Comment Re:Not yet... (Score 1) 943
We've tried to replace the dollar with coins three times so far, and it's failed.
The problem is the size and shape of the old dollar coins. They're very close to quarters in size and weight. In our first attempt, the dollar coins were also silver like the quarters. So it was hard to quickly identify which coins are dollars and which are quarters.
In my mind, the big failure was that we didn't replace the dollar with coins, we added new dollar coins and kept the dollar bill in circulation. Inertia was enough to doom the changeover.
The benefits of the change mostly accrue to the government - coins last an order of magnitude longer, but aren't that much more expensive to produce. From the consumer perspective it is not obvious that one is preferable to the other, so why bother to switch?