How to Use Dollar Coins

On my recent post about the new gold dollar coins, there were several suggestions about how to use them including the following:

• Random charitable giving
• Vending machines
• Drop them all in the jar at the end of the day and save more
• Buy my train tickets, subway passes and stamps
• Use them to buy a newspaper or other $1 item
• Put in tip jars
• Give them to your kids for doing odd jobs
• Municipal parking
• Tips -- waiters and waitresses really enjoy getting them
• Give two to your son to keep in his bathing suit pocket while swimming for when the ice cream truck comes around
• Tooth Fairy -- since they are gold and different, the kids think they are pretty cool (comment left on the post: I don't think I would have gotten the same photo had TF left two wrinkly singles as the one I got with a toothless smile holding up "two magic gold coins.")
• Coin collecting

These are just a few ideas -- I'm sure there are a ton more.

The government sure is putting a lot of effort into promoting the use of these coins. I saw a kiosk at our local regional mall where they were giving out free buttons (big deal, I know) if you turned your dollar bills into gold dollar coins. Knowing our government, the buttons probably cost $1.25 each and they would have been better off just giving a free coin to everyone. :-)

Our company also received a promotional sign for the $1 gold coins (we were supposed to hang it up somewhere so all could see it). Not sure why because we're just a small office -- perhaps the government did a mass mailing to all businesses.

Since I wrote the original post, we got rid of all our $1 gold coins. How? We used two methods:

• We got rid of $450 of them by donating them to our church. The kids' pastor then did a sermon on giving to others in need, gave each kid a coin (yep, we have that many kids at our church), and challenged them to bless someone needy with a free coin.

• We've been dropping the rest of them into Salvation Army red kettles while we've been out shopping this holiday season.

Any other ideas how to use these coins? 

Comments

[Katy McKenna]

Two of them would buy one roll of nickels. My understanding is that the common nickel is the only coin with a composition that has remained unchanged for decades. Supposedly, it costs 35% more than a nickel to make a nickel. So why not get some while the getting's good?

[pat]

Maybe I don't get out enough because the only place I have seen or read anything about these coins is right here on this blog. One of these days I'll have to go the the US mint site just to see what one looks like.

[Slinky]

Buying stuff at historical reenactments. Especially if you're one of the actors that have to buy something. Nothing like being in full costume and getting caught handing over a wad of bills by a patron.

[poor boomer]

The five-cent nickel (there was also a three-cent nickel 1865-1889 - this was actually a useful coin at that time when first-class postage was three cents) has had a composition
of 75% copper and 25% nickel since it was introduced in 1866. Nickel is a very very hard metal and would be difficult to coin without a softer metal added.

The composition of the nickel was changed to meet wartime constraints in mid-1942 by eliminating the nickel, reducing the copper, and adding silver and (!) manganese. These coins are distinguishable by a large mint mark (P, D, S) prominently placed on the reverse above the dome of Monticello, and also tend to acquire a darker appearance in circulation. The traditional composition of the nickel was restored in 1946 after World War II ended.

Interestingly, the large mint marks were used to facilitate removal of the coins from circulation by banks (for recovery of the silver) after the war, but plans were apparently scrapped, as this did not occur. These coins do sometimes appear in circulation today

[Funny about Money]

LOL! Now you'll be able to use two of them to buy a can of pop or a bottle of tap water from a vending machine.

One bright idea behind foisting dollar coins on the public (you'll enjoy lugging them around in your pocket, eh?) is to make it easier to jack up the price of goods sold through vending machines.

They'll be great for the one-armed bandits in Vegas, too. :-D

[Jeff Moore]

It looks like the free shipping has ended. $4.95 for standard shipping of $250 in coins.