THUNDER BAY – Would the Americans call their new dollar coin the ‘Washie’? It could be that the United States is about to follow Canada. The U.S. Congress is looking at shifting from the paper dollar bill to a dollar coin. Canada’s ‘Loonie’ faced similar concerns when it was launched that Americans are expressing concern over. For the most part, Americans have been very reluctant to the idea of a dollar coin.
Two and a half billion U.S. Presidential dollar coins have been produced in recent years. Most are not in circulation as Americans have been reluctant to use them.
However the Government’s General Accounting Office is stating that over the next thirty years that almost five billion dollars could be saved by converting to a dollar coin.
The United States could easily make the shift, and it would be welcomed by many in the country. The use of dollar coins in vending machines, and for transit would be two places where a coin replacing paper money would be very welcome. In Canada the introduction of the dollar coin and the two dollar coin have saved money and been widely accepted.
Australia also uses a dollar coin, as does the European Union where the ‘Euro’ is the coin of choice.
In many ways the United States seems to lag behind the rest of the world. In moving to a dollar coin, and saving billions of dollars the United States would likely see the public after a little grumbling come to fully embrace and accept the ‘Washie’.
Progress takes action. One can only wonder why a country that always claims it is a world leader in innovation is so slow to adopt new ideas like a dollar coin.
James Murray