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To: goldsheet who wrote (51335)	4/12/2000 11:51:00 AM
From: Alex	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 116837

Fair use....A real gold dollar coin? Don't bet a nickel on it 04/12/00 By J. Scott Orr STAR-LEDGER WASHINGTON BUREAU WASHINGTON -- All that glitters is not gold, including the U.S. Mint's new "Golden Dollar." While the Mint believes Americans should know the difference between "gold" and "golden," a new study shows that many people aren't quite sure that the $1 coin is not in fact a gold piece. The controversy started earlier this year when Sen. Phil Gramm (R-Texas), the chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, raised questions about the Mint's glitzy $40 million advertising campaign to promote the "Golden Dollar." The General Accounting Office, the investigative arm of Congress, looked into the question and found that 40 percent of Americans either thought there is gold in the coin or don't know. Sixty percent knew there is not a single speck of gold in the Golden Dollar. Mint Director Philip N. Diehl told the GAO in March that the public should know that a coin with a face value of $1 could not possibly contain gold and that the term golden referred to color and not metal content. After all, Diehl reasoned, the public assumes no gold content when it encounters terms like the Golden Gate Bridge, or the Golden Rule. Then, of course, there's the goose that laid the golden egg, but Diehl did not address that story. Gramm got his first look at the GAO report yesterday and immediately asked the Federal Trade Commission to take a look at the Mint's ad campaign: "I want to know whether a private company would be called to task for ads that confuse 40 percent of the people who see them," he said. "The level of confusion among consumers -- especially the poor and the elderly who can least afford to be misled -- underscores that the Mint has gotten carried away in this ad campaign," Gramm added. The GAO said the Mint came up with the term Golden Dollar as it sought a catchy nickname for the coin -- which features a likeness of Sacagawea, the Shoshone woman who helped explorers Lewis and Clark. Part of the Mint's strategy, the GAO said, was to avoid less tasteful nicknames that had already surfaced in numismatic circles including the "Squawbuck" and "Sacky." The Mint's marketing plans include a series of television ads featuring a modern day George Washington encouraging public acceptance of the new coin while spending Golden Dollars at various places, including a deli and a tollbooth. At the end of one ad, Washington notes that "I still look good on paper." The new ads follow a series of marketing maneuvers for the new dollar, including circulating them early on in Wal-Marts and other super-stores and inserting them into a limited number of boxes of Cheerios (perhaps Golden Grahams would have been a more appropriate choice). According to the GAO, the ad campaign has been pretty effective, reaching 57 percent of Americans according to its survey. Another 39 percent said they had not seen or heard the ads and 4 percent weren't sure. Despite the ad campaign, not all realize there is no gold in the coin. The GAO survey found higher levels of confusion among those 65 and older: 44 percent of that age group didn't know there is no gold, compared with 34 percent among those 35 to 44. Among those making under $20,000 per year, 42 percent didn't know the coin is gold free, compared with only 34 percent among people with incomes of $75,000 or more. The Mint says the Golden Dollar has been embraced by the public since its debut in January, replacing the wildly unpopular Susan B. Anthony, which was too easily confused with a quarter. "It is clear that the enthusiastic response from consumers is fueling demand," Diehl said this month. "Many banks and retailers who have not ordered Susan B. Anthony dollars in years, if ever, are now placing orders for the Golden Dollar." For the record, the coins are made of copper, zinc, manganese and nickel. It's the manganese that gives the coin the golden hue mandated by Congress to distinguish it from similar sized-silver coins. But that golden color isn't holding up. Coin dealers have found that through simple handling, the coins lose their luster. But bankers yesterday told the House Appropriations Treasury subcommittee that there's little evidence the $1 coin is being used in commercial transactions, and the vending machine industry urged Congress to force Americans to use the new coin. David Clayton, president of Automatic Food Service Inc., said Americans will accept the new $1 coin in daily commerce only when Congress kills off the familiar $1 paper note competing with it. James Smith, who runs the Union State Trust Bank in Clayton, Mo., said that most of the coins are going into safety-deposit boxes or piggy banks, and that his bank has encountered only 10 Sacagawea coins used in regular business transactions. nj.com