Bucking the future of the dollar coin

Re “Series aims to end $1-coin curse,” Feb. 15

There’s a simple way to displace paper dollars with long-lasting coins. The Treasury Department would sell the $1 coins to banks for 80 cents each. Banks would give customers a dollar coin and a dime for each paper dollar turned in. Coins cost 20 cents to make and last 40 years. Paper dollars cost less but have to be replaced every 18 months. If the coins were laminated to provide a greenish reverse side, the “greenback dollar” would remain an icon and everyone involved would be happy.

ROY W. RISING

Valley Village

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At first I thought I would tend to resist the dollar coin, as I imagined the clinking extra weight in my pockets. But now that the dollar has roughly the buying power a quarter did in a more civilized time, why not make it a coin?

I am hopeful the mint will restrict the presidents depicted on the dollar coins to early presidents; the current incumbent is better suited to the wooden nickel.

KEVIN DAWSON

Tujunga

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This article suggests that American consumers are unwilling or unable to give up the $1 bill for a coin. The experience of Britain and Canada suggests a different cause. The Canadian $1 coin and the British one-pound coin circulate widely. The difference is that Britain ceased production of the one-pound note and Canada ceased production of the $1 note, something the U.S. has refused to do.

The problem is not with the American consumer but rather with the Congress, which is unable or unwilling to do what is necessary to assure that the coins circulate.

MARK GROEN

Riverside