Dollar Coin Idea "Gaining" Popularity?

Oh wow, simple answer to a question I had for a while. Thanks Foxwoods Man. I am heading out the door (down to Maine with $20 dollars in Kennedy's) and hope to read more on this later.

We nearly have a paper-based fractional currency system now, just like after the civil war. People are used to it and the government will have to drive the change if it wants it.
All we need are 10c, 50c, $1 and $2 coins. Round to nearest 10c on cash transactions and slowly retire the 25c in favor of a 50c coin. This would also give businesses room for a $5 coin.
We just need some gutsy leaders in Congress to push it...lol...good luck on that.

The Canadians and the UK have proven that the elimination of smaller bills and coins works well. It takes action and initiative to do it, but that is unlikely in the USA. While I don't see it happening, I think the USA would quickly adapt to the dollar coin and a $2 coin if the paper bills of the same value were eliminated. Sure, there is going to be grumbling and accusations that it is a Democrat or Republic plot to cause mayhem (depending on who initiates it...) but it would save money in the long run.

The people that make your jeans won't have anyone to sell their scraps to.....

Why? They use the same scraps for making the paper for the 2, 5, 10, 20, 50 and 100 dollar notes. And if they stop making dollar notes, they will wind up making more 2 dollar notes. So Crane paper and their employees won't get hurt much.

How about plastic coins?

Just imagine: a whole pocketful of $10 plastic eagles? , even with a StGaudens design!
Or would you prefer a pocketful of gold eagles?

I suspect what we will eventually end up with though, will be eagles made from aluminum or manganese bronze. Both of these alloys are good for coins with a nice gold color, both when freshly minted, and in a heavily circulated condition. They could be of an almost piedfort thickness, to give them a nice tactile feel of (false?) value. I would like to see some really nice neo classical American designs for $5 and $10 yellow base metal coins.

Plastic banknotes have been widely accepted in other countries for up to 20 years. We all use plastic debit and / or credit.

Foxwoods Man: Please God no! Although I was rather taken with the OP's planned series of dog themed $2.00 coins...
One must needs levity on this heavy duty board, methinlks...

I find that the US has a similar condition of small denomination paper money replaced by coin to Indonesia before 2010.

Both the paper Rp 1000 (printed starting 1968, and is smallest paper money denomination, as of 1999 or 2000 I think, I wasn't old enough to remember what was circulating, but the smaller denominations were not withdrawn until 30 November 2006, still exchangeable for new money until 29 November 2016 even though inflation meant that they were worthless) and the thick and heavy nickel-and-brass bimetallic coins were circulating (the largest circulating coin denomination from 1993 to date). It was the heaviest one by far for its time, and just shy of being the heaviest for all circulating Rupiah coins (heaviest coin was minted only in 1973, this one was minted starting from 1993).

My mom has a person she often buys groceries from in the wet market. When I was really young, she sometimes changed paper bills with those coins (the coins for me to have, but I've mostly lost them, if not I'll have a lot of money now, saving that, 1000, 2000, 3000...), and the man once said to her, "Most of the time, nobody wants these for their change!"

The bimetallic coins were unpopular and they were not minted after 2000. So for the next 10 years only the paper bills were issued. In 2010, they introduced a smaller and lighter nickel-plated steel coin, weighing just a little more than half the of the original bimetallic coin. They were not widely used. You see one occasionally in your change but more often you get the may-not-be-old-but-smelly bills (yes, they do get worn very quickly, one issued at the beginning of the year might be badly torn by the end of the year).

The government stopped printing the bills in 2012. It was then that the coins began getting common. But even today, there are still a lot of the Rp 1000 bills circulating, as the government is not withdrawing them (at least not yet, in a few years they will be withdrawn and become "expired money" too, you can't exchange it for new money anymore).

So in conclusion here for the coins to be widely accepted you have to stop making more paper money of the same denomination. Especially if the denomination is considered large for a coin but small for paper money.