Should Sbas Be Left In Circulation If We Ax The $1 Bill?

There are some very serious technical issues with your proposal. Golden dollars are clad, not plated, so there is no process in place to electroplate SBAs. Electroplating a coin(or anything for that matter) requires a clean surface so every single SBA would have to be thoroughly cleaned first, adding additional cost to the procedure. Currently, the electromagnetic signature for an SBA and golden dollar are identical. Electroplating a cupronickel SBA with brass would change its electromagnetic signature, rendering it useless for vending applications. It would be pointless to melt SBAs since the Treasury would actually lose money do so, their face value by far exceeds the melt value.

The population of currently-circulating SBAs is already fairly low so it is not like there is a massive surplus of them like the Pres dollars. Low inventory levels were the reason why SBA production was cranked up again in 1999 after the longest break in history for any US coinage series, there was simply not enough left to meet commercial needs(primarily USPS stamp vending machines and mass transit ticket machines).

I agree with many others here - there is no reason to do anything to the SBA - just start spending them. The easiest way to do that would be for the government to stop printing new dollars and say we are done.

I received a SBA dollar coin in my change today at the post office.

The SBA are to hard to tell apart from quarters at a quick glance for cashiers.

The gold (now blackened or some other horrible shade of NOT GOLD after a month in circulation) dollar coins are easier to tell what they are a ta quick glance.

Since I try to spend halves and dollar coins I get from rolls before I have to turn them back in to the bank to get a new hauls worth I have gotten all kinds of questions from cashiers as to "are these real, what are these, etc" and even had a few count out the halves as if they were dollar coins and had to correct them so as not to rip the store off and the SBA dollars really throw them off mainly due to their size.

I tend to agree that the SBA's were a dismal failure, however I don't see that as being enough of a reason to pull them from circulation, besides maybe I'll get lucky and find a 1979P wide rim in my change. I would also like to see an American version of the Toonie as I think that particular Canadian coin is the most attractive circulating coin out there.

Okay, here's my solution...
1. US Mint picks out SBAs from circulation.
2. US Mint makes SBA-shaped rings that say something like "UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, LIBERTY, FREEDOM, SECOND AMENDMENT RIGHTS, ETC." and have a dead president (preferably more than one) on them.
3. US Mint mints the SBAs into the rings and stamps a "TWO" over the "ONE" on the SBA.
4. US Mint makes massive profits over collectors trying to collect all possible SBA date/new date combinations (like Spanish pesetas).

From what I can see the dollar coin in the US has NEVER been utilised to it's full extent.
You only have to look at the condition of the Morgan and Peace dollars available to see that they were not circulated much.
The Ike's and the new SBA type coins are pretty much in the same boat.
If the Dollar note was made redundant I would imagine the Dollar coins would finally get used simply because there would be no other way to make change.

The changeover from Stirling to decimal went rather smoothly in Aus.
3 coin sizes were retained 5,10 and 20 cent replacing the 6d,1/- and the florin.
A new coin was created the 50 cents.
we had 1 and 2 cent coins but these were demonetised in the 90's .
When the 1 and 2 dollar notes ceased to be made (old ones are still legal tender) 2 new coins were created the 1 and 2 dollars.
These 1 and 2 dollar coins are probably the MOST used coins here in Aus.