Dollar coins via NPR |
Unused dollar coins have been quietly piling up in Federal Reserve vaults in breathtaking numbers, thanks to a government program that has required their production since 2007.I do. I want them. I ask for them all the time. I love the satisfying clink they make when dropped into the kids' piggy banks. I like to say "Sacagawea". If I were tipping the kid at Starbucks, I'd like to be able to say, "Here's a Millard Fillmore for your trouble, sport," flip the coin in the air at him like they used to do to pay newsies in the old black-and-whites, then saunter off with the air of a man who may, just may, have a pocket full of failed President coinage. Paper dollars are for suckers. Genuine coin of the realm for this fella.
And even though the neglected mountain of money recently grew past the $1 billion mark, the U.S. Mint will keep making more and more of the coins under a congressional mandate.
Also, the soda machine at work always spits my paper dollars back. ~grumbles~