KEY POINTS:
WASHINGTON - Is a great and long overdue American revolution at hand? As of next year, new dollar coins will be issued in the US - and it may be the beginning of the end for the dear old dollar bill.
More than almost any other people, Americans take change in their stride. But not when it comes to their money.
Take the infuriating 1c coin. A "penny" costs the US Mint more than its value to make.
Unloved and unwanted, cents pile up in pockets, at the bottom of drawers, or in the proverbial cookie jars.
But for whatever reason - be it the strenuous efforts of the zinc industry lobby or plain old national cussedness - efforts to get rid of them have got nowhere.
Such is the futility of the cent that shops often round out a price to the nearest 5c. An opposite fate has befallen the dollar coin.
Single dollar bills account for more than a third of all US notes in circulation. They last only 18 months, compared with an average 30 years for a coin.
A month ago I found a penny dating back to 1945. To replace bills with coins would save the Treasury at least US$500 million a year. Yet Americans just won't wear it.
The last US$1 coin in wide circulation was the post-World War I silver Peace Dollar, before its demise in 1935.
More recently there have been a couple of attempts to revive one - the nondescript Susan B. Anthony coin, featuring a 19th-century women's rights campaigner, which was virtually indistinguishable from a quarter, and the even more forgettable Sacagawea dollar (named after an Indian guide on the Lewis and Clark transcontinental expedition of 1804-6).
The latter, first issued in 2000, bombed, even though the Government spent US$70 million promoting it. These days you only get them as change from vending machines at the post office or Metro stations.
A couple of Sacagaweas have gathered dust on the dresser in my bedroom for months.
Even though everyone accepts them (albeit after a close peer), they look like a game token.
But I suspect the new dollar coin they announced last week will finally do the trick. For one thing, it's about time.
The paper bill, with its portrait of George Washington, may be the world's best-known banknote, symbol of brand America. But it is also far and away the lowest-value banknote in any industrial country.
The British fiver is worth more than US$9, the Swiss 10 franc note about US$8. The smallest Japanese note, for 1000 yen, is worth US$9. Even the Canadians have C$1 and C$2 coins. At last night's exchange rate, the greenback was worth $1.49 - way less than a New Zealand $2 coin.
More important, the new American $1 coin will look classy. And like current paper banknotes, it will bear the portraits of dead presidents.
The first batch next year will feature George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison; thereafter they will be issued at the rate of four a year.
But will the US dare phase out the existing dollar bill?
If Americans are given a choice between a weird new coin and a familiar bit of paper, paper will win every time.
- INDEPENDENT