AMERICANS RESIST NEW DOLLAR COIN

The new dollar coin that bears the image of Sacagawea is proving to be as elusive as the commercial route to the Northwest that explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark were seeking two centuries ago when she accompanied them on a trek across the continent.

The coin made its debut nearly a year ago and by now it was supposed to be jingling in people's pockets. But it seems the only sighting many Americans have had is in newspaper and TV ads.

The U.S Mint said its research shows that 90 percent of Americans are aware of the coins, in part due to a $40 million dollar advertising blitz in which a hip George Washington urges people to use them. But that doesn't mean they've ever held one.

Southeast Missouri is no exception. The coin gained attention locally after a Procter & Gamble Co. worker got change in the factory cafeteria and found a flawed Sacagawea dollar worth more than $30,000.

But some local businesswomen said the coins seemed to be more popular when they first entered circulation.

Agnes Morton, co-owner of Morton Distributing, a Cape Girardeau snack vending business, said none of the company's machines are set up to accept the dollar coins although they accept dollar bills.

Morton said that right after the coins were put into circulation, she saw some mixed in with customer payments.

"I don't even see them out much anymore," she said. "We don't get them in with our coins. There for a while, people would pay for their merchandise with one of those dollars, but not so much anymore."

The Cape Girardeau post office distributes the Sacagawea coins from its stamp machines and during the course of some counter transactions.

Window clerk Kay Davidson said there hasn't been a lot of enthusiasm about the coins at the post office.

"We get a few here at the window," she said. "But mostly, customers put them in the stamp machines. It does seem like people like to carry them."

Tellers at local banks don't see many of the coins, either. Capaha Bank teller Megan Parham said the coins were snapped up when they first came out, but interest has dwindled since.

"When they first came out, we ordered about $1,000 worth to split between our three locations," Parham said. "They went quickly, but since then, no one has had a big demand for them."

Little demand

Approximately 1.2 billion coins have been made. The Mint estimates that roughly 700 million are "in circulation," with the rest sitting in bank and Mint vaults. But "in circulation" means the coins have been shipped to the Federal Reserve, supplier of cash to banks, or are held by collectors. It doesn't mean they are being used as currency.

Bankers said there hasn't been much demand for the coins from retailers. And people increasingly are getting their money from automatic teller machines, which usually don't dispense coins.

The Federal Reserve estimates that about $530 million in dollar coins -- including some Susan B. Anthony coins -- were shipped since last January.

"It's a chicken-and-egg problem with the dollar coin that's gone on for a year. Consumers say: 'If I get them, I'll use them.' Banks say: 'If consumers want them, they'll get them,'" said Michael White, a spokesman for the U.S. Mint.

Allfirst Financial, the first major financial institution to routinely distribute the coins, has dispensed 930,000 since August and "the response has been very positive," said spokesman Philip Hosmer.

Beth Deisher, editor of Coin World, an industry magazine, believes Sacagaweas won't be widely used as long as the dollar bill is available. When Canada introduced its dollar coin, known as the Loonie, it began phasing out the paper equivalent. The United Kingdom and other countries have done likewise.

Changing behavior

But for now, the Sacagaweas are used mostly for buying snacks from vending machines, tipping people, feeding parking meters, paying tolls and bus and subway fares. Eighteen of 20 major transit authorities use them, the Mint said.

When the Sacagaweas debuted, the Mint supplied retailer Wal-Mart with around 100 million to offer to customers when making change -- an effort to get the coins into peoples' hands quickly.

"Customers were very happy to get them without a doubt," said Wal-Mart spokesman Tom Williams.

Some Kmart stores make change with the Sacagaweas but there isn't a corporate mandate to use them, said spokesman Stephen Pagnani.

Coin experts believe the Sacagawea coin is unlikely to meet the fate of its predecessor, the Susan B. Anthony coin. It is still in circulation but production of the coin has been stopped.

But they question whether the new coins will be routinely used.

"Americans tend to be conservative. The penny has not changed since 1909," said White. "Basically, with the golden coin, we're asking people to change their behavior and that takes a while."

Southeast Missourian staff writer Jayette Bolinski contributed to this report.