Cash registers in America have four internal storage trays for coins…. pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters. If the penny tray is now empty, then it's a good opportunity for businesses to start stocking something of higher value, like the half dollar or the dollar coin. If dollar coins go in the register, than dollar bills are redundant. There are also four storage trays for banknotes… $1, $5, $10, and $20. If the $1 is out, then something else can take its place, maybe the $2. (Most merchants are reluctant to accept $50 or $100 bills, but that could change.) If I were running a business, I would stock my registers with nickels, dimes, quarters and dollar coins, then the $2, $5, $10 and $20 notes.
But what about Abraham Lincoln? With his portrait no longer circulating on the penny, lovers of Lincoln will want to see Victor David Brenner's now-traditional portrait somewhere else. Illinois will certainly want their favorite son somewhere more prominent than the $5 note. I expect that Republicans will quickly get behind this idea once they realize that the only Presidents other than founding fathers on our coins are two Democrats: Franklin Roosevelt and John Kennedy. Why should those liberals get all the limelight? After all, wasn't Lincoln the first and greatest Republican? 😉
And what about the zinc miners? Jarden Metals, the company that had the contract to supply the zinc to the U.S. Mint, would like a new government contract to replace the old one. Also, all those Mint workers who struck pennies will need more work. After all, these are American manufacturing jobs at stake! What an opportunity to put them all to work on dollar coins, struck with metal supplied by Jarden, and put Brenner's classic portrait of Lincoln on the dollar coin, permanently. No more “DEI dollars" with women and natives on them. 😉
