CURRENCY : $1 Coin Advocates Hoping to Get Change for the Dollar Bill

American voters demanded real change in last November’s elections--but is this what they had in mind?

Lawmakers in the House of Representatives have introduced legislation to phase out the dollar bill and replace it with a new $1 coin.

The switch would save a whopping sum of money, supporters say. While coins cost more to make per unit than paper currency, they last years longer, which means the Bureau of Printing and Engraving will have to spend less replacing worn currency.

Projections of how much would be saved vary wildly, with federal agencies providing estimates ranging from $20 million to $395 million a year.

James Benfield, a lobbyist for a coalition supporting the switch, compares using paper dollars to choosing “paper plates versus dishes. . . . In the near term, paper plates are cheaper. In the long term, paper plates are expensive.”

Coins also would be more useful in a society where automated collection systems are growing in popularity, says Rep. Esteban E. Torres (D-La Puente), a co-sponsor of the legislation. “The Los Angeles Metropolitan Transit Authority has to pay out millions of dollars a year to a subcontractor to count dollar bills and straighten them,” Torres says.

Indeed, Benfield’s group, the Coin Coalition, is made up mostly of transit districts and vending machine companies that find coins easier to handle--and therefore cheaper.

The domestic and international monetary policy subcommittee of the House Banking and Financial Services Committee held a hearing on the measure earlier this month, an aide to subcommittee Chairman Michael N. Castle (R-Del.) said.

Torres believes the bill stands a good chance of passage this year because of Congress’ appetite for budget savings.

But the idea has drawn a harsh backlash from a series of groups, ranging from the Sierra Club to the Mt. Vernon Ladies’ Assn.

Several polls have suggested that most Americans do not favor the change. One such survey commissioned by House Republicans showed only 18% wanted the switch to coins--even if it would reduce the deficit.

The Sierra Club’s Kathryn Hohmann says that while old bills end up shredded in landfills, replacing them with coins would likely increase copper mining, which the organization blames for habitat destruction and water pollution.

A group known as Save the Greenback has mailed out a press packet sporting a crisp new dollar bill and a history of the dollar, which includes a reminder that “Novus Ordo Seclorum” appearing under the pyramid on the back of the bill means “A New Order of the Ages.”

Not surprisingly, Save the Greenback represents unions from the Bureau of Printing and Engraving and private companies that supply materials to the bureau.

And the Mt. Vernon women’s group has weighed in with a letter telling Congress “the dollar bill image of [George] Washington is a real, tactile reminder of our great nation’s heritage . . . even as Washington must share his day of national commemoration with 41 other Presidents, even as ad agency caricatures proliferate, the dollar bill portrait is a constant, unsullied mark of American pride.”

Furthermore, opponents say, the switch could backfire. “Remember the infamous Susan B. Anthony dollar,” says Rep. Thomas M. Davis III (R-Va.), noting that the Anthony dollar coin introduced in 1980 was an undeniable flop with the public.

Save the Greenback argues that people may refuse to use the new coin and force dollar bills to be reintroduced, costing rather than saving money.

Advocates of the dollar coin admit it would require an adjustment.

To overcome public reluctance, Torres and other sponsors of the legislation argue for a “cold turkey” approach: Just stop making dollar bills.

As for concerns that the dollar coin would fall victim to complaints that dogged the Susan B. Anthony dollar, which many people thought was too easily mistaken for a quarter, the Coin Coalition argues that the metal bucks could be designed to be quite different from quarters.