Are Presidential Dollars Over?

I like the smaller is better idea. Realistically, coins the size of silver dollars and halves are simply too big for pockets and purses. People don't like the smaller dollar coins because they are too similar in size to quarters.

Well...why not just make them thicker? I mean really...if I reach into my pocket and feel two coins about the size of a quarter, but one is twice as thick as the other - I know which is the dollar and which is the quarter.

So the vending machine companies will have to adapt. It's not like they've never had to do that before.

I've got to disagree there. The euro coins have a common side and a national side - where the national side has to have some common elements, but can, and do, change. No one has any less trust in the euro because of this.

In my mind, the only way to bring back trust to the "almighty" dollar is for the government to stop doing things that debase the dollar. It is unrealistic to expect silver to be present in circulating coinage to the extent it was in the past. Heck, even a silver junk dime is worth more than a dollar. But a copper coin plated in 1-2 grams of silver would work. So would a coin like the toonie or the 1- and 2-euro coins, where a gram or so of silver was in the middle.