In true Monday morning quarterbacking form, I would like to pose a critical question. What was our industry thinking when we agreed to support the Golden Dollar coin-even though the U.S. Mint refused to remove the dollar bill from circulation? No one is using it. The banks say no one is asking for them. The stores say consumers don't want them. The consumers say they've never heard of it (Denver Post 01/27/01). In retrospect, is this really a surprise to anyone?
As street operators, we've demanded that our manufacturers make machines that accept the Golden Dollars. A few of the manufacturers really stepped up to the plate and made the effort to provide this feature. I'm sure this change was accomplished at great expense. Unfortunately there are no Golden Dollars showing up in the machines. I did a quick survey of our offices and a few of them had never seen one. Others said it's a rarity for a Golden Dollar to show up. Many of our machines at Sugarloaf do accept the Golden Dollar, but to no avail. No wonder the industry is feeling impatience and frustration.
Ah, but don't worry, my friends - all is not lost. According to the U.S. Mint, the Golden Dollar is "wildly successful." Well, there you have it. Isn't that great? A Golden Dollar shows up in circulation about as often as a two-dollar bill and the Mint is claiming success. Are you kidding me? Sure, the Mint mounted a huge $40 million ad campaign, which certainly created awareness. Where is that today? In marketing 101, we learned that a constant message is necessary for a successful campaign. The Mint apparently took a one-time shot. To suggest the coin is wildly successful is to say that the Mint is totally out of touch with what the country is saying. The Mint is basing their claims of success based on how many have been minted, which is over a billion. Where are those billion coins? Sitting in a warehouse somewhere, I presume.
This raises very serious questions. Is it really in anybody's interest in this industry to keep pressuring manufacturers to make their machine Golden Dollar compliant? Is it really in anybody's interest for operators to continue buying machines that accept the Golden Dollar, until the Mint wakes up and takes the bill out of circulation? From here the answer is, "Probably not." How many hundreds of thousands of dollars has NAMA, AMOA, and AAMA spent in this industry to get us to this point? I don't even want to know. I suspect we're a pretty small part of the massive lobby that was put together to lobby the Golden Dollar.
Are there success stories out there? Yes there are. Last month's RePlay highlighted two operators who have taken the initiative and used the new Golden Dollar coin within their locations. It's a great article. Everyone should take a look at it and see if a similar program might work in your operation. Are there other operators that have integrated the Dollar Coins into their vending businesses? My email is rchilton@sugarloaf-usa.com. We would all like to hear about them.
Take a moment to cast your mind back a couple of years, to when the Coin Coalition first announced the Golden Dollar would be minted. The industry reacted with genuine euphoria. There was a big "but"...but I don't remember being too concerned about the dollar bill staying in circulation. In fact, I seem to recall hearing optimistic predictions that, over a short period of time, the bill might be taken out of circulation. What's the status of this? Is it being actively discussed, now that the general consensus is that the Golden Dollar, competing with the dollar bill, is a bust? The answer, which I'll share below, may not satisfy you. I know it doesn't satisfy me!
It's important to realize that the Golden Dollar only achieved political momentum in Washington D.C. after it became clear that the Mint was running out of Susan B. Anthony dollars - and would have to produce more of these unpopular coins, unless a new design was approved. In other words, there was no overwhelming political demand for a dollar coin. There was no great political courage exercised by Washington in creating it. Our political leaders were simply opting for the lesser of two evils.
All along, it was clear that the ultimate success of the Golden Dollar would finally depend on removing dollar bills from circulation. The failure of the "Suzie" showed it, as did the success of the Looney in Canada and similar coins in other countries. Knowing that it was politically impossible to achieve both the relaunch of the dollar coin and the withdrawal of the dollar bill in one comprehensive leap, we settled for accomplishing half of our agenda now...and hoping to accomplish the (crucial) second half later.
Well, the time has come to finish the job. The Dollar Coin is physically a very attractive coin. Americans like it - on those rare occasions when they get a chance to use it. To make sure they get that chance, we need to do more to create support for removing the dollar bill. The Coin Coalition remains active in Washington D.C. and it is my understanding that they are "quietly" working to see the dollar bill removed from circulation. Why do it "quietly"? Because sometimes a big, public campaign only stirs up controversy and hardens the opposition. Are the paper lobbies so strong that we're going to be living with the dollar bill far into the future? If so...well, I thought the tobacco lobbies were strong, but they should take a few lessons from the paper manufacturers! I also hear about concerns over losing George Washington on the face of the dollar bill, but I suspect that is a secondary issue.
Regardless of what obstacles we face, now is the time to regroup and
rally behind a new strategy. We have achieved only half our agenda - and
in this case, if that's all we get then half a loaf is NOT better than none.
The success of the Golden Dollar absolutely demands the demise of the dollar
bill. Let's hope that when AMOA and AAMA travel to Washington D.C. for this
year's Congressional lobbying conference, promoting the Golden Dollar (and
phasing out the dollar bill) will rate high on the agenda. We need to complete
the task we began so many years ago.