The Gold Dollar In Everyday Use--So Tiny!

I don't think it saw much use, and for precisely that very reason.

Considering there was a change in diameter between the three non-commemoratie types, which one was the most common/popular overall? (combined mintage, contemporary circulation early/at the end of gold circulation). 13mm is too small for a coin for practical reasons (easy to lose), but the 15mm piece was the approx. size of a Half Dime, and considering we had 15mm coins in circulation is Sweden up until 1990, I can imagine them being large enough for practical use.

[Modern issue] How widespread was the usage of the dollar note and coin? Was the dollar coin common among the "less fortunate" (i.e. poor people, working class)?

Many interesting thoughts that came to mind here.

Here in Russia, we had 15mm coins in circulation up until 1991 (Soviet 1 kopek), and then 15.5mm coins (also 1 kopek) from 1997 to 2009* (these are technically still circulating, having never been demonetized - I actually got some in change last year - but the .015 US cent face value makes them pretty much useless for actual purchases).

I think the world's smallest circulating coin from the last 30 or so years by straight diameter is the Spanish 1 peseta (1989-2001), at 14 mm. But it is a lot thicker than most tiny coins (not sure if that made it easier to lose or harder).



*) some were also issued in 2014, apparently for recently occupied Crimea

They were't normally carried in pockets either but in coin pouches.

I know of a couple of sites where gold dollars were found in quantity and they both were Civil War Union camps where payroll was distributed. Imagine soldiers lined up at a folding table in a quartermaster's tent taking a small group of gold dollars in their handkerchiefs and how easy to drop a few when pulling it out next time to pay for smokes at the Sutler's wagon. Yet gold dollars sure beat out pinches of gold dust, an even more unsuitable exchange medium.

I thought the soldiers were usually paid in paper.

With our currency as debased as it is I wonder where it will all end? Given that our entire economy is floating on close to zero interest rates how does that affect the price of gold and silver and silver and gold coins. There is tremendous pressure to borrow and speculate and negative incentive to save. Where and how does this end? A 30 year treasury note only returns 2.6% on your money each year. If you had a million dollars in such bonds that would mean gross income of just $26,000 a year before tax. I am pretty sure a million dollars today will only be worth about 40 percent of that in 30 years if we are lucky. The house next door on a city lot is selling for almost a million dollars.