Over A Billion Dollar Coins Sitting In Gov. Vaults.

The government has nobody to blame but themselves, there are dozens of things they could have done to avoid having that stockpile. I for one will continue to spend the dollar coins because they are convenient, but the government needs to do their part as well.

But we don't have that many, several times over.

I use modern Dollar coins all the time. Every vending machine I've used in the last few years in Denver takes $1 coins. Not to mention that Denver's parking meters take $1 coins, but not paper notes.

My favorite use for Dollars is the car wash. Once you can drop one or two coins in instead of fumbling around with 4 or 8 Quarters, you'll never want to wash your car with Quarters again.

On my road trip to Seattle, I took rolls of $1 coins with me. Every vending machine I encountered on the trip accepted $1 coins. However, the car wash I used in Boise, Idaho did not. And my car was covered with bugs. Nothing like having to plunk in 24 Quarters when six Dollar coins would have done the same job.

A company called The Danbury Mint ran ads on television about selling tubes of 12 Presidential dollars for about $35 each and stressed how "collectors are snatching each presidential coin as soon as they come out, that's why you don't see them in everyday circulation," which isn't completely true (More like few businesses give them out in change and not enough people are aware of them to insist on receiving them at the bank instead of dollar bills).

Sure, there are people who collect the coins, and some who buy rolls of each president (Personally, I've bought one of each year of the Native American dollar series), but I think it's safe to say that there are few who hoard large quantities of these. As the coin dealer whom I visit frequently once said, "There's collecting coins as a hobby, and then there's hoarding them, and then never selling them or selling them at the wrong time."

Also, I've seen this with some commercials for the State, Territory, and National Park quarters, but it's misleading when the commercial states "Collectors are paying upwards of $6 for one uncirculated Presidential dollar coin." Sure, in a high mint-state or with a satin finish, but not average uncirculated.

https://www.danburymint.com/secure/...=dollarrolls

I've never even seen one of the new-type dollars here in the Boston area, just an occasional Sacagawea that comes out of the change machine in one downtown parking garage. None of my friends or relatives know that there is even a dollar coin in existence, much less 'circulating'!

Heh, I was in Boston a couple of days ago and the ticket machines for the T dispense dollars as change. During my trip to the World's Fair of Money at the Hynes Convention Center last August, I got 15 of them in change from a 20 (a mix of SBA's, Sacagaweas, Presidential, and Native American dollars). On this trip, I deposited five SBA's into the machine to add value to my ticket.

This story made the national TV news last nite, pretty good video inside the vault they built specifically for these dollar coins...
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032619...ws/#43786718

They also talk with the legislator that created the program, and he admits they made a mistake.

Get rid of the one dollar note now.