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Switch to Dollar Coin Could Save Billions: Study

WASHINGTON — A recent economic study by Aaron Klein, former chief economist for the Senate Banking Committee and deputy assistant secretary of the U.S. Treasury, estimates the savings to American taxpayers of modernizing U.S. currency from the dollar note to the dollar coin at $13.8 billion over 30 years.

Klein released his analysis, titled Time For Change: Modernizing to the Dollar Coin Saves Taxpayers Billions, at a Congressional briefing featuring Sen. John McCain, and hosted by the Council for Citizens Against Government Waste (CCAGW) and the Dollar Coin Alliance.

“Once again, an in-depth study of taxpayer savings from eliminating the $1 bill in favor of the $1 coin has been conducted, and once again, the result is clear: eliminate the $1 bill and save billions,” says Bill Christain of CCAGW. “The federal government should always be looking for ways to save money, and as the national debt approaches $17 trillion, the implications of [Klein’s] study amount to much more than pocket change.”

The study also details the benefits of switching to the dollar coin for small and large businesses, the “positive environmental impact” of the dollar coin and the benefit it would bring for blind or visually-impaired individuals.

“Modernizing our currency just makes sense,” says former Congressman Jim Kolbe (R-AZ), honorary co-chair of the Dollar Coin Alliance. “As Congress continues to look for ways to reduce the government’s deficit, we can’t afford to ignore the $13.8 billion that we’d save through currency reform. The dollar coin saves us billions without raising a single tax or cutting a single program.”

Klein’s full report can be found at the Dollar Coin Alliance’s website.  

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(Photo: ©iStockphoto/jurisam)

Have a question or comment? E-mail our editor Bruce Beggs at [email protected].