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Posted on 04/13/2002 6:45:01 PM PDT by WFTR
WASHINGTON - The golden Sacagawea dollar coin was supposed to be jingling in pockets across the country by now. Instead, the U.S. Mint is cutting back on production because people just aren't interested.
For now, the Mint won't make any more new dollar coins for banks, retailers and others to use to make change.
But it will produce some coins for collectors.
Since their much ballyhooed debut just more than two years ago, the golden-colored dollar coins have struggled to catch on and become a staple in cash registers, change purses and pockets. But the sour U.S. economy, which ended up slipping into recession in March, really knocked demand for the coins. In fact, demand for all other U.S. coins is down, experts say.
The Mint ended fiscal year 2001 with about 324 million Sacagawea dollar coins in storage, according to a report by the Treasury Department's Inspector General.
The Mint planned to produce 40 million Sacagawea dollar coins in the second quarter of this fiscal year, something the Inspector General office's didn't think was warranted, the report said. As a result, the Mint recently stopped making new Sacagaweas for circulation, meaning they would be used by banks and businesses in commerce. It plans to suspend production through the rest of this year.
But at least 10 million Sacagaweas will be made this year for numismatic sales, such as coin sets, often purchased by collectors, said Mint spokesman Michael White. Mint facilities in both Philadelphia and Denver will make those dollar coins.
''It's not unusual to adjust production through the year,'' White said.
The dollar coins feature the image of the Shoshone Indian, Sacagawea, who accompanied explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark to the Pacific Ocean in 1805. The coins referred to as either Sacagaweas or Golden Dollars because of their striking golden color.
The inspector general's report pointed out that the Mint still has plenty of Sacagawea dollar coins on hand should there be a pickup in demand for them.
''We estimated that the Mint had approximately 3.6 years inventory of golden dollars in storage or about 88 times more than the Mint's target level,'' the report said.
The report said that shipments of the Sacagawea coins to Federal Reserve, supplier of cash to banks, fell from a high of about 1 billion coins in fiscal year 2000 to less than 90 million in fiscal 2001.
Less than 31 million coins were shipped to the Fed during the first quarter of this fiscal year, the report said. The Mint didn't plan to ship any coins to Federal Reserve banks during the second and third quarters.
Early next year, the Mint, working closely with the Fed banks, will check out demand for the golden dollars and decide whether or not it should resume production coins intended for public circulation.
After the coins came out in January 2000, the Mint ran a multimillion advertising blitz in which a hip George Washington urged people to use them. But banks say there hasn't been much demand for the coins by retailers and retailers say there hasn't been much demand from customers.
Still, the Sacagaweas coins have been in more demand than their predecessor, the Susan B. Anthony coin, White said. Susan Bs show up in pocket change every now and then, though the Mint no longer makes the coins.
The Sacagaweas coins do get used to buy snacks from vending machines, to tip people, and in cases where they are accepted, to feed parking meters, pay tolls and bus fares. And, people like to buy them for gifts.
Secondly, these folks need to realize that in spite of their efforts to manufacture female role models, America isn't interested. Most Americans still view the traditional family as the basic unit of all good societies. While we value the contributions of those women who are not mothers, we see and always will see men as the proper leaders in most circumstances. Our coins should reflect that leadership and the men who have made this country great.
Thirdly, if they want a popular coin, the "Reagan dollar" will be a smash hit. I'm not one of those people who believe that we should try to put President Reagan's face on every item everywhere. I don't think that we should produce this coin until after his death. However, honoring him with a coin would be a proper thing to do, and the coin would be immensely popular. Further attempts to produce these "chick coins" will only lead to more ambivalence about them.
WFTR
Bill
Bill, you are risking hurting the lib’s feelings with this kind of truth. Be cautious, Sacagawea is twice protected. Hell hath no fury like a lib feeling umbrage…
That being said, I like your idea about the Regan Dollar. It would be a tough row to hoe though.
I think the main problem with the Sac dollar catching on is that it hadn’t been distributed well. The only time I ever came across them was as change at the local rail station’s ticket machine. Oddly even that machine was not equipped to accept them. I’d never received them in change for any other purchase or when I made a withdrawal from a bank.
In the future, the treasury department might want to think about coordinating the release of a new coin with major banks and investigating ways to do this with other retailers and cites where cash transactions are conducted.
They also might want to consider, as you point out, dedicating this coin to something other than the flavor of the month political breeze.
Owl _ Eagle
“Guns before butter.”
WFTR
Bill
We have a vending machine at work that takes the dollar coin, and I think that getting vending machines to accept them is a huge part of any coin's gaining popularity. The vending machine devices that accept paper dollars are never reliable, and I like the dollar coins for buying stuff at vending machines. The other place where they are popular is toll roads that charge a dollar. A paper dollar won't work except at the manned booth, and many people don't have tokens.
Maybe I've hurt the liberal's feelings, but at least they aren't as ignorant as they were. (Of course, they'll work hard to regain their ignorance.)
WFTR
Bill
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You have to be impressed by a government sufficiently arrogant to spend our money telling us what coins to use.
Where did they get a picture of her??
I've read that this was the intention. Coins are more cost-effective to produce than paper money. a paper bill has an average lifespan of about a year before it needs to be destroyed and replaced. Coins last about ten years. The treasury thought they'd eventually save a fortune with a $1 coin and that's why they spent so much advertising it.
BTW, I loved the Canadian twoony! I saved a few of them from my trip last year to Vancouver.
Good point! If I remember correctly, they found a young woman at an Indian reservation in South Dakota. The young woman served as a model, and the artist took liberties beyond that. They sorta admit that it was all guesswork, but they only admitted it at the beginning.
I don't like PC coins. But something like walking Liberty might be nice. Though I guess that's a dress, not a skirt, and her figure would be on the reverse.
Perhaps a coin with Reagan on the front and walking Liberty on the back?
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