Congress Considers Making Change For The Dollar Again Lawmakers Say $1 Coin Would Save Money

This year, Congress just might pass the buck - and send the one-dollar bill into oblivion, in favor of a coin.

The proposal to eliminate the greenback and replace it with a coin has met resistance in Congress and skepticism from the public for a decade.

But with the support of the GOP majority and 238 cosponsors, who see a $22 million-a-year savings in the shift, the greenback’s days could be numbered.

But before you stop searching for a crisp bill at the soda machine and reach for a copper coin, keep in mind that many people and interests still support the venerable greenback.

Supporters such as Rep. Jim Kolbe, R-Ariz., say the shift to a coin is a proconsumer change that has worked recently in other countries, including Canada.

“Many mass-transit systems, vending machines operators, and other businesses spend literally millions of dollars a year sorting paper dollars,” said Jim Kolbe, who has sponsored the legislation for nine years.

“A coin dollar would eliminate a great deal of labor-intensive work, with the savings passed on to consumers. It’s simply more convenient to handle coins as opposed to paper.”

House leaders are attracted to the long-term savings estimated by the Congressional Budget Office: $122 million over five years.

That’s because coins last 30 years, compared with the 18-month lifespan of the average bill.

But defenders of the greenback discount big savings and warn that the public isn’t ready for such a big change to more change.

An ex-director of the U.S. Mint, David Ryder, said the switch would not benefit the average consumer as much as it would the vending industries.

“They will have to refit the machines, which will be a cost passed on to the consumer,” Ryder said.

“Products that cost less than a dollar will have their prices raised to recoup the money they spent.”

Ryder also said that creating a manufacturing line to mint the coin and launching a campaign to persuade the public could be expensive.

“If we go from the one-dollar bill to the coin and force people to do something they don’t want to do, then it could be as big a flop as the `Susie,”’ said Peter Mirijanian of Powell Tate, the public relations firm representing the Save the Greenback Coalition.

The Susie, or the Susan B. Anthony one-dollar coin, introduced in 1979 as an alternative to the dollar bill, was so poorly accepted that the U.S. Mint spends $35,000 a year to store more than 122 million coins, which would cost too much to destroy.

Kolbe’s bill, which had 238 co-sponsors last year, mandates the coin not as an alternative but a replacement for the greenback. Backers of the change say that consumers would get used to fishing coins out of pockets and purses instead of crumpled bills.

There are other forces involved in the debate. Many blind Americans say a dollar coin would make their lives easier. A women’s group in Mount Vernon, Va., home of George Washington, complains that the demise of the greenback would be a slight to the first president.

Then there are the mining interests. Kolbe’s state, Arizona, leads the nation in copper production, followed by Utah, New Mexico and Michigan.

It’s no surprise that Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., chairman of the Budget Committee, is a leading sponsor of the dollar coin in the Senate. Skeptical consumers are divided by the proposal.

“When they had the Susan B. Anthony, I used it a lot because it was very convenient,” said Michael Barett, 59, of Virginia. “A coin would be easier to use at a vending machine. Or if you are at a parking meter, you don’t have to carry four quarters, you can just use one coin.”

Sheila Sites of West Virginia doesn’t like the idea.

“It would be a lot more hassle because I don’t like to carry change as it is,” she said.