Following their lead , more vending businesses retrofit their machines for the small dollar coin .
According to an ironic 1984 report in Vanity Fair , the most frequent users of SBA dollars were patrons at pornographic peep shows who dropped the coins into slots to see the X-rated shows .
“ Patrons — often not a feminist sympathizer among them — happily hand over foldable dollars for handfuls of the coins ,” reported Vanity Fair . “ One Anthony dollar dropped in a coin box will electrically pull back a curtain to reveal a naked woman behind a glass partition and activate a telephone link so they can talk . Patrons usually make requests of the women , who , working on commission , tend to be as cooperative and encouraging as the circumstances allow .”
Throughout the Northeast , according to the 1989 UPI account , several railways installed automatic ticket vending machines that dispensed tens of thousands of SBA dollars weekly . They included Metro-North , New Jersey Transit , the Long Island Railroad ( LIRR ) and PATH in metropolitan New York and SEPTA in Philadelphia . The LIRR dispensed around 30,000 SBA dollars each week , while Metro-North dispensed about 10,000 and New Jersey Transit about 4,000 . The extensive use of SBA coins in these machines was due to technological limitations at the time . The machines could accept dollar bills , but they were unable to give them back as change .
By 1999 , more than 15 million mass transit and vending machines accepted SBA dollars . The coins were not found in general circulation , but they were very successful in machines that accepted and dispensed coins . The result was that the hundreds of millions of coins in government vaults made their way to millions upon millions of American consumers .
The Sacagawea “ golden ” dollar had been previously authorized to begin production in 2000 . However , the Treasury Department — quite ironically — was running out of SBA dollars to drop in the slots of those millions of mass transit and vending machines around the United States . To that end , the SBA dollar made an unexpected comeback upon the economic and numismatic front to the tune of 41,368,000 business strike coins dated 1999 .
The SBA dollar — long considered a great failure as an instrument of
commerce — actually found a successful niche in the nation ’ s transit and vending machine industries . In the end , the much maligned , ugly duckling turned into a swan after all .
Eric Brothers has been a frequent contributor to The Numismatist , the publication of the American Numismatic Association ( ANA ), since 2006 . Several of his articles have covered financial history , including “ Alexander Hamilton and the Panic of 1792 ” ( January 2021 ). He also writes for ANS Magazine , a publication of the American Numismatic Society in New York . This is his fifth article for Financial History .
Note
1 . This author , who lived in New York ’ s East Village in 1979 , vividly recalls going to the Kiev Restaurant on Second Avenue and receiving handfuls of SBA dollars as change instead of quarters .
Sources
Bowers , Q . David . “ Appreciating the Susan B . Anthony dollar ( 1979 – 1981 and 1999 ).” Coin Update . April 7 , 2021 .
The front page of Coin World from May 31 , 1978 . The controversy over the new “ mini-dollar ” was big news throughout the numismatic community .
Hatie , George D . “ From Your [ American Numismatic Association ] President .” The Numismatist . November 1979 .
Leifer , Jillian . “ The SBA Dollar : A Retrospective .” The Numismatist . October 1998 .
Levy , Clifford J . “ A fistful of Susans : The Pesky Susan B . Anthony Dollar Experiences a Mini-Resurrection .” UPI Archives . September 15 , 1989 .
McKensie , Lee F . “ A Pretty Face , Please !” The Numismatist . May 1996 .
McMorrow-Hernandez , Joshua . “ Art of a Generation : The Coins of Frank Gasparro .” PCGS News and Articles . June 1 , 2023 .
Spurrier , Lianna . “ The Story Behind the Susan B . Anthony Dollar .” Coinweek . com , January 22 , 2019 .
“ Suffering suffragettes !” UPI Archives . September 27 , 1984 .
Vermeule , Cornelius . Numismatic Art in America : Aesthetics of the United States Coinage . 2nd Edition . Atlanta : Whitman Publishing . 2007 .
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