The Christopher Columbus dollar.The Christopher Columbus Dollar There is a bill (HR-1068) which deserves universal backing, and this happens about once every thousand years. It is called the United States United States, officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area. Coinage Reform Act of 1989. And what it would do for us is to give us a beautiful metal dollar. WARNING! We must not, once again, endure the catastrophic experience of dear old Susan B. Anthony. When finally Congress and the Treasury Department issued a dollar coin The dollar coin may refer to coins of currencies that are named dollar. Note that some of these currencies may have banknotes (bills) for 1 dollar instead. See also
What happened? Primarily public inertia. As long as the dollar bill was still floating about, consumers were reluctant to give up old habits. What we do know is that in every other country in which the effort was made to substitute coins for paper, the old equivalent in paper money was gradually eliminated, even as the current bill before Congress calls for eliminating the production of dollar bills 18 months after the issuance of the Christopher Columbus dollar, just in time for the five-hundredth anniversary of his discovery of our sainted saint·ed adj. 1. Having been canonized. 2. Of saintly character; holy. sainted Adjective 1. formally recognized by a Christian Church as a saint 2. shores. The current dollar is worth what 25 cents was worth in 1957, and the result is that it is hard to pass by a vending machine vending machine, coin-operated, automatic device for selling goods. Many vending machines are capable of making change, and some of the more sophisticated ones accept paper money or credit cards. with enough quarters to sate one's appetite. You can't get a Milky Way Milky Way, the galaxy of which the sun and solar system are a part, seen as a broad band of light arching across the night sky from horizon to horizon; if not blocked by the horizon, it would be seen as a circle around the entire sky. , or a peanut-butter cracker for 25 cents. Moreover, the public is wanting a progressive variety of machine-sold goods. Vending machines are out there prepared to sell full meals, to be inserted in microwave ovens nearby, for those who wish variety, and are short on time. A machine is being distributed which, in return for a dollar, will take three ounces of frozen French fries and, in your presence, dip them into boiling oil Boiling Oil, in terms of warfare, is a quantity of oil heated to high temperatures and then poured on an enemy. It is often described as a significant defensive measure in siege warfare. . In France vending machines sell blue jeans blue jeans also blue·jeans pl.n. Clothes, especially pants, made of blue denim. blue jeans npl → tejanos mpl; vaqueros mpl , and in Japan consumers can buy computer programs from dispensers. It is obvious that existing coinage isn't enough to meet consumer needs. The fifty-cent piece might as well reside in the Smithsonian, for all that we are made aware of it. Spain, Japan, Switzerland, Germany, the Netherlands, the UK,Ausralia, France, Norway, Denmark, and Finland--all of them have coins worth more than U.S.$1. And the most interesting recent example of a move in the correct direction is Canada's, which, effective July 1, 1989, stopped issuing dollar bills, leaving it for Canadians to use the new goldcolored dollar, exactly the size we'd want for ourselves. The usefulness of coins is also measured by their relative durability. The average dollar bill lasts less than 18 months: after about four hundred transactions, it becomes tatterdemalion. The coin, by contrast, lasts about twenty years TWENTY YEARS. The lapse of twenty years raises a presumption of certain facts, and after such a time, the party against whom the presumption has been raised, will be required to prove a negative to establish his rights. 2. . It costs 3.5 cents to manufacture, up against the dollar bill's 2.6 cents, so that its relative efficiency is manifest. The bill before Congress, by the way, stipulates that seigniorage seigniorage Charge over and above the expenses of coinage that is deducted from the bullion brought to a mint to be coined. From early times, coinage was the prerogative of kings, who prescribed the amount they were to receive as seigniorage. from the production of dollar coins will be used to offset the "reverse seigniorage" resulting from the destruction of Susan B. Anthony dollar The Susan B. Anthony dollar is a United States coin minted between 1979 and 1981, and again in 1999. It depicts women's suffrage campaigner Susan B. Anthony. The reverse depicts an eagle flying above the moon (with the Earth in the background), a design adapted from the Apollo 11 coins in government storage. That means that the profit from the relative increase in value of the Christopher Columbus dollar will offset the loss of the bullion that went into the uppity Susan B. Anthony dollar. You should know that true reformers really want to go one step further. Abolish the fifty-cent piece on the grounds that it is for all intents and purposes Adv. 1. for all intents and purposes - in every practical sense; "to all intents and purposes the case is closed"; "the rest are for all practical purposes useless" for all practical purposes, to all intents and purposes inert. And--boldest of all--do away with the penny. There is nothing more boring than to stand behind a customer who plunks down two dollars for a copy of Time magazine and is told by the salesman that the price is $2.01 (e.g., at National Airport, Washington, D.C.). Andy Rooney did a funny gig on 60 Minutes in which hidden cameras revealed that the typical American does not bother to pick up one-cent pieces when, e.g., gathering together his cash and coins before vacating his hotel room. Why not just round the figure off? The British have eliminated their farthing, after all. What would we do with all the old pennies? Why not use them to pay congressmen their wage increases? |
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