The US Mint has once again released a dollar coin, although to seemingly mixed reviews. Will the dollar coins catch on? Though I don't care one way or the other, I'm inclined to say "No, they will not." Susan B. Anthony and Sacagawea failed before, and these are likely to fail again (though exactly why is debatable). I always find it interesting, however, when people from the vending machine industry are interviewed on this topic. They always give this kind of response:
Reporter: So, what do you think of these new dollar coins? Vending Machine Guy: Eh, they'll never catch on. Reporter: Why do you think that is? Vending Machine Guy: Well, people never use them in these here machines, so we don't flip the switch inside to let them accept the dollar coins.
This kind of discussion appears every time dollar coins are launched (in fact, it appears in the story I linked to above). Do you see the idiocy of the vending machine guy's statement? They won't enable the mechanism to allow vending machines to accept dollar coins because people don't use the dollar coins. Maybe people don't use the coins because your stupid machines don't accept them! Are these people idiots or what?
