US Mint Launches New One-Dollar Coin:
The US Mint has a big problem: Americans prefer bills to coins (and these days, to bushes). Although a one-dollar bill is cheaper to manufacture than a one-dollar coin, the bill must be replaced in average every 18 months, whereas the coin lasts in average 30 years. The US Mint would thus save 500 million dollars per year if Americans switched from dollar bills to dollar coins. The Europeans figured this out ages ago---there is no one-euro bill. Previous attempts by the US Mint at launching one-dollar coins, which portrayed Susan B. Anthony and Sacagawea, have failed at replacing the bills. But the US Mint does not give up easily. It is launching a new one-dollar coin, featuring four much better-known and more beloved faces: George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Condoleezza Rice, and Donald Rumsfeld. Furthermore, the one-dollar bill will be devalued to 99 cents, whenever deposited in a bank or returned to the Federal Reserve---which is the US Central Bank, not a whiskey brand or a piece of land used to harbor Native Americans (aka Indians, as in Cowboys and Indians).
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