Why aren't people using the new dollar coin?

The Problem is habit. People are so used to reaching for paper that they don't remember they have change. In fact, there are many people who never spend any change (quarters, dimes or nickels). Instead they empty their pockets on the dresser each night until they have a mound of money.

I spend dollar coins, in fact I occasionally go to the back to buy a roll. I think they are great, although sometimes you get a bit of a pained look from a cashier when you hand him four or five.

A drug store told me that when someone pays with one, they return them to the bank immediately and don't pass them, out of fear someone would be offended. I refrained from pointing out that they were doing the exact opposite of what the government wanted.

Beats me. The only time I ever saw dollar coins was at the post office, when I boughta little over five dollars worth stamps and paid them with a ten dollar bill. The machine returned the cash in dollar coins. I had no trouble spending them in stores, or any other problems whatsoever.

Your vending machine theory makes sense to me.

Dollar coins are better for the environment (since they last longer) and cheaper for the government to make than paper dollars.

The more people who use them, the better.

If that's the explanation, why are we seeing quarters, nickles, dimes, and cents in circulation?

My thought is that the public at large isn't aware that they exist. I just learned of their existence last week and I consider myself a fairly aware person. I've seen nothing about the coins on TV, so US Gov't hasn't seen fit to do any public service advertising to speak of. Perhaps I saw something on Internet about it. Doing an informal unscientific poll of people I know (no one in retail or banking), maybe 30% of the 10 people I asked knew they existed.

IMHO, once people see vending machines change over to accepting them, there'll be more popular acceptance. In the meanwhile, coin collectors may stash them. As a personal habit, I save all my pocket change. In the car, I save quarters for toll booths. At the end of each day, I toss all loose change into a kitty. Once a year, I cash all of it in at a bank and use the folding money on a vacation.

The rest of the coins are not new...cause no attention to them -- having broad acceptance, so they stay in circualtion. There's something fun and curiously fascinating about looking at fresh, newly minted coins. so people leave them at home if they get them at all.

Simple Thomas...

First people are in the habit of having quarters nickels and dimes.

Second, stores don't have any alternative for giving change (you can't avoid giving someone a quarter if the price is $1.75).

Third, even with these facts, there are lots of people who rarely spend change (only receiving it from storekeepers).

If we got rid of paper $1 bills, the dollar coins would soon be the same as quarters.

I've never seen the dollar coin but I would use it.

These are all good reasons.

Me too!

I actually tried to get some from my bank and they told me that they never bothered to order any, but they had two or three lying around that they let me take. I felt like they were abrogating their responsibilities as a bank, although I suppose their only literal responsibility is to make a profit.

The MBTA (public transportation authority) has machines that give the dollar coins as change. This means they are circulated a bit, you see them occasionally. There are people who whine about getting them.

is the us government taking the dollar bills out of circulation, this is what the canadian government did when they introduced the coins, they started removing the bills from circulation and within a few years no more bills

i just wish our one and two dollar coins were a little smaller .
it would have been a good idea to "modernize" our coinage when the one dollar coin came in .
do away with the penny - pardon me : 1 cent .
the 5 cent piece should have been our smallest coin - having the nickel larger than the dime makes no sense to me .
the dollar coin should have ben no larger than a quarter and the "twoonie" just a bit larger .
but will the mint listen to me : NO !

it would also have sense to consider the australian system of "polymer" banknotes - they last longer than paper currency and provide greater safeguards against counterfeiting .
hbg

when they introduced these susan b anthony dollar coins in 1979, it was close enough in size and color to a quarter that it caused mucho confusion...

I really just like the coins because they put "In God we Trust" on the edge instead of on the face, and by doing so, pissed off the evangelical crowd.

I am in favor of any coin that pisses off Christians.

Where do you get them with any frequency (other then the bank)? I only get them when I get a dollar or greater's worth of change from the MTA subway card machine and only on the rare occasion I use cash to pay for my subway card.

The only downside of coins, the loonie and twonie is parking meters and other coin thingys jumped in price. Other than that they are very handy.
The English pound is a tiny coin. It's way smaller than 5 pence but I think it's because it was a late addition.