Eliminating $1 Bills Could Save Billions

**lewisipso** · 03-10-11, 01:13 AM

Washington has come down with a case of fiscal fever as the Obama administration proposes everything from spending freezes on domestic programs to selling off unused government property to bring the budget back in line. Now, one study argues that the government can save billions of dollars simply by making a change to the currency itself.

Earlier this month, the U.S. Government Accountability Office issued a formal proposal to the Treasury and Federal Reserve noting that if it eliminated the $1 bill and replaced it with the $1 coin, the country could save roughly $5.5 billion during the next 30 years. The reason, according to the agency's report, is that dollar bills have a shorter lifespan than dollar coins because they wear much faster, which in turn requires the government to spend more to print new bills.

The GAO estimates that phasing out dollar bills in favor of coins would require a four-year transition period, during which the government invests in the new currency, but following that, the government would save an expected $522 million each year from the change.

Unfortunately, as the GAO notes, there is one problem with the plan: When given a choice between dollar coins and dollar bills, Americans always choose bills.

eliminating-1-bills-could-save-billions: Personal Finance News from Yahoo! Finance

Well of course. Have you ever tried folding a coin? Besides a coin won't stay in the strippers G string.

**MacLean** · 03-10-11, 02:15 AM

Originally Posted by lewisipso

Besides a coin won't stay in the strippers G string.

Seen some it would.

**Xiphos** · 03-10-11, 02:22 AM

The $1 bill will be worthless anyway if we keep printing money to pay debt.

**Odd** · 03-10-11, 06:41 AM

Approved, NEXT!

Sure it only comes out to 60¢ per citizen for each of those 30 years. Likely the conversion costs business incur, and pass to consumers, from replacing cash register drawers alone will wipe out any savings. We can talk about how 30 billion is only a few days of funding (insert program in the news), or how many children could be saved by (insert program in the news) or any other irrelevant comparison. We can even point out the public doesn't like it and debate about the pros and cons. We've done that enough times already. Approved, NEXT!

The real cost isn't in doing a new study every couple years to update the PowerPoint presentation. The real cost is we talk about this, and countless other inconsequential costs over and over and then some more while ignoring real issues. If the fastest way to get through these piddling trivialities is to set the bureaucrats in charge of promoting them to actually doing them, then fine, all approved, get these non-issues out of the inbox.

The economic pillar of this nation is being melted into Velveeta by dragons, foreign and domestic, and the Government Accountability Office is wasting time by proposing we discuss whether or not to slay a mouse. Enjoy your mouse pot-pie, but first bring us something worth the effort of killing.

Surprise me. NEXT?