The dollar coin goal

America has had a troubled history with dollar coins (melodrama intentional). According to the US Mint website, the dollar was originally a coin - in fact, the word derives from the German word 'thaler', meaning "silver coin". Reading between the lines at the FAQ there, particularly "Would the use of the Golden Dollar in lieu of the paper dollar save money and if yes why doesn’t the United States Mint eliminate the paper dollar?", it's easy to imagine the bureaucratic rivalry between the US Mint and the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, who are responsible for printing dollar bills. This is in addition to any conspiracies floating around involving the Save The Greenback people and Coin Coalition.

In the 1990s, dollar coins (the older Susan B types) were being used in vending machines. It was decided to create a new dollar coin to fill this need, as the stockpile of Susan B's - from around 1980! - was running low. In fact, in 1999, some more Susan Bs were "emergency minted".

In 2000, the Mint finally released the Sacagawea dollar coin, to much fanfare. Actually, the program was a failure - according to this BBC article, over 1 billion dollar coins are being stockpiled by the government and are not in circulation.

In 2007, inspired by the 'success' of the 50 states quarters program, the Mint started the Presidential coin series, in which a different president is honored on a dollar coin every three months. Similarly, in 2009, the Native American coin series was started.

I was personally unaware of any of this, until I received a James Buchanan dollar coin as part of my change for a purchase at Crumbs Bakery. "Interesting!", I thought, as a somewhat casual coin collector, only interested in types of coins as a representation of history (ooh! a 1943 steel penny!) rather than a pedantic every-single-variation collection. It was a while after this that I noticed that the US Mint has a program whereby you can buy 250 dollar coins, at cost, with no shipping cost, and have them sent to your home. They only have a few varities, but it provided for an interesting experiment:

I would purchase some of these coins, and attempt to spend them in my daily transactions. The purpose of this blog is to document how that goes.

I'll start out with some back-dated entries until I've caught up.