"Lew 1" wrote in message
...

I had trouble enough trying to get rid of some $1 coins that an airport
vending machine gave me some years back. Not really knowing the US
monetary
system and being used to a £1 coin, I was most bemused to find that nearly
every shop I tried to spend it in ending up examing it, raising eyebrows
and
in one case, calling over a supervisor.

Ignorance?

If they still use the $1 note, why
have a coin as well? Were they an experiment? Are they still minted?


They are certainly still being minted. They started a dollar-coin minting
campaign about a year ago with all the deceased US presidents, as a matter
of fact.

There have been US 1-dollar coins in circulation synonymously with the
1-dollar note on and off for the past 30 years at least. There were the
Eisenhower dollars of the 1970s, which are roughly the size of a 5-pound
coin. Then, in the late 1970s/early 1980s, they started minting the Susan B.
Anthony dollars. I understood that this was to be a real effort to eliminate
the dollar banknote, though the coins' size was too close to a 25-cent
piece, which created confusion. AIUI, the SBAs were never really popular,
though they were useful in vending machines.

Then came the Sacagawea dollars of the late 1990s, which are larger than
SBAs. I don't know how popular those coins are or not, but as long as the
dollar note continues to exist in circulation, I don't think that they are
going to gain that much popularity. I am also guessing that coins from the
presidential dollar campaign will mostly be hoarded, rather than used in
circulation, as long as the dollar-note exists.

I have heard that one reason they don't do away with the dollar note with
its image of George Washington is psychological as the 1-dollar note is
probably one of the foremost symbols of the United States. Take that away
and what do you have, so the thinking might go. This could have adverse
effects.

I have also found myself wondering why the Federal Reserve does not issue a
multi-sided coin, if they were really serious about eradicating the dollar
note. This would avoid confusion with other coins and not require it to be
so big, as was the case with the Eisenhower or Liiberty dollars.