Eisenhower dollar

[Bimat]

One such heavy coin is the U.S. 1 Dollar-the Eisenhower Bicentennial commemorative issued in 1976.It is about 23 grams in weight.Although I am not aware of any heavy coin like this which is in circulation.

Aditya

[chrisild]

That Eisenhower Dollar in copper-nickel (well, Cu-Ni plated copper) comes in two different designs - the regular one, minted between 1971 and 1978, and the bicentennial type. Right, those coins were pretty big (Ø 38 mm) and heavy. Guess that was part of why they were not popular and, after a few years, replaced by the smaller $1 coin. Not that reducing the size has made that denomination much more popular ...

Then we have the Balboa Beast from Panama. The country is dollarized but uses its own coins (along with US coinage). In 1972 it started issuing a 20 balboas silver coin - truly impressive: Ø 61 mm, and a weight of about 130 grams. That was not issued for circulation of course but as a collector piece ...

Christian

[Bimat]

The Eisenhower Dollar is the heaviest coin which is in circulation-If I am not wrong.But is this coin still found in circulation in U.S.? Considering it was issued more than 30 years ago and its popularity in collectors,I don't think that it is there in circulation.

Aditya

[BC Numismatics]

The Eisenhower Dollar is the heaviest coin which is in circulation-If I am not wrong.But is this coin still found in circulation in U.S.? Considering it was issued more than 30 years ago and its popularity in collectors,I don't think that it is there in circulation.

Aditya

Aditya,
  The American Eisenhower Dollar (or 'Ike Dollar') was last struck in 1978,so,therefore,it wouldn't be found in circulation.

For a period in the 1990's,the Mexican bimetallic 20 Nuevos Pesos (New Pesos) were the largest coins then in general circulation,but they ended up being pulled from circulation,especially by collectors,due to the centre being silver.

Aidan.

[Bimat]

Aditya,
  The American Eisenhower Dollar (or 'Ike Dollar') was last struck in 1978,so,therefore,it wouldn't be found in circulation.

For a period in the 1990's,the Mexican bimetallic 20 Nuevos Pesos (New Pesos) were the largest coins then in general circulation,but they ended up being pulled from circulation,especially by collectors,due to the centre being silver.

Aidan.

Aidan,
That is a very nice information you have given here.It is really interesting to hear about silver coin in general circulation.
One of my friend told me that the Eisenhower dollar has become rare in U.S.,and dealers in U.S. are selling them for 5$-8$,depending on the condition.Is it true?

Aditya

[chrisild]

But is this coin still found in circulation in U.S.?

Theoretically yes. Practically no.

Basically all coins issued in the US can still be used, and that includes the Eisenhower Dollar. However, as it was replaced by a much smaller type (Susan B. Anthony, Sacagawea, etc.) 30 years ago, you will hardly ever come across those huge coins any more. The newer ones have a diameter of 26.5 mm ...

Besides, the Americans seem to love their rag dollars, even when it comes to very low value notes. And those who complain about how "thick and heavy" a current $1 coin is, compared to a note, will not want to use a coin that is much thicker and heavier.

Christian

[Figleaf]

The size of the Eisenhower dollar can be explained. It is the same size as that of the pieces of eight reales (pesos) of Spain and its colonies. Well, at least in theory. In practice, those coins were almost always too light. The US dollar is just the continuation of this coin, which dominated the circulation in the US for a long time, also after official dollars were issued. There are similar large coins, intended to compete with the peso, issued in other countries. They range from counterstamped, cut or holed pesos to British crowns, Dutch Lion dollars and MT Thalers. Many coins denominated in dollars, tala, ringgit or other local names trace their ancestry to the same peso, rather than to the pound.

The point here is that coins of peso size were once accepted and used all over the world. This is of course no longer the case. What has changed is not so much people's taste, I think, but the function of money. In earlier ages, the precious metal content of a coin was a guarantee of its value. Its denomination was almost never equal to its value, but as long as it was generally accepted for that denomination, most of its value was insured by its metal content. Today, the value of a coin depends 100% on trust in the issuer. Therefore, its size is unimportant (e.g. the US 5 cent piece is arger than the US 10 cent piece, the 5 eurocents is larger than the 10 eurocents etc.). As large size coins are no longer accepted, found uncomfortable and not used, they should be considered pseudo-coins until they are shown to be coins.

Peter

[Bimat]

I got the Eisenhower dollar from one of my relative,when she was on U.S. trip (many years ago)..Though I never collected U.S. coins as such,this one is my favorite,just because of its weight and size..

Aditya

[Figleaf]

The Eisenhower dollar indeed see limited use: it was used in gambling cities such as Las Vegas and Reno for large bet gambling machines (most worked on quarters). They were available in the gambling halls, but were seldom used outside.

Peter

[chrisild]

It is also interesting that, even though the US coins of the 1970s did not contain any "precious" metal, the mint still observed the weight proportions so to say. A quarter dollar (clad) weighs 5.67 grams, a Kennedy half - worth two quarters - has a weight of 11.34 grams - just like two quarters. And the Eisenhower dollar? The weight of the clad version, 22.68 grams, equals two halfs or four quarters ...

Not that it makes much sense. But it's another explanation of why the Ike dollar "had" to be that big and heavy.

Christian

[Figleaf]

I'd say it is not another, but the same explanation. The Peso was divided in 8 reales and in the days of the introduction of the dollar, coins of 8, 4 and 2 reales (dollar, half dollar, quarter) were relatively common. Lower denominations were counted in bits, with the quarter as 2 bits, so that the real was a bit. This system was not followed in official US coinage, because Benjamin Franklin successfully advocated following French usage of dividing the main unit (in his case the dollar) in 10 dismes (décimes) or 100 cents (centimes).

The coins down to the half disme were silver and therefore all in proportion (like the gold coins). The cent was copper. As the half disme was replaced by a copper-nickel coin, its proportionality was lost. The other coins changed metal a few times and ended up in similar metals as the 5 cents, but they kept their dimensions from the days when the silver content was important. It was only when there were efforts to replace the paper dollar with a round dollar, that some thought went into the dollar's dimension.

Peter

[chrisild]

but they kept their dimensions from the days when the silver content was important

Right, and that is what I find a little peculiar, and why I mentioned those weight proportions. With silver or gold coins, under a precious metal standard "regime", it is obvious that you want to have, say, a 1.00 coin which has twice the weight (well, precious metal content) of a 0.50 coin. But why continue that after taking the "precious" metals out of the coins?

Sure, since Americans do not really use $1 coins much anyway, we could say that it does not really matter which size that denomination has, so why not make it huge. But introducing a clad dollar of that size pretty much guaranteed that this coin would never really circulate. Then, in 1979, the $1 coin was issued in a "handy" version - except it was somewhere between the quarter and the half, size wise, and had almost the same silverish look as those two. Well, the latter problem was not fixed until 2000.

And yes, in Euroland the 5 cent coin for example is bigger than the 10 cent piece - but that's a different story: The sizes do increase within one alloy group; when you go to the next one (from "copper" to "brass"), you start at a somewhat smaller size again. To some extent this setup (well known in various countries) may be an allusion to older copper-(brass-)silver-gold systems, but it helps keeping the coins at manageable sizes.

So while the Eisenhower Dollar was (is) an impressive coin, it was just way too big to be widely accepted. The later/smaller $1 coins do not observe the old weight proportions any more, but at least make it theoretically possible that the coins are used. Who knows, maybe the US will one day introduce a usable 50c coin ...

Christian

[Bimat]

The Eisenhower dollar was struck in two varieties-type 1 with thick letters and type 2 with thin letters.The type 1 was minted in 1975 but was dated 1976.

Aditya

[bruce61813]

The original silver dollars in the US, prior to the clad Eisenhower type, were 38 mm and 26.8 grams. That would be a pocket full. Unless you wanted the 1797 2 pence piece of George III, 41mm dia x 5 mm thick, 56.1 grams and those were small compared to the Workhouse three pence copper pieces of 1812.

Bruce