Jul 14, 2011 2:33pm
$1 Billion in Coins Nobody Wants
EmailABC News' Jonathan Karl (@jonkarl) went to the U.S. Mint in Philadelphia – it is a big, noisy, busy operation, capable of minting nearly 2 million presidential dollar coins daily. But most of those coins go into storage, never seeing the light of day. Costing 32 cents apiece to produce, these manganese brass dollars have proven unpopular with a public that prefers paper.
ABC News went to one such storage facility, the Federal Reserve in Baltimore, where the coins are in plastics bags and cardboard boxes, stacked one on top of another, creating several aisles of presidential coinage worth millions of dollars.
Watch "World News with Diane Sawyer" for more on this story tonight on ABC.
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Pssst, I will take them, i have no shame.
Posted by: deadwrestler | July 14, 2011, 2:38 pm 2:38 pm
The last time people used dollar coins was when the coins couldn’t be confused with a quarter. Take a hint, mint! STOP MAKING DOLLAR COINS THAT ARE THE SAME SIZE AND SHAPE AS A QUARTER!!!
Posted by: Me | July 14, 2011, 3:10 pm 3:10 pm
Remember when coins were supposed to replace the $1 bill because they last longer? Why not get rid of them all together and save the Billion. Melt down what has been made and use in other coins.
Posted by: kay | July 14, 2011, 3:38 pm 3:38 pm
I’ll take ‘em!
Posted by: Jane Doe | July 14, 2011, 4:02 pm 4:02 pm
Dollar coins aren’t liked because they weigh more than the paper dollar, clink together in your pocket as you walk, and there’s no place to legally put them when you’re in certain bars.
Posted by: Obvious | July 14, 2011, 4:09 pm 4:09 pm
These days most people use plastic and I bet if you distributed the coins we would get over it.
Posted by: nonofmybiznez | July 14, 2011, 4:50 pm 4:50 pm
The tresury needs to stop printing dollar bills, nickels, and pennies. It costs tax payers billions to continue the fantasy that pennies and nickels are worth having. Dollar coins cost more to preduce, but they last a lot longer than bills, so it saves tax dollars. The Congress won’t face the reality becuase the public whines they like the worthless coins and the paper dollar.
Posted by: Greggw | July 14, 2011, 5:18 pm 5:18 pm
This is government at “its best”….
…STOP MINTING MORE IDIOTS!
Posted by: Patrick | July 14, 2011, 5:21 pm 5:21 pm
Stop producing paper dollars and force people to use the dollar coins. Canada faced the same issues several years ago but forced the change. Now they want to get rid of $5 bills and inexchange for coins.
Posted by: Cody | July 14, 2011, 6:00 pm 6:00 pm
It’s really a pretty good scam. Mint the Presidential quarters for 32 cents, package 5 of them in a plastic case that costs 50 cents to make and then sell them to numismatists for $10 a pop. It’s a great money making tool! Most of the Presidential wind up in collections, never being spent, so the government makes even more off them. Its a good deal for the government!
Posted by: Brian | July 14, 2011, 6:32 pm 6:32 pm
i’d love to use them. why the hell are they in storage? just push them into circulation while retiring old bills. people will get over it in no time.
Posted by: tom | July 14, 2011, 7:01 pm 7:01 pm
The government will immediately save money when they quit makeing paper dollars and force people to use the coins. How many single dollars do most people have in their pocket anyway?
Posted by: Sherrill | July 14, 2011, 7:02 pm 7:02 pm
I am outraged at this waste of tax dollars. Why can’t the government run any program with competence? Give the pro-rata share of these coins to the unemployed.
Posted by: G seidule | July 14, 2011, 7:05 pm 7:05 pm
We get $50 of these coins from our credit union every week and spend them on small purchases, tips, etc. We have been doing this for about 2 years, trying to do our part to get them into circulation! Unfortunately, many people view them as curiosities and want to “save” them. If we had to use them instead of paper I doubt people would be hoarding them.
Posted by: Sherrill | July 14, 2011, 7:05 pm 7:05 pm
I think the idea of a dollar coin is good but they made the mistake of continuing to print dollars and then complain that people didn’t use the coins. Just stop printing the dollar and the people will have to use them. That’s what Canada did and Canadians have accepted the dollar and two dollar coins. Our government is just stupid.
Posted by: Alan | July 14, 2011, 7:07 pm 7:07 pm
Make dollar coins, STOP making dollar bills. We are the last country in the world to have a note of this little value. The 1 Euro ($1.45) is a coin, Pound Sterling ($2.45) is a coin, 10 Mexican Pesos ($1.10) is a coin. A dollar coin is much more efficient to produce because of thier long life (about 12X longer than a note.
Posted by: Bill A | July 14, 2011, 7:10 pm 7:10 pm
if your going to make so much and nobody wants them then donate them. give them to the government. Give them to food banks,shelters,or even to hospitals. stop leaving them ever were or some day the world cold be covered with them.
Posted by: jenny | July 14, 2011, 7:20 pm 7:20 pm
pretty soon it wont matter paper,plastic or coin it will be worthless.
Posted by: William | July 14, 2011, 7:20 pm 7:20 pm
A bottle of coke once cost a dime. Today it costs a dollar. A dollar bill is now only worth a dime. Why are we spending over $1 billion annually to replace almost every dollar bill? Why are we still making dimes in paper that must be trashed every 15 months?
The entire world uses only coins for something as trivial as a dollar. Only the US wastes over $1 billion annually making dollars in paper. The coin dollar bill is still in circulation 20 years later.
Obvious, dollar bills in paper should have been eliminated long ago. The Brits, Europeans, and even Canadian use coins for $2 and $3 currency. Nobody is so foolish as to make tiny currency in paper. It costs too much.
Why did the ABC reporter not finish his investigation? We could save $1 billion annually by eliminating paper dollar bills. But that meant he did full research.
The reporter should have discussed other waste. A penny that has no purpose – that cannot purchases anything any more. Today’ dime is only worth a penny. We should be talking about replacing the paper $5 bill. And planning to eliminate the nickel. Coins too tiny to remain in circulation. Paper that is too expensive to keep replacing annually.
Replace the paper dollar bill to save $1 billion annually. Eliminate the penny completely.
Posted by: Tom Wasson | July 14, 2011, 7:21 pm 7:21 pm
Just another display of the arrogance and the ignorance permeating congress! I want to see our govermentshut down, cleaned out and then re-organized like other corrupt companies must do from time to time to survive. And NO, this IS NOT OBAMA’s fault. Check your stats all you Obama haters. President Clinton was the last president to actually run this country like the successful business it should be 1993-2001. Then came the Bush’d, then came out of control spending and outlandish corruption!
Posted by: Jeanne | July 14, 2011, 7:21 pm 7:21 pm
They should use the coins to pay the returns on the 2011 income tax filings.
Posted by: Karen | July 14, 2011, 7:28 pm 7:28 pm
Jeanne said it all! I am mortified and ashamed of our Congress.
Posted by: Barbara Varhol | July 14, 2011, 7:29 pm 7:29 pm
I will buy them all for 50 cents on the dollar……………. ship them all to me and I’ll ship half of them back
Posted by: ELFINSONG | July 14, 2011, 7:57 pm 7:57 pm
Why am I not surprised…?
Is it so difficult to use common sense…?
Stop minting presidential coins!
No one wants them and it is costing taxpayers millions of dollars…for what?
Sen Reed I truly hope you are voted out of office.
You are simply too stupid to continue to represent citizens…You proposed this idea and I hope it bites you in the ass!
Posted by: George Booth | July 14, 2011, 8:25 pm 8:25 pm
The bigger problem is that all across America, idiots are hoarding dollar coins and $10 rolls of state quarters, believing that some day, someone is going to want a Colorado coin and it will magically be worth more than 25 cents. I certain that millions of dollars are sitting in closets across the U.S. collecting dust while their owners struggle to pay bills. We are in serious financial trouble as a country … great to know there are billions of dollars tba could help the problem but will never be circulated.
Posted by: Andrew Nicholas | July 14, 2011, 8:26 pm 8:26 pm
We are one of the few countries in the world that doesn’t use coins for its smaller bills. Most of Europe and other developed nations use coins for denominations up to $2/$5. What a waste of taxpayers dollars to store and now buils ANOTHER vault??? I have a vault at home, I’ll take ‘em off your hands free of charge.
Posted by: EDC | July 14, 2011, 8:35 pm 8:35 pm
The reason we still have pennies is because of the sales tax
Posted by: Stephen | July 14, 2011, 8:35 pm 8:35 pm
Get rid of the pennies and nickles that cost more than they are worth,THAT is where the waste is, getting rid of paper dollars would make a lot of sense, get rid of those stinking pennies,what the hell are you going to by for a penny?
Posted by: Gene | July 14, 2011, 9:03 pm 9:03 pm
If our government really wants to make money that really lasts, why not do what other countries have done. Get rid of paper money and replace it with plastic bills?
Posted by: Faurtz | July 14, 2011, 9:44 pm 9:44 pm
It’s stupidity and waste like this that is contributing to the debt, yet they are willing to let this continue, and talk about raising taxes to take MORE money from us, or they threaten to stop sending out Social Security checks. For God’s sake, stop the insanity!
Posted by: GD Crawford | July 15, 2011, 12:42 am 12:42 am
that is a tremendous amount of money…tell them to use it to pay back the debt we have…like taking a bushel of pennies to pay the rent…why keep it in storage!
Posted by: erma rummel | July 15, 2011, 12:44 am 12:44 am
“The last time people used dollar coins was when the coins couldn’t be confused with a quarter. Take a hint, mint! STOP MAKING DOLLAR COINS THAT ARE THE SAME SIZE AND SHAPE AS A QUARTER!!!” Absolutely untrue. The idea that “silver dollars” were ever popular in public commerce is a myth. People have always preferred the paper dollar to the bulky, heavy dollar coins. The failure of the Eisenhower dollar (whichwas the same size as the silver dollar) in the early 70s clearly confirmed that. The only place where dollar coins were ever widely used was in Las Vegas, mostly in slot machines. Even half dollars don’t circulate. The so-called “golden dollars” are clearly distinguishable from from other coins but fail to circulate because of the Treasury’s incomprehensible insistence to continue printing paper dollars. In places where large denomination coins (dollars, pounds, euros, etc.) circulate the governments have forced acceptance by discontinuing the paper equivalent. Until that happens here, the billions of Sacagawea and presidential dollars will continue to collect dust and be a waste of taxpayer money.
Posted by: Publius | July 15, 2011, 2:55 am 2:55 am
Put them on HSN and tout how rare they are….only $9.95 each plus shipping.
Posted by: LongT | July 15, 2011, 8:30 am 8:30 am
I remember when a bottle of coke cost a nickle!
Posted by: LongT | July 15, 2011, 8:31 am 8:31 am
The fact is that the dollar coins were minted to replace the paper dollar bill, but when push came to shove Congress didn’t stop printing of paper dollars. The government we get is the government we elect. @William is correct, the US is behind the times. It is wasteful to keep printing dollars. Someone needs to get a spine.
Posted by: whois | July 15, 2011, 10:02 am 10:02 am
Good thing Jonathan Karl didn’t park and have to pay at one of the parking authority kiosks in Philly. They don’t take the $1 coins. How much money would business save if they didn’t have to put bill readers in machines? How much money would the government save if they got rid of the $1 bill? Equal time should be provided to the opposing opinion of this article (e.g. elimination of the $1 bill).
Posted by: Mac | July 15, 2011, 10:40 am 10:40 am
What an outrage. Does no one in goverment have any common sense?? Spending the tax payers money on something so foolish. Stop minting the presidential coins like yesterday!! $600,000 a day?? WTF Don’t waste our money making a bigger vault to store worthless coins. Millions to move them. Is the goverment absolutely out of their minds?? Do they have so many programs that we are funding that they don’t even know what moneys going where?? Why not leave it to the AMERICAN PEOPLE to decide what to cut!! We will getter done!!
Posted by: Deborah Adams | July 15, 2011, 12:51 pm 12:51 pm
I was almost as shocked when reading the comments, as I was when I watched this piece last night. So many seem to think Americans should be “forced” to accept these coins. Really? It’s pretty hard to “force” Americans to do anything. I find it shocking that our “leaders” seemed to think this was a good idea. Remember the Susan B Anthony dollar coins? Anyone? And they had to pass a law to accomplish this. A LAW!!! OMG!!! The lunatics are running the asylum. We need to get all these people OUT of their jobs, and replace them, with the understanding that the replacements will immediately vote for term limits.
Posted by: Evelyn Myers | July 15, 2011, 1:01 pm 1:01 pm
Use this to pay our debt to other countries. Use it to pay those of us on Social Security and Disability!
Oh, and how stupid is it to tax Social Security and SSDI???
Posted by: Athena | July 15, 2011, 1:11 pm 1:11 pm
Nice hit piece.
There’s a reason that there is $1 billion in dollar coins sitting in the Fed’s vault, because banks ordered them from the Fed. The Presidential coin program has nothing to do with that.
Posted by: Anon | July 15, 2011, 2:34 pm 2:34 pm
This just one of many programs in which our government is wasting our tax money and why they cannot pay out debt. It is costing Thousands in the 6 digit figure daily to manufacture. And now they want to build a warehouse that will probable cost billions to house them. Take that money and pay off the debt.
Posted by: Sandy | July 15, 2011, 7:29 pm 7:29 pm
Right now we are loosing .32 per coin on production cost plus storage cost. If these coins were offer to public for .90 instead of $!.00 then this would save on storage and help stimulate the economy. Therefore eliminating the need for an addition building for storage.
Posted by: JEANNETTE JOHNSON | July 16, 2011, 12:13 pm 12:13 pm
I buy these $1 coins from the US Mint – at face value, no shipping and handling charges – charged to my credit card with reward points. I figure I am buying them at 98 cents to a dollar – better rate than a CD!
Posted by: Scott | July 16, 2011, 5:51 pm 5:51 pm
“So many seem to think Americans should be ‘forced’ to accept these coins. Really? It’s pretty hard to ‘force’ Americans to do anything.” Americans are already “forced” to accept whatever the government chooses to issue for legal tender, including the denominations and formats. When it’s less expensive to issue coins than a paper equivalent the choice of what they issue is a no-brainer, is which ideal for the “no-brain” legislators in Congress. And it’s actually very easy to force Americans to do something. Simply leave them no alternative. Discontinue the $1 and $2 bill and issue $1 and $2 coins just as Europe does with euro, which are actually worth more than dollars.
Posted by: Publius | July 17, 2011, 5:56 pm 5:56 pm
I have been TRYING to use the dollar coins! Getting them from the bank is like pulling teeth!
As PATRICK said We have GOT TO “STOP producing PAPER DOLLARS and force people to use the dollar coins. Canada faced the same issues several years ago but forced the change. Now they want to get rid of $5 bills and in exchange for coins.”
The coins will save us millions in paper replacement IF WE GET RID OF THE PAPER DOLLARS!
Posted by: Kat | July 18, 2011, 3:20 pm 3:20 pm
I love the dollar coins, my kids always wanted them for their allowance, they work great in coin machines that take them, but I just can’t get them. If I could I’d always carry two or three and cut down on the quarters and dimes nickles I usually have for the vending machines, but I can’t find them! Sure, nobody uses them but it’s because nobody ever gives them out. Where can I get some? The banks don’t have them. It’s just another game by one party or the other, one side sabotages distribution and then says “the other party is pushing these coins that no-one wants, blah, blah, blah, lie, lie, lie”. I stopped at a rest stop and for the first time saw change machines that gave change in dollar coins. All the vending machines took dollar coins in addition to regular change. Worked really well. Someone needs to investigate what is stopping distribution, not just echo what some talking head blathers. Where are they trying to use them? Where are they trying to distribute them? Are they making any effort at all? I don’t know of anyone that would refuse them as a reasonable amount of change. You wouldn’t carry a lot with you just like you wouldn’t carry a lot of quarters, dimes, and nickles, but having a few around would be very convenient. Please, someone look into what is blocking distribution, because I’d really like to be able to get some!
Posted by: James Clements | July 19, 2011, 10:56 am 10:56 am
In Switzerland, francs in 1, 2 & 5 denomination were in coins. Smallest paper bills were 10 francs. It’s time for the US to catch up to the rest of the world.
Posted by: Lew | July 20, 2011, 8:29 pm 8:29 pm
Please stop ! spending money to make coins we can’t afford. We need to be putting our money on the debt we owe.
thats just common sense…
Posted by: wanda | July 26, 2011, 10:09 pm 10:09 pm
Pennies are NOT a product. We pay taxes so our government will produce various denominations of currency for our use. Does a $100 bill cost $100 to make? Is anyone saying the government is making a “profit” every time they make a $100 bill?
We’re paying for this service. Change the material they’re made out of if they are no longer used in automated machines, that’s the only time the composition would matter. I’m very disappointed that this was not stated in the news story.
Posted by: Mrs. Obvious | March 30, 2012, 10:31 pm 10:31 pm