Fair use etc...Mint strikes gold with new dollar
The golden dollar coin is so popular that you can hardly find one in the Midlands
Mint strikes gold with new dollar coins
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By CHUCK CRUMBO
Staff Writer
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Call it the "gold rush" of 2000.
The new golden dollar that's replacing the Susan B. Anthony coin is so popular you're lucky to find one to make spare change.
Local, banks, retailers and even coin shops say the golden dollar probably is winding up in the hands of collectors or folks who want a keepsake of the new millennium.
"Right now people seem to be hoarding them," said Sara Fisher, spokeswoman for National Bank of South Carolina. "The U.S. Mint's advertising really has made them popular."
Laura Pope, spokeswoman for Wal-Mart stores, which exclusively distributed 100 million of the new coins when they were first introduced in February, said most customers appear to be keeping the golden dollars as keepsakes.
"We are not noticing that many of them coming back and recirculated," Pope said.
At Carolina Gold & Silver Inc., customers have been buying the golden coins by the rolls shipped from the mint, said Kathy Sellers-Tapia, whose family owns the Two Notch Road shop.
"We'll get a box of 500 $25 rolls of coins and they'll be gone in a day to day-and-a-half," Sellers-Tapia said. "At first, we tried to give the coins as change but people wanted them in rolls."
Collectors covet the coins because they're "mint fresh," which someday may enhance the value. The coin shop offers the rolls at face value.
Sellers-Tapia, though, doesn't think the golden dollars will yield the collector a fortune. A better deal is collecting the new quarters. The Mint's rolling out a new quarter honoring a state about every 10 weeks. The South Carolina coin is due out on May 23.
There's a limited number of coins minted for each state, she said. Already, mint-conditioned state quarters are climbing in value. For example, a $10 roll of mint-condition Delaware quarters -- which were the first batch introduced in 1999 -- is worth $60, she said.
Finding just one golden dollar can be a challenge. A senior teller at NBSC's downtown office on Main Street had just 10 to 15 of the golden dollars on hand.
A check with other businesses also indicated the coins were in short supply.
One place you might find a golden dollar is at the post office.
Henry Dixon, window supervisor of the downtown Columbia post office, said golden dollars are used to make change in stamp vending machines.
"If you put a $10 bill in for a $4.95 or $6.60 book of stamps, you'll get dollar coins back in change," Dixon said.
Of course, there's no guarantee all of those dollar coins will be golden. The Anthony dollar coins, which the U.S. Mint stopped making in 1999, still are used at the post office, Dixon said.
For the most part, the golden dollar coins are a hit with customers.
Dixon said he knows of no one demanding a dollar bill in exchange for the golden coin.
That compares to what seemed like utter contempt for the Anthony coin. Consumers didn't like the Anthony because it appeared to be an oversized quarter, making it hard to distinguish between the two coins.
Besides its color, the new coin's edge is smooth like a nickel. That makes it easier for a blind person to tell the difference between the dollar coin and a quarter, which has ridges.
There are some knocks against the golden dollar. First, there's no gold in it.
Both the new coin and the Anthony dollar are clad coins, made of a three-layer composition construction, with a pure copper core sandwiched between, and metalurgically bonded to, outer layers of alloy material.
The overall composition of the new is 88.5 percent copper, 6 percent zinc, 3.5 percent manganese, and 2 percent nickel. The new coin is the same weight as the Anthony.
Second, the U.S. Mint warns that it won't stay "golden" that long.
"It wasn't what I'd expected," said Curtis Boone, of Capital Loan and Pawn Shop, who accepted a "golden dollar" from a customer who bought four guitar picks for a buck. "It was more of a copperish tone than golden."
A Mint spokesman called that copperish tone an "antique patina," which emerges after the new coin changes hands a few times. The golden color fades, just like a shiny copper penny turns brown.
As far as the U.S. Mint is concerned, it's found the golden goose of converting the public to using dollar coins, and the taxpayers will reap the savings.
The new coin costs 12 cents to make and will spend 30 to 40 years in circulation. A $1 Federal Reserve bill costs 4 cents to make and lasts 14 to 18 months in circulation.
By the end of April, the number of golden dollars in circulation will total $500 million. It took 12 years before the Susan B. Anthony dollar coin hit that mark.
"Public acceptance of the golden dollar has been excellent since its first day in the market," said Phillip Diehl, Mint director. "Our challenge is to get it into the hands of the American people in sufficient quantities."
Chuck Crumbo can be reached at (803) 771-8503 or e-mail ccrumbo@thestate.com.
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