Loonie Toonie Question - Please Help!

No, no, no....
Sick of dead presidents...lol

Well, good point. I believe that several months ago, the USPS was voting for a president that's alive to be on their stamps. For coins, the Presidential dollars are going be there for a long time. US Mint has a long releasing schedule.

I think Sap's point with the Australian coins is interesting. Design (both physical and aesthic) is really important. I think we've learned that in the US. The Eisenhower dollar was rejected, amonog other reasons, because it's huge and never worked in vending machines. The Susan B. Anthony "Agony" dollar was rejected because it looked and felt exactly like a quarter and was only slightly larger.

I also think it's interesting that the coins created the perception that things cost more, but that it was only a perception. The $20 disappears quickly, but mostly it's going into your change jar, where a large chunk of it gets saved for vacations or whatever.

It also seems to back up the point of the pro-coin side, that any sort of drama surrounding the switch-over is pretty short lived, and there isn't some sort of overwhelming groundswell to switch back.

My main argument (aside from the cost/durability factor, and the public health factor) is that a dollar is just too small a quantity to justify having a bill, and that it's a value more associated with things that you purchase with coins - vending machine snacks/drinks, bus fare, arcade games, laundry machines, etc. and that bills aren't great for those purposes and now the quarter is getting too small for those things. Arcade games are like a buck a play. Vending items are like a buck-fifty or two bucks. You either need 6-10 quarters for these, or you need to fight for hours with dollar bill acceptors.

Also, any argument that would be made against the dollar coin - they weigh too much, they accumulate, etc. - could also be made against quarters, and nobody would ever even think of replacing quarters with a quarter dollar bill.

emphasis added

I may be wrong, but I think this is missing the main point. Canadians (for a long time) already had the quarters. The idea here was that since dollar coins were replacing bills, it would cause additional (too much) weight since they already had quarters etc.

And, obviously, the issue does not readily correct itself as the Toonie broadcast was made almost 1 decade after the Loonies were in circulation. The Canadians, and news broadcasting system, obviously still had an issue with it. I am not sure how much clearer it can be. These are real issues that have had to be dealt with by a real country that already went through through the switch. These broadcasts show exactly what they think/experience even 9 years later.

Now if quarters had always been bills and the only pocket change had been penny, nickel, and dime, the weight issue very well may have come up with making quarter coins. Maybe this was what you were referring to?

The fact of the matter is that the weight issue is not just hype as witnessed by this documentation. If the coins will be forced upon us in the US, we will experience the same thing the Canadians did/do. Too many coins, too much pocket weight, and devaluation (even moreso - as seen in your point!).




There are most certainly places where the dollar is already devalued. This is one of the issues the people on the Canadian broadcasts have with Loonies. Since the coins buy nothing, they accumulate. Larger denominations are, logically, spent and you (are stuck with) smaller denominations (Loonies) in your pocket. This is the weight issue all over again.

Aside from the health issue (which has been with us as for as long as dollar bills have been printed), this is why I wonder if polymer notes might be the answer to the saving money aspect of the problem? I do not know how much money it might save (have to look to other countries using them I guess).




Boy do I ever remember vending machine people hating these things! My dad worked at Pepsi. The store owners etc. who bought from Pepsi to restock their machines were always so angry b/c their sales were down b/c the Suzy's would jam their machines so often.

We will never know for sure, but I think had the Susan B been logically designed, it still would have been rejected - again, for the testified/eye-witness weight issue etc. reasons again. Just going by a scenario where it already happened and also thinking of how the US people never wanted their own $2.00 notes either. For some reason the set system we have is one that the majority (right or wrong) wants. Canada was always receptive to $2.00 bills. And yet, even being more receptive, they were the ones with issues on the Loonie and Toonie.

Its obvious why the Ikes never made it. Same issues on a worse scale.




I was told that the Baltimore subway system now uses Suzy's as their tokens. I do not know if this is fact, but at least, if true, they are not just heaped in a storage facility somewhere.

Like everything else in life, I think this coin issue is a problem for which no good answer will be brought about. I think an answer could be found, but the problem is that politics will get (is getting) in the way but those who make such decisions.

I personally think the solution would just be to lower the "looks" of prices by giving more value to our money. Use new items of currency/change where a "new" is "worth" so many of the old. Let the old run out by use and the new, by default, takes over. Viola!

... but there would still be complaints!

I have trouble loosing one and two dollar coins out of pocket into couches, cars and wherever. I do not remember ever loosing a bill out of my wallet into a couch crevice.

As a coin collector I prefer the loonies and twonies... but started collecting 2-dollar bills when I knew they were on the way out and amassed some assets.

Yep. That's Mary and the baby Jesus.