Monday, December 19, 2011

The One Dollar Coin Problem

Ah, James Buchanan and Martin van Buren:
one led to the inevitability of the Civil War, and
the other had awesome side burns.
They're both well worth spending $50 million a year on.
Let it not be said that the Obama administration is not trying to lower your taxes!  Slate reports that:

"The Vice President and Secretary Geithner announced the Administration’s plan to stop the wasteful production of $1 coins for circulation. In 2005, Congress enacted the Presidential $1 Coin Act, which mandated that the United States Mint issue new Presidential $1 Coins with the likeness of every deceased President.  But more than 40 percent of the $1 coins that the United States Mint has issued have been returned to the Federal Reserve, because nobody wants to use them."

Their plan is to comply with the law that the coins shall be minted, but to,essentially, leave the number of coins that are minted to market demands.  The Mint intends to only issue enough coins to satisfy coin collecotrs.  Apparently not sustaining coin production at its current rate will save the government approximately $50 million a year.

I see a day in America's future where all coins, like the space program, will be obsolete.  It would sure save us all a heap of money if that day came sooner rather than later.

Photo by jlodder.

3 comments:

Miss T @ Prairie Eco-Thrifter said...

I find this so interesting because in Canada we have had $1 and $2 coins for decades. We are already very used to them. I always find it so weird when I am in the USA to pull out a $1 bill.

Bryan said...

It's true, we Americans just can't get used to dollar coins. One popular argument I've heard is that some of the dollar coins (Susan B. Anthony in particular) are too close in size to quarters, so it confuses people.

Anyways, thanks for stopping by!

Allie said...

I do see the government's point. With the current state of coins worldwide, people can choose to buy gold coins online, melt them, and get more than their money's worth. Assigned values of coins are mostly lower than their face value.