What The US Needs Is A $2 Coin


Silver DollarI can see everyone who read that title already shaking their heads. There are a couple of personal experience reasons why I think this would be a good idea and you can all take me to task if you think my reasoning is off base. Before you completely dismiss this idea, hear me out. The reason we need a $2 coin – or even better, a $5 coin – is that it will help people save money and we all know that the US saving rate is dismal.

One of the most common ways for people to save money is through a coin jar. While the US does have a $1 coin and a $0.50 coin, these are rarely used making the quarter the highest denomination found in most peoples’ coin jars.

As you know, I’m currently in Canada where they have a $1 and $2 coin. What I’ve noticed is that my pockets have been filling with change many times more valuable than the change I throw into my change jar in the US. For those of you who think that it’s merely a travel phenomenon, I lived in Japan that has the equivalent of a $5 coin and can tell you that when I turned in my change there, my jar was loaded with some serious savings. Those that use a change jar are already in the habit of throwing their coins and that won’t change if the value of the coins increases (again, from my own experience living in Japan).

I know, I know – the US has a dollar coin and we’ve tried it time and again and it has always been a flop. The problem is that we still have the $1 bill. In order for this to work we’d need stop issuing the $1 bill (and $5 if we went with a $5 coin). Then the coins would be forced into circulation as a means of giving change.

What do you think? Would creating a $2 coin a good idea for the US in your opinion?


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October 26th, 2006
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Comment Number:
1
Written by:
Mike
Posted on:
October 26, 2006 at 6:35 am

I don’t know about the US, but we have one in Australia and it seems to work fine.

Comment Number:
2
Written by:
Rose
Posted on:
October 26, 2006 at 8:19 am

Definitely agree. My husband and I noticed the same thing when we were on vacation in New Zealand. However, all of that coinage did get heavy at the end of the day!

However, I don’t think there’s any chance of this happening – we can’t even get rid of pennies, so I doubt that the dollar and all of its cultural connections will go away that easily.

Comment Number:
3
Written by:
~Dawn
Posted on:
October 26, 2006 at 9:15 am

I agree, why have a dollar coin when you still have a dollar bill. Your logic seems correct to me

Comment Number:
4
Written by:
Mike
Posted on:
October 26, 2006 at 9:53 am

I agree that we should have more 1/2/5 coins. I enjoyed the Euro coins when I was touring Europe.

I find it strange how many Americans poo-poo the concept of using coins, generally because “they are heavy”. Well, the answer to that is to use them. Most Americans just walk around spending paper money, receiving coins, and then (maybe) dumping those coins into a “savings” jar. If you have dollar+ coins, and you are buying something, use the coins. Tada! No pocketfulls of heavy coins! When I was in Europe, it was easy to to learn to reach-into my pocket and grab coins to pay for stuff.

I actually liked it better because I wasn’t having to fish my wallet out (which is heavy with IDs, cards, etc. in and of itself) and retrieve the paper bills. This is more secure (less chance of losing important things out of the wallet) and a very easy way to buy small-change items like coffee, snacks, etc.

Unfortunately, I agree that the USA will probably never be able to convert. Hell, we still cannot use the metric system even after several decades and there is worldwide influence on that. Creating dollar+ coins that are actually used will not happen in the next 100 years I’d bet.

Comment Number:
5
Written by:
Dimes
Posted on:
October 26, 2006 at 8:19 pm

A $2 coin would certainly make the beggars happy. When I lived in France right after the Euro had been introduced, the panhandlers would congregate in areas where American tourists hung out and would try to bum a “deux euros s’il vous plait” coin off of whomever they could. I saw a lot of people giving them away, probably not realizing that they had just handed a stranger two bucks.
They’d probably end up in fountains, same as pretty much all other coins.

Comment Number:
6
Written by:
twins15
Posted on:
October 27, 2006 at 12:02 am

I’m usually a thrifty guy, but when I was in Europe the 1 and 2 Euro coins had the opposite effect on me… it was like, “Well, it’s just a coin, I’ll spend it.” Now, what part of that was just me being on vacation or me having a different mindset? I don’t know. But that could potetially happen, I think.

Comment Number:
7
Written by:
livingplanet
Posted on:
October 27, 2006 at 10:11 am

mint the $2 and get rid of the pesky penny, nickel, and dime…i know, it’s impossible, but hey, if marketers round up their prices, then it’ll make checking out more efficient…

Comment Number:
8
Written by:
M. Katz
Posted on:
June 23, 2008 at 2:31 am

I agree that we need a $2 and $5 US coin. With everyone going green nowadays it would certainly save a lot of paper and money. The $1 bill costs 4 cents to produce and lasts 18-21 months while the $1 coin at 8 cents will last 30 years.

Comment Number:
9
Written by:
Pegasus33
Posted on:
July 27, 2009 at 12:38 pm

I think that America should have a $0.50, $1.00, and $2.00 coins, $5.00 are a little excessive. Think about how long a coin lasts (up to 50 years) as opposed to a paper bill (18 months before being redeemed for shredding). I don’t think we should get rid of the penny, just make it out of something cheaper, such as steel.

Comment Number:
10
Written by:
Paul F.
Posted on:
August 11, 2010 at 5:35 pm

Would we save money with coins due to their durability? I just dipped into my pocket to find nearly half of the change I have was minted over 20 years ago.

Comment Number:
11
Written by:
Jim
Posted on:
July 18, 2011 at 12:51 pm

$0.50, $1.00, $2.00 and $5.00 coins. Dump the penny. The tax collectors will be happy. Dump the $1 and $5 paper currency for this to work. We can make the coins out of recycled metals of all kinds.

The cleaners companies can make a small fortune fixing and reinforcing pockets as our pockets will wear out quick!

And cottage industries can blossom making coin purses and selling them on corners and freeway off ramps.

Comment Number:
12
Written by:
Paul
Posted on:
November 10, 2011 at 11:33 am

Australia and Canada have $2 coins. What do you think? I’m for replacing the paper $1 and $2 with coins. Drop the penny and nickel and simply round to the nearest dime. Use those two slots in the cash register for the $1 and $2



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