It's the refusal of the US Government to stop printing the $1 bill, plain and simple. It's pure politics. Crane Paper company lobbying, people who don't like any kind of change, and people with a firm attitude of "Don't tell me what to do!"
Because the $1 bill is worth so little, people pay with that. And they are reluctant to both pull out their wallets for paper and reach into their pockets for coins. They'll do just one. And in most cases that's to pull out paper. Then they get change. And they don't like all that change because they don't spend it (they pull out only paper, remember), so they take it home at night and throw it in a jar. Dump the $1 bill, and people will pay for small purchases with coins - and they won't have the coin build-up problem. It's that easy. But with a few exceptions no politician has the cojones to do it. I get dollar coins from the bank downstairs at work and I pay with them. I do not worry about what the merchant thinks; I'm making a statement. I won't, however, give them the old Susan B. Anthony coins because those DO look like quarters (silver color, ribbed edge). For those, I spend them in a parking meter or add their value to my Washington Metro stored-value card at the ticket vending machine. Carleton From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of John Frewen-Lord Sent: Wednesday, August 11, 2010 04:16 To: U.S. Metric Association Subject: [USMA:48351] US $1 coins While Canada has had a $1 coin for years (and Canadians far prefer it), Americans still resist such a coin, according to this article on the BBC website today: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-10783019 All the coin's dimensions are in metric units, with the source of those measurements being the US Mint, so obviously not converted by the BBC. One of the things that has always amazed me about America, especially for a country that is, in the eyes of much (though not all) of the world, the essence of progressiveness and modernity, is how much of America is actually very resistant to change, far more than say Europe, where history and tradition is so much more entrenched. I wonder if this US resistance to change is behind the deep opposition to changing over to the metric system? Whatever the reasons, this resistance to change wil be America's downfall in the end. John F-L
