Dollar Bills By Year 2020?

Here's the issue with dollar coins:

1. The Ike dollars were too big to be practical.
2. The SBA dollars were too close to quarters
3. The Sac/Pres dollars contain manganese, which turns them an ugly color almost immediately
4. Americans will not carry around loose coins to spend. It either goes in your wallet, or in your change jar at home.

In order for the dollar coin to be successful, it would need to be small enough to carry, impossible to mistake for a quarter, and accepted widely enough (e.g. in vending machines) that people will carry them. As it is, most people use $20 or $100 bills for transactions over $5, so if they can't be bothered to carry around a wallet full of $1 bills, why would they have a pocket stuffed with $1 coins?

Only a few more years till 2020. However, I predict in about the year 2030, our entire currency system will be all electronic anyway. Might take a bit longer for some areas where computerazation is slower, but look around now and see just how little cash is being used. Watch any store. Every time I go to a store, I see less and less people using cash. I've seen women paying with a credit card for sales less than a dollar. My Son never uses cash for anything. Look our toll roads. More and more are going with electronic devices you put in your window of your car. No cash required. More and more companies are suggesting you pay electronically. No cash, no checks, just a computer. Look around you. Gas stations now have pumps where you can wave your card at them. I've heard some vending machines are now credit card friendly. Why worry about the dollar bill?

I think the Lincoln Cent will go before the $1 bill does, but both will be gone by 2020.


Fixed it for you.

My question is how does Canada handle the coins for all denominations up through $2? From my experience as a cashier, the only Americans who carry coins are women with a coin pouch in their purse/wallet, people who just got change back from their last transaction, and people who deliberately plan to make a purchase at a vending machine or gas station.

I'm with just carl on this. The widespread use of the half, $2, and $1 coins will never happen. It's much more convenient for for people to use a debit card versus cash. Physical cash is becoming an oddity even now, so in the future it will be used even less. Cash is dying, and the odd denominations are all but extinct.

pretty sure I voted coins should replace the bill, but probably wont do so.

the thing is if people using the electronic payment forms don't care, why should their voice count? they don't use the coins or paper, and coins last longer than paper, and cost about the same to make. it will happen if the gov decides to end the paper $1. vendors take electronic payments now so why should they care what type of $1 is used, coin or bill? bill collectors has to be near the slot to keep them in and coin have gravity to pull them away to leave more room for coins before you get a jam when it can no longer accept them. most vending machines cannot handle giving cash for larger bills either, but it could issue coin dollars as change just like any other coin by resupplying itself.

the issue just has to be force like the removal of the half-dime, 3-cents piece, etc. 1 generation down the line they wont care. In spending halves yesterday the woman had seen various coins from other country, but NEVER a Kennedy half before and had to ask a manager if it was money. that just proves the generation gap exists and money will move on however it is made and people will learn to use it with each new generation.

Why does the opinion of people that don't even use cash matter in the discussion of cash types? It is like asking someone that hate chocolate how you should make your chocolate chip cookies. it is of no use and their opinion has little value since they are not really part of the target users?

No worries jbuck. The half is not exactly "phased out" It is just currently not being minted for circulation, same currently true with the dollar coin. The U.S. Mint has already stated that, the half dollar denomination will NOT be discontinued and will strike more halves when the current supply runs out. And there is proof the the half still being listing on the U.S. Mint's website, with pictures and information as a "current" denomination. Now, I would consider halves "phased out" if I could not have a bank or credit union order them at will. Something they can not do with Half Cents, 2 cent, 3 cent, 20 cent coins and/or $500, $1,000, $5,000 and $10,000 bills.

Anyway, I see no reason why the goverment shouldn't make a penny-sized copper or golden colored half if they phased out the cent and the $1 bill, seeing as most five-slot cash registers would have places for halves, dollar coins and $2 bills, with the demise of the cent and the $1 bill. Why not use all three denominations when given the chance?

Now I know some people think that two quarters do the job good enough, that we don't need a half. Well, obviously, at one time, the government felt we did, and I think a penny-sized half would be nice to carry, especially, if it were lighter than one quarter, let alone, the two quarters that the current size half weighs. I'm not a weak person that can't carry heavy change. In fact, I don't mind carrying heavy change at all, but I would rather carry less denominations of both, bills and coins, and a nice, small half that would work in vending machines would be fantastic.

All the arguments that "americans won't...." etc I don't believe. Americans are not different to other people. If the coins are what they need to spend, and what they get given, they'll use them, and they won't notice the difference except maybe in strip clubs.

The problem is the government, and the this just doesn't work for the people, but will use any argument it can to make sure big business keeps its profits. And there is a company that stands to lose if the dollar bills go, so they won't go. Simple as.