Fourth time is the charm?

[Gabe]

Ok.. we are about a week before the official release of the Presidential Dollar Series. Now, we all know that this is the 4th attempt by the mint to circulate the dollar (Ike, SBA, Sacagewea and now this) and they have failed every time.

We all know the 100% full proof way to circulate the dollar, eliminating the dollar bill.

My question is, how big a failure will this program be? I think that it will be more successful as the SBA (not sure of success is the way to describe that series), but not as circulated as the Sacagewea. I believe collector interest will be minimal compared to the Statehood Quarter Program, and that most collectors (like us), will not even pay attention to them.

Comments?

[smed]

I believe it will be another stunning failure. Initially everybody will be going "ohhh ahhh neato", same as what happened with the other dollar coins. Then it'll quickly get back to "what the frick is that? i'm not taking that, it's not money, you're trying to cheat me."

[coppercoins]

I think it will be a HUGE failure, and much more quickly than the Sacagawea, because this time the morons out there will be wise to the notion that these don't contain any real gold.

Actually the true morons are the people in the government that waste our time and money with these stupid decisions and marketing gimmicks.

Time to GET RID of the $1 note and circulate a coin whether people like it or not.

[coop]

Here's an idea

Cut the production totally of the half dollar. No one uses them anyway, and use the extra slot on the left of the cash drawers for $1 coins. Then increase production of the $2 bill and use that where the $1 bill went. If half dollars do come in, they could be tossed into the same spot the $1 coins go. It would be a no brainer to identify them from the half dollar as they are different sizes. $1 coins, $2 bills and the rest of the bills the same. Seems like it could work without changing all the tills like they did in Canada when they changed their currency. The $1 coin gets a lot more mileage and the $2 bulls would mean less weight in the pocket with less bulk than 2 $1 coins. That is what I think would work.

[Gabe]

You all are right.

I was kinda hoping that the years of dead presidents had ended with the Statehood Quarter, but it seems that we will have to tolerate 12 more years of this.

I just cant wait for the Polk Dollar (who?), and my Richard Nixon Dollar .

What I find the more ridiculous about all this is the Spouse Series that goes along side this. These women were never elected to office, and most did not do much to diserve a place on a US coin. We could commemorate those influencial First Spouses individually, but all of them?!

Something I head recently seemed to make a lot of sense to me. This series will not even be successful amongst collectors because a $1 is worth a lot of money. Much of the success of the Statehood program has been due to the fact that kids collected them. But $1 is too much for a kid to put away and collect, they rather spend it in a soda or candy.

[coop]

Gabe: To some of us old timers, even a Cent was a lot to put away when we were kids. Compaired with what we pay now, you will see what I mean. I think Dick could even paint a much bleaker picture.
Where I lived You would see these prices.
Go to a double feature movie: Kids 35 Cents, Adults 50 Cents. (Only on Saturday nights, only one showing)
You could get pop corn for 5 Cents in a small bag. (The only size available)
You could get a soda (12 -16 oz fountain drink) for 10 Cents.
I would get 50 Cents a week for helping do chores on my father's farm. That would get me in to see two movies, pop corn and a soda. (till I was over 13, the best three years of my life baing 13. When I turned 16 I had to pay as an adult. If anyone saw the moive "The Majestic" that theater before it was fixed reminded me of the theater I saw movies in.
Most pop machines you could get a soda for 10 Cents. One place had a 7 Cent machine that would dispense 7 0z bottles of soda. (Only one place in town had that.) (Which is how 7-UP got its name. 7 oz. bottles and the bubbles went UP
When you worked, the minimum wage was then $1 (1965) per hour. As a child you would buy an item for 10 Cents and make a second purchase of 10 Cents or Five Cents. If you bought both items as the same time, you had to pay 1 Cent in tax. So you broke down your spending into multiple tranactions to advoid cutting in to your like style.
Penny Candy was a big thing. The gumballs you now pay 25 Cents for at the mall, only cost then 1 Cent. For a nickel you could get several of them. Some candies were 1 or even 2 cents for single servings. The licorice candy, actually had licorice root in them. You would run into your grandfather and he would give you a quarter and be in a hurry to spend it on candy. Small candy bars were a Nickel, larger ones a Dime. A pack of gum (5 sticks) was 5 Cents and larger packs (10 & more) were 10 Cents.
Kids in chemisty class would take a penny and put it in sulfric acid in a test tube and make a thin penny into a dime sized coin and buy a 10 oz. bottle of soda. We would try to sneak off with the empty bottle and get a 2 Cent return on it somewhere else.
Bikes were big for us then. It meant freedom as we lived three miles out in the country and when we would want to go to town, there was always the bike. When we wanted to go into for baseball practice, there was the bike. I remember ridding home on a gravel road and the tire blew out. Aonly about 1.5 miles from home. Had to walk it to not ruin the tube, which we fixed when we got home and hope it didn't leak the next time we rode it. I think tubes for bikes then were 40 Cents. Way out of a child's budget unless he wanted to save up for one, or get a real gift from your parents.
Things that kids take for granted now, was a luxury then. Television was the only entertainment then. All three channels of the black and white picture was all we could get then. Color didn't happen till 1965 and that was only if your parrents could afford a color set. No remotes, you had to adjust the TV volume or channel walking over to it and change it. If you were surfing the channels, you parents would let you know to leave it on one channel and not be jumping around. When we were little we would spend Saturday nights watching wrestling or a scarry movie. The Frankenstein, zombies, dracula and other mysteries were our favorites. But you had to stay up till after 12:00 to watch that on saturday nights. We would buy sunflower seeds and eath them, or buy Licorice and freeze it (To make them last longer) and watch TV.
Lawrence Welk was on then (probably live then) and we would endure watching it just waiting for the next show to come on, one of our favorites. (Don't remember now what it was, just remembered having to watch Lawrence Welk to get to it.)
Big shows then were , Lassie, My friend Flicka, Sky King, Roy Rogers show, the Howdie Dooty show, the breakfast club, Maveric, The rebel, Have gun will travel, Cheyenne, Sugar Foot, Gunsmoke, The Rifleman, the real MC Coys, My favorite Martian, The Mitch Miller show, The The Steve Allen show, Beat the clock, The Beverley Hillbillies, Peticoat Junction, Green Acres, I Love Lucy Show, The Dick Van Dike Show, The Jackie Gleason Show, The Little Rascals, Laurel & Hardy Movies, Ma & Pa Kettle, The Lone Ranger, The Cisco Kid, Captain Kangroo, Mickey Mouse Club, Charley Chan Movies, John Wayne Movies (He was born about 30 miles from where I lived in the same town they based the story "Bridges in Madison County."), Wild, Wild West, Supperman. (And others I can't think of now, but will add later.)
But life was different then. Things we would give out money for now, was common then. I think of all the Siver coins that passed through my hands. We always saved indian head Cents, but the wheats, just part of circulation. Rolls of coins then BU rolls, now just a circulated memory now. If I knew then what I know now.................................................... Life would have been different for me today.
But back to the orginal comment on the State Quarters being easier to afford, that would be true in the sense that when I was a kid you could get for 1 Cent what a quarter will buy now. But I feel the kids won't collect the $1 presidential series. Nothing there to inspire them. There will be those light duty collectors that will buy into it. But I don't see any real flare of interest in them. Maybe they should make them the size of a dime and have real silver in them. That would be interesting to collectors then. Even if they a $1 each. People love their real gold, silver & Copper. Not the crapp (SP) they are making today. Give us something collectable or just forget it. Otherwise it will end up a failure like the SBA, SAC and now the next attemp to make people collect crapp. (SP) CRAPP doubled load with the second P.

[Dick]

You KIDS were pretty well off, as such! TV? One was lucky to even have a radio! Then you could listen to Li'l Orphan Annie, Og, Son of fire, Amos 'n Andy, Stella Dallas, Back-stage wife, As the World Turns, Bringing up father, and the World Series. You didn't even have to have a radio, then the Series was on! EVERYBODY had it on, and full blast! Boxing, Joe Louis, and "Two-ton" Tony Galentto. (He was big)!!! My dad made $5.00 a day, as a telegraph operator for the AT&SF. I sold Cloverine Salve, and subscriptions to the Womans Home Companion, and The Lady's Home Jouirnal. Licorice!!! Yes!!! Both the "plug", and the solid stick, any color, as long as it was red, or black. I think there was a brown color, but didn't do too well. Me school class marched in the parade for The National Recovery Act! That was the biggest stab in the back that any President has ever given the American people! We were taken off the Gold standard, and silver was the only thing that one could LEGALLY hold! Gold was illegal to have, or hold, for many years. If you had a gold mine, you had to sell the gold to the Govt, because it was illegal to have. $8-$12 dollars an ounce (troy). Ah yes! "Them were the good ol' days"!!! I caught hell in school once for having a "radio" in class! It was a "cat-whisker" type. A peice of Galena, and piece of wire, with a diode, and an ear-phone, and you had a radio. I got thrown out of "Kinny-garden", after two weeks, because I kissed one of the pretty girls! (1930). It was worth it, 'cause she kissed me back! I had just turned 5, and was celebrating!
Dick

[smed]