Why does America still have the dollar bill?

Ok please bear with me as this is just my third thread, and if ive put it in the wrong forum can mods please move it. I was watching tv this evening and a programme with magician David Blaine came on, he asked a passer b if he could borrow a dollar bill, now this hasnt really anything to do with my question but it put a thought in my head with regards to the dollar bill. Now i dont know anything about economics and currency etc so if there are any experts out there i would be grateful if you could give me the answer because its driving me potty. A dollar bill is worth 80p, now, years ago in Britain the pound note was made into a coin. My question is, why hasnt the same happened to the dollar, Americans must have wads and wads of low value dollar bills in their wallets, is there a reason why they havnt been made into coins. A nutty thought came into my head along the lines of they didnt want to lose the all seeing etc and all the other symbols on the notes, Anyone have an answer?

reply to post by thedoctorswife


Because there isn't wads and wads of 1s in our wallets; they get used just as often as any other denomination. (also, we already have them and they don't get used often. The Eisenhower dollar coins are massive, the Susan B. Anthonys look too much like quarters, Sacajawea Dollars, and now the Presidential Dollars: Nobody really seems to want to use them)

Also, turning dollar bills into coins would absolutely ruin the strip club industry.

We've stamped more than a few coins in the 1 dollar denomination, yet they never seem to catch on with the public. So with that in mind, and the fact that it's a couple of cents cheaper per unit to make a paper/cotton bill than it is to make a metal coin, the dollar bill remains the medium of choice.

reply to post by eNumbra
Ha ha, now we know what you like to do in your spare time! (only joking), but dont you think it would be easier to have coins rather than notes? Just a thought.

reply to post by eNumbra


LOL

Ok that image just made my day.

As a former waitress, I can't imagine walking around with all that coin jingling in my apron pocket.

Without the 1$ bill - The Gangsta wad would just be a slim pickin - Also it gives illusion to the idea that the single american dollar has worth.

Originally posted by thedoctorswife
reply to post by eNumbra

 

but dont you think it would be easier to have coins rather than notes? Just a thought.

*shrugs*

I've never seen a huge difference, some people treat change as though it's an expendable and unnecessary burden. Coins make that unsettling jangling noise in your pockets as you walk (not that many Americans even seem to do much of that any more; but in a city like New York, pedestrians might drown out the traffic if we switched to coined dollars.)

I don't mind them. Hell, I enjoy paying with our $2 bills every once in a while just to see people's reactions.

reply to post by erumisato

yes, i see, i can remember when the pound coin was introduced in the UK, there was quite an uproar about it, most people thought it would devalue the pound, and to this day, the coin doesnt feel like its worth as much as a note , when you had notes it seemed like you had really money in your pocket rather than a few bits of metal.

reply to post by Gradius Maximus
I have to agree with you there, i went to new york a few years ago, and the note did feel like it had some worth because it was paper. However i wonder why there isnt a specific reason why the government hasnt introduced them.

Didin't I read somewhere that the US treasury has huge stockpiles of dollar coins? The American people just don't like the coins and prefer to use paper dollars.

As pointed out in previous posts, the British pound note was replaced by a coin a ling time ago. Interesting that us Brits accept a coin and our cousins across the pond hold on to the note.

As things go, it won't be long until whether you have a dollar or a pound in your pocket.

Canada has replaced both the one and two dollar bills with coins. Personally, I prefer the coins. We also have had some fun with them, as certain paranoid people in the US government have thought we are spying on them.

www.msnbc.msn.com...

Canada’s largest coins include its $2 “Toonie,” which is more than 1-inch across and thick enough to hide a tiny transmitter. The CIA has acknowledged its own spies have used hollow, U.S. silver-dollar coins to hide messages and film.

In a U.S. government warning high on the creepiness scale, the Defense Department cautioned its American contractors over what it described as a new espionage threat: Canadian coins with tiny radio frequency transmitters hidden inside.

This was with our 25 cent piece, when we put a poppy design on them:
www.foxnews.com...

The odd-looking — but harmless — "poppy coin" was so unfamiliar to suspicious U.S. Army contractors traveling in Canada that they filed confidential espionage accounts about them. The worried contractors described the coins as "anomalous" and "filled with something man-made that looked like nano-technology," according to once-classified U.S. government reports and e-mails obtained by the AP.

Also, turning dollar bills into coins would absolutely ruin the strip club industry.

With inflation these days, a dollar sounds kinda cheap. In Canada, provided there is still any clothing to put anything into, it would have to be at least a five. Nothing smaller in a bill up here

reply to post by thedoctorswife


Its amazing especially if you have travelled and experienced different parts of the world.

A single us dollar is so much money in much of the rest of the world.

When you travel to mexico, south america, africa and any of the asian sectors you will realize that their paper money is really quite worthless.

But really, I look at a single dollar in Canada and its not much different then a penny, What can you buy with a dollar now days? Not much.

Originally posted by erumisato
We've stamped more than a few coins in the 1 dollar denomination, yet they never seem to catch on with the public. So with that in mind, and the fact that it's a couple of cents cheaper per unit to make a paper/cotton bill than it is to make a metal coin, the dollar bill remains the medium of choice.

It might be cheaper to make paper money but I imagine it has to be replaced WAY more often, coins will last 30-50 years easily and still be in a good enough state to stay in circulation.

reply to post by thedoctorswife


because you don't understand the symbolic properties displayed on the graphics of the paper.

the pyramid is representative of the stretch of time between july 4 , 1776 and dec 21, 2012.

once dec 21, 2012 is reached then you can have a different currency.
a global currency.

the pyramid is a map.. the eye is the universal "eye of horus" which is the pineal gland.. activating through the most genetically prone individuals in the "melting pot" of america...

when the pineal glands of these people awaken...
their endocrine systems will go on fire and transform their bodies into super humans.

yes.

sssssuper *snip* humans....


you will see super heroes...

this is CHRIST. embodied..

this is horus encompassed.

it's going to be a very rocky road as these people adjust and as the powers that be attempt to grasp hold of their wildsports...

but.. it's what's going to happen.. and it's been foretold through preconditioned programming in the likes of "Heroes" "the 4400" .. ""lost" .. "the event"..etc...

your jaws will drropp.

when you witness the real christ... the messianic age of humanity... the plural embodiment of evolution.


Mod Edit: Profanity/Circumvention Of Censors – Please Review This Link.

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reply to post by prevenge


It's this kind of ground breaking rational thinking that keeps me coming back to ATS every day!

Well done to you Sir!

Actually you may wish to consider that the one dollar note is minted according to Federal Reserve. The one dollar coins are minted by the US Treasury. While they initially cost more to produce, we do not have to pay them back with interest to the Federal Reserve.

So the question as to why coins fail and bills remain has much to do with manipulated perspectives. If all denominations were switched over to coin, the country would be better off. And once the Fed tanks from no one using their notes, we would then become free to print our own.

But when it comes right down to it, they are both fairly worthless because their only value is public perception, since they are only backed by words and not tangible commodities like gold, silver, or other precious metals.

Originally posted by Tykonos

Originally posted by eNumbra
reply to post by thedoctorswife

 

Also, turning dollar bills into coins would absolutely ruin the strip club industry.

Woudn't they weigh the knickers down? maybe a bonus.

I about spit soda all over my computer at this comment. It reminded me of my buddies bachelor party. Because a few of the guys were under 21, we went to Canada to the strip clubs.. Yeah, its weird chucking dollar coins at the strippers on stage, and might I add when you are drunk, its not always a low powered throw, but thats another story.

I think someone already covered it, but yeah. Americans aren't keen on a dollar coin (no idea why). We do have them, though. It might have something to do with how our Government makes changes to our currency, yet for some reason private business doesn't pay attention. There is a local Hospital that has a change machine in the middle of there after hours snack area (Soda, frozen food etc). It gives out dollar Sacajawea coins, which is not so bad. Apparently the people who supply the vending machines though missed the memo, and the dollar coins can't be used in the machines. The Machines do not recognize it as real currency.

At the rate the US is going, it would not surprise me if we phased out the dollar bill back in the 70's with the passage of a large bill that never got read.