Yes I am talking about the Susan B. Anthony Dollar. Yes that coin that came out 1979 – 1981 and again for some unknown reason in 1999. Wouldn’t you just know it that Jimmy Carter, yes that president is the one responsible for making this coin. In total there where 888,842,452 coins minted for circulation. Now you are thinking ah yes I remember those – whatever happened to them. Well, I am about to tell you what happened to them.
These coins are one of the silliest things ever to be minted. How is this for logic to collect them, “The Susan B. Anthony dollar is probably the least popular coin made in America. This makes collecting a complete set of the dollars quite easy and affordable!”. Now doesn’t that just make you run out and start collecting them?
To me the following is a pretty concise reasoning as to the unpopularity of the coins:
SBA Coin Gets No Respect
The late, great comedian Rodney Dangerfield said it best when he lamented he got no respect. His words probably suit the Susan B. Anthony dollar coin, too.
The poor Susan B. Anthony dollar, struck from 1979-1981 and also in 1999, is one of our nation’s shortest-lived coins. It also could probably qualify for being one of our least-popular coins, too.
Perhaps the biggest complaints about the coin came from those who lost 75 cents each time they confused the Susan B. Anthony dollar coin with the quarter (because they look so similar and are about the same size). However, I’m sure that each of the Susan B. Anthony dollar detractors can think up other reasons why they just don’t like the coin.
It goes without saying that it is an insult to call the Susan B. Anthony dollar coin the Carter Quarter. This is a direct reference to Jimmy Carter’s signing into the law the bill which authorized striking the about-quarter-sized coin.
The only place you see these coins is when you go to the Post Office and buy stamps from a machine and then this truck load of SBA coins comes out for change if you used a bill larger than what you purchased. Then try to get rid of the things. So why am I going on about these coins? Well, I will tell you…
THEY WERE ALL SHIPPED TO ECUADOR!!! That is why you don’t see them in circulation in the US. The above picture is the change I had in my pocket this morning. Notice 6 SBA Dollars in that pile of coins. Notice too that there are a couple of them on each side of a quarter. That is a good reminder as to why they where so disliked in the US. The only good thing I can say about them being here is there isn’t that many Vending machines that you run into. So it doesn’t cause to much of a problem.
Another reason I think you see them all over the place here is that since the money is the US dollar you see some very tired paper money in use here. So tired you would never see it in circulation in the US. Now the Banks here are getting picky so you can be caught with a bill that stores won’t take. I have taken some back to the bank, and that has worked for me. But I think that answers the question why the SBA’s are so popular here – they don’t wear out. In a country where you usually spend $5 or less at a time these are working out better for everyone than the paper dollar.
So now you see, yet another baffling mystery is solved, you now know what happened to the Susan B. Anthony dollars and can rest easy at night know these facts…
