Ariz. congressman backs coin dollar

Wildcat File Photo Arizona Summer Wildcat Arizona Summer Wildcat File Photo Rep. Jim Kolbe, R-Ariz., here answers students' questions during an ASUA-sponsored forum in the Arizona Ballroom last year. Kolbe is campaigning to replace the paper dollar with a $1 coin to enhance convenience.

The jingle of a new coin may replace the paper dollar if one Arizona politician has his way.

Republican Rep. Jim Kolbe is leading the drive to replace all paper $1 bills with a redesigned coin. The new coin would replace the little-used Susan B. Anthony dollar coin, first issued in 1979.

Citing inflation, Kolbe called the dollar coins a necessity.

"It just makes sense to have a coin with sufficient denomination - it's a matter of convenience," he said, citing statistics that vending machines reject 32 percent of paper dollars.

Parking meters rates also are skyrocketing, he said.

"It takes eight quarters for an hour on a parking meter in Washington," Kolbe said.

UA Memorial Student Union administrator David Galbraith, however, called the dollar-coin proposal "bunk," saying the additional weight makes the dollar coin idea impractical.

"I don't think people are going to buy it," said Galbraith, who heads Student Union dining services.

"I personally do not want to take three more coins in my pocket," he added.

Galbraith said the Susan B. Anthony dollar proved the public did not want to carry more change.

"I think the consumers have already spoken about the large denomination of coin," he said. "The public is not asking for this. You have to wonder whose idea is this - who's making money."

Kolbe, however, said the potential benefits outweigh the downsides and a dollar coin switch would put the United States on par with the rest of the world.

"Every major country in the world has replaced its lowest paper currency; it's outmoded," he said, stipulating that the only way for his proposal to succeed is if the paper dollar leaves circulation.

"We're producing so many dollar bills that we can't convert as rapidly as we should," he said.

The coins could also save the federal government millions, Kolbe said.

According to the Coin Coalition - an organization supporting the move - coins remain in circulation 30 years, while dollar bills wear out after 17 months.

The coalition said the government would save $2.28 billion in the first five years, according to 1995 estimates by the Federal Reserve and the General Accounting Office.

The coalition is made up of groups that could benefit from the change - vendors, transit systems and amusement vendors.

David Lane, president of Pepsi-Cola in Tucson, wants the new coin.

"We think it's a great idea," he said.

Pepsi runs soda vending machines throughout the UA campus.

Galbraith, however, maintained the new coin would cost such vendors money. Coin mechanisms in each vending machine would have to be replaced to add a new dollar coin slot, but would not end the need for dollar bill validation.

"People will still want to put in fives," he said.

Kolbe still hopes the new coin will show up in people's pockets by late 1999.

And although Arizona is a copper state - Kolbe said his coin will not be copper. It will, however, have a small amount of the mineral to make it conductive.

"I wish it would have more copper," he said, citing low prices for the conductive metal.

The coin's proposed design, which already has been approved, will be the same size as the Susan B. Anthony dollar, and feature Sacagawea, the Native American woman who helped lead Lewis and Clark on their expedition through North America. It will be gold in color.

According to Kolbe, New York City's transit system has already signed on to use the new dollar exclusively, and the Arizona congressman said that is the first step to acceptance.

"We're not there yet, but we're edging," he said.