Do you guys use dollar coins? are they common vs notes?

44 comments

1. The half dollar and dollar coins exist, but they are not commonly used.

2. Paper money is more common than dollar coinage, and digital money (debit cards, credit cards, and mobile pay) is more common than paper money.

3. Very uncommon but they exist. I haven’t spent one myself in years. I don’t commonly use cash and if I do it is paper money.

   Most people use debit, credit, or electronic payment of some type, then cash, then coins and half dollar and dollar coins are the least common type of physical currency.

4. They exist, but aren’t that common in actual use. Coins are heavy. Paper is not. We also don’t really call paper money “notes.” Dollar coins are rare enough that if you say “a dollar,” the paper note/version is what comes to mind.

5. No. No one uses them routinely. They’re cool artifacts of a bygone age. If anything, they’re collectors items.

6. Only when forced to by vending machines. It has been at least a decade.

7. Last time I worked in a store, someone literally refused to believe dollar coins were real currency.

8. It’s been years since I’ve seen a dollar coin. I would say them and the half-dollar are rare enough that they are more novelty items than serious money. Coins in general basically aren’t used anymore, but the quarter, dime, nickel, and penny are at least still common enough to see a lot.

9. They’re something that you have to seek out, and tbh unless you go to a bank and ask for one, you’re not gonna see a dollar coin.

10. I’ve never paid for anything with a dollar coin.

11. The subway used to issue Susan B Anthony dollars, then the “golden” 😂 dollars, when you’d buy a token from the machine.

    I have a box someplace with a few as souvenirs. Most everybody has a few, but nobody uses them as cash unless they’re broke and that’s the only handy money.

    Likewise with the two dollar bill.

12. No and no. In Europe I do use the larger coins and would in the US too if they were the one option for that denomination. We would have to change the trays in our cash registers like they have in Europe and Americans don’t change easy and can find a million reasons not to.

13. Uncommon. Americans strongly associate any amount of currency at or above $1 with bills.

    We’ve never had a two-dollar coin and even our two-dollar bill is so scarce that many people don’t even know it’s a real denomination. I’ve encountered more counterfeit bills than two-dollar bills in the last dozen years.

14. No, and in fact people are so resistant to them that the last time the mint rolled one out, they had to advertise it.

15. Dollar coins exist but are not commonly used.

    My grandfather loved them and was locally known in our town for always giving small children some gold dollar coins or giving them to fast food workers when he got his weekly Whopper.

    I still carry around gold dollar coins and give them away now that my grandfather passed away.

16. No. They never caught on, mostly because banks and businesses couldn’t be bothered

17. There have been several attempts to make them more common than dollar bills, but they have all failed. We have several versions of the dollar coin, and you can get them easy enough at a bank. Most people don’t use them, though.

    I tend to get a bunch for the local Renaissance Fair every year, but rarely use them otherwise.

18. Very seldom. In my city if you buy a ticket for the metro with anything bigger than a $1 bill, any change you get will be in dollar coins. Merchants don’t like them because cash drawers haven’t got a spot for them. Same as with half-dollar coins and $2 bills. Besides, most folks pay with their card, not cash.

19. The local metro system gives them as change, but that’s it. They’re otherwise very rare. I did find them convenient to get from banks for giving to homeless people when I worked downtown, though.

20. I avoid cash as much as possible, which is possible the vast majority of the time. I legitimately can’t remember the last time I used cash.

    When I do use cash, I usually just give the coins to my kids because I hate them.

    I have absolutely zero interest in dollar coins, that’s like taking something that already sucks (cash) and making it even worse by making it more inconvenient (coins). No thanks.

21. It’s interesting how Americans don’t use coins when in Europe they are everywhere

22. They’re there, but nobody uses them. Notes are much more common.

23. For a long time, dollar coins were almost indistinguishable visually from quarters. This was a dumb design error. However, they were just different enough in size and thickness that they couldn’t be used in any vending machines or automated payment systems. Over time, many of these systems have had to be adapted or redesigned, but they are not all updated even today. On top of that, most Americans are simply not accustomed to carrying around a lot of coins, especially men who use wallets. All these things combined to make dollar coins a swing and a miss in America.

24. They exist, but I don’t think I have ever actually spent one. I don’t even use cash anymore, and I am far from alone in this, so if they haven’t caught on by now I don’t think they ever will.

25. We have them but they aren’t common

26. Any dollar or half dollar coin that comes into my possession *stays* in my possession. I only have a few.

27. Some parking garages use them for change, super annoying!!

28. The vending machines in my high school regularly gave out dollar coins as change, and thats the only place I’ve ever gotten them aside from tooth fairy money.

29. I’ve only even seen a half dollar coin once. And I’ve never seen anyone use a dollar coin for anything other than as a novelty.

30. I’ll occasionally get dollar coin in change. I think I’ve gotten 2 or 3 in the past year. But yeah, they’re not common. I don’t know when I last saw a half dollar in circulation

31. They are not common — and one of the reasons is everyone loves them! They save them. They dont stay in circulation well.

32. I can’t remember the last time I’ve seen, much less handled, a dollar coin.

    I keep quarters in my car in case I encounter a parking meter that doesn’t accept credit cards. Otherwise I can’t be bothered to deal with coins.

33. I never use dollar coins. I don’t like to carry any change.

34. They exist, but usually in the back of a cash register, a coin jar, or at the bank. Nobody uses them because cash is easier to carry.

35. I’ve never had one or used one.

36. We can go to a bank and get a coin dollar any time we want. Most of us never feel the need.

37. As a novelty. We have them. Most people don’t have a clue and mistake the SBA for a quarter all the time. ( same size).

    When I worked in retail I’d buy them for the 25 cents they were treated as all the time.

38. $1 coins i use when i get them, but rarely see them given as change except by automated equipment.

    As for the half dollar coins others have mentioned, the only time I’ve seen them actively being used in many years is at table games in casinos.

39. I know a couple vending machines that stock them and always try to get a couple when there because I like them. Not common though, and I often get odd looks spending them.

40. They tried really hard to make dollar coins a thing in the early 00s, but people wanted to collect them rather than use them.

    Honestly, the issue with them was twofold. They were introduced around the same time that cash use was on the decline as debit cards were adopted, and at a time where prices for most things were well above $1. Even when Americans do use cash, we don’t normally carry more than a couple purchases worth of change received at once, and our wallets are very much designed for bills and cards with the assumption change will go into a pocket.

    They -might- have had more luck with $5 or $10 coins, but didn’t try it because the $1 didn’t do well. As it was, it was basically only vending machines that took dollar coins, and the majority of them can also take bills. The only dollar coins I’ve actively used in the past 10 years were in the break room at my former job. A couple of the vending machines only took coins, so there was a change machine to exchange bills for coins to use to buy snacks. And I just kept my dollar coins in my desk drawer at work for snack-buying use. I didn’t need them anywhere else.

41. I have used a dollar coin exactly once as actual currency. There was a vending machine that took them, so I resolved to get one just to use the vending machine for the novelty of it.

    That said, it’s not like I use notes much either. I’ll pretty much just use them for vending machines, rural fairs, or places where I’m expected to tip but haven’t provided my card.

42. I found 15 dollar coins in a payphone once

43. I get the dollar coins from the Metrocard machine and occasionally use them on buses. I used three earlier today.

44. Almost Never. Supposedly US dollar coins are in common use in El Salvador and Ecuador (which also use the US Dollar).

    My mom gave me some for lunch money in school a few times and the cashier confused it for a quarter (25¢ coin) because they’re both about the same size and color. I always made sure to say it’s a dollar coin whenever I’m paying with one.