By Eric Brothers

This is a story of failure — the failure of a dollar coin . But this is not a new story . It is as old as America itself , for each and every $ 1 coin produced by the United States since 1794 has been nothing short of an abject failure . As the saying goes , “ The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results .”

So , what was the thinking behind the creation of the Susan B . Anthony dollar ? And what about it might have made it a success , when no other US dollar coin in history had succeeded ?

The Eisenhower dollar coin ( 1971 – 1978 ) was a failure as a circulating medium . The same size as the erstwhile Morgan and Peace dollars , it was cumbersome and unpopular with the American public . The year 1975 saw the US Mint commission the Research Triangle Institute to study coin denominations and alloys , as well as coinage system options . The Institute suggested a smaller dollar coin , one that would be a size in between the quarter and half dollar .

Economic Considerations

In 1977 , the Treasury produced a “ State of Coinage Report ” in which the agency pushed for production of a new “ minidollar ” coin . Philip E . Coldwell , a Federal Reserve Board Governor , testified before a House subcommittee :

The Federal Reserve spent $ 48 million for printing new currency in fiscal year 1976 . Of that $ 48 million , $ 28 million was spent to print nearly two billion notes . If all these dollar notes were replaced by coins , the Federal

Reserve would realize a savings of $ 28 million in printing costs .

The Treasury Department estimated that replacing the bulky Eisenhower dollar with the mini-dollar would affect a savings of $ 4.5 million . Even greater savings would be achieved by replacing dollar notes with a new mini-dollar . The Treasury compared the 15-year approximate service life of a dollar coin vis-à-vis the 18-month life of a $ 1 note . Replacing just 20 % of the $ 2.4 billion worth of outstanding $ 1 notes with a new dollar coin would save another $ 4.8 million .

When Representative Mary Rose Oakar ( D-Ohio ) introduced a bill calling for the portrait of Susan B . Anthony on the new dollar coin , a political controversy flared up . Pictured is Anthony in 1890 .

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