The very last of the true silver dollars, although only being 40% silver, it's more of a symbolic gesture than a preservation of intrinsic value. Testing the waters to see if the public would accept a silver dollar that's not a silver dollar. It seems the public at large did eventually accept it... although interesting to note how disliked the "Susan B. Anthony" coin was.
I think the main beef against the Susan B Anthony dollar was that it was so easy to confuse with a quarter, but vending machines were never updated to support it so they were always getting clogged up with the coin. It proved really annoying. I remember when they released the Sacagawea dollars one of the reasons they gave for the gold color was to avoid confusion with a quarter.
Even if there is no precious metal in the coin, I like the idea of maintaining a size difference, and the silver dollar size should have been maintained. But at this point I don't think the mint really cares about the matter.
The dollar coin, Sacagawea, President, and "American Innovation" coins, are minted using an alloy that gives it a golden color. I'm shocked the number of people who believe there is actual gold in the "gold dollars" as if this is a modern and more valuable version of the silver dollar. Yet when an ACTUAL gold coin is offered (1/10 oz gold eagle), vs a snickers bar, people choose the snickers bar. Why? Because snickers bars taste better and the coin is so small!
So the golden dollar coins are no longer confused with a quarter but they are now confused with actual gold.
haha that video is great. So people either think the gold isn't real in this case or they think 1/10 oz is not very valuable. Does that speak to America's bad math skills? Or maybe a lack of awareness that gold still has value.
At the same time, this feels like a bit like Leno's old "stupid people" videos, where he freely admitted to simply not including all the smart responses in the video.
I think it speaks to America's lack of understanding of value. Their stomach is more valuable to them than gold!
This is quite possible, my guess is that most people were happy to accept a free gold coin, but he probably (awkwardly) had to explain to them it was a social experiment and not an actual offer. Just the fact he was able to find a small number of people who would accept neither, or accept the snickers bar, is very telling. He shouldn't have been able to find even one turning down a free gold coin! Notice he was right in front of a coin shop?