On 28/12/2011 05:39, Peter T. Daniels wrote:
On Dec 27, 7:57 pm,
wrote:
On 27/12/2011 23:40, John Levine wrote:

Paper notes are still far more convenient to carry than coins and the US has far
more vending machines and cash register drawers than most other countries. While
many will accept dollar coins, the ones that do tend to be government owned (ie
Post Office) or located in casinos. The far more ubiqutous soda and candy
vending machines tend to take nickels, dime and quarters, and if you are really
lucky, the have a working receiver for $1 bills.

I think if you tried it, you'd find that most vending machines also
take dollar coins. At the time the government issued the SBA dollars,
the size was chosen in cooperation with the vending industry to make
modifications to machines easy. Then they found that the coins were
hard to tell from quarters, so now they're a different color and have
a smooth edge, but people still don't like them.

I always thought that the SBA might have survived if they made sides out

The Small Business Administration? Oh, you mean the Susie B.

The _faces_ do have sides, though the edges are circular.

Sorry, I do not know all my coin terminology.

Maybe
vending machines wouldn't accept an 18- or 20-sided coin.

Would have been a one-off change over 30 years ago.

The Sackies
are round but goldish-colored and smooth-edged like a nickel rather
than milled.

I've seen them. Same with the presidential coins.