I'm not one of those people who falls over himself trying to be patriotic, but when the opportunity presents itself I'm all for doing what I can for my country. To that end, I've been trying these last several weeks to do something that's good for our country's economy--heaven knows we need to do something. The problem, however, is that I'm trying to save money at the government level, not my own . . . and no one else seems to want to do that. Let me show you:
The dollar coin--whether we're talking about the new presidential series, the Sacagawea coin, or the Susan B. Anthony dollar--has, quite simply, no downside. Here are the three reasons why I encourage everyone to use the dollar coins:
- The cost to produce a dollar bill is 3.8 cents, and each bill lasts about a year and a half; production cost for the dollar coin is about 8 cents, and it lasts about 30 years. You can do the math any way you want, but we're looking at a cost savings of $120 to $180 million annually.
- Coins are harder to counterfeit than paper bills. When you think of all the time, materials, and manpower that goes into investigating counterfeit currency--not to mention all that goes into checking for counterfeit cash at the retail level--then the coin creates even more cost savings.
- Instead of complaining (as some seem to be doing) that the coins are "inconvenient" at the $1 level, people might realize that this is a prime opportunity for the marketing firms in this country. By making the dollar coin mainstream we open up a whole new market in coin purses and holders and belt clips and whatever else we may need to MAKE these coins easier to use. They can sell us all kinds of things to make the dollar coin easy to use. Yay, economy.
So you see, I'm trying to do my part. At this point, it means going to the bank every week or so and turning in my dollar bills for coins, and using them. More people need to do this. It's simple, and it'll work.
* From Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew. See? Dollar coins have worked before . . .
