their paper currency.  The one hundred dollar bill is being introduced now, with the lower denominations following.

In the US, we have paper dollars, which wear out quickly.  This has led to the debate about replacing the paper dollar with presidential dollar coins.  Dollar coins have always been unpopular in the US.  We prefer something to fold and keep in a wallet.  Plastic currency could be a solution to this problem.