Golden Dollar

The Golden Dollar, in its first year, was a failure for two reasons:

• No one spent them: These items were snatched up as one dollar collectors' items. I know that personally, i bought a roll of them, as soon as they came out. They were neat, artistic, and definitely a novelty; not worth spending. In a year of so many currency changes (Golden Dollar, state quarters, and new high dollar bills), people like to stick with what they know: singles. The dollar coin works great in Canada, if you've ever been; so why can't it work in the US? The reason for all of the advertising ("Spend it, it's money too"), is that they people are hoarding them, across the nation.
  
  
• They tarnished way too easily: Ever keep them in a wallet, or actually try to use them? The finish on them tarnished too quickly. The aforementioned roll of Golden Dollars, fresh from the mint, lost their shine in a couple of months... from sitting out on my dresser.
  
  

Save your golden dollars: the mint is re-formulating them, and they will be released anew as soon as they are ready. It's surprising to think that the general public exercised a bit of twisted wisdom in hoarding these soon-to-be valuable pieces of currency.

I was given my first Golden Dollar yesterday, and I can attest to the sentement that people tend to see them as collectors items. I got two for change yesterday, and today I needed a dollar for something; all I had was the two GD's on me, but instead of using them, I went to the ATM instead.

The thing is that the Golden Dollar is the first coin I've seen in a long time that is actually artistic. Not since I saw my first Canadian Toonie have I thought that about a piece of coinage. Maybe this worked too well.

The Loonie worked in Canada because you want spend them to get the bloody heavy, big and ugly things out of your pocket. The GD, however, is small, light and pretty... sure, we'll start using them as money soon, but it will be a lot like when the first of the commemorative State Quarters came out -- it took quite a while for people to start using them as 'real' money.

Of course, the GD has problems too -- they tarnish far too easily (as others have said), and they scratch easily as well and since the insides are not AU-coloured, you get unsightly silver scratches that make the coin start to look like, well, ass.

The Golden Dollar, however, is a 'plus' in my book if only for the reason that you don't have to worry about a vending machine no accepting your dollor coin because it has a crease in it. If you have wrinkles in your coinage, you've got worse problems...