shortformblog:

A proposal to phase out the $1 bill and replace it with a $1 coin could be gaining currency as the “supercommittee” looks to find ways to save the government money.

Now that’s CHANGE we can believe in! Zing! Conan, you need any writers?

In all seriousness, this seems like a largely reasonable proposal that, like all reasonable proposals, has a few interest groups working against it. For example, the armored car lobby—which you’d probably never thought about prior to reading this sentence—is opposed to switching over to coins, as that would make their truckload heavier and cost them more on gas.

The actual question in this instance should be, is the Fed going to mint the coins, or will the US Government, as it does with all coins, be minting them?  If the latter, we’re fine, but if they start taking about the government’s right to mint coin money, we should probably not be embracing the idea.