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                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, March 14, 1993                   TAG: 9303150552
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: D-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

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WEIGHTY IDEA

WE HAVE written often of the need for change - but we didn't mean for the dollar!

That is precisely what the U.S. General Accounting Office does mean, though.

Yes, despite the disastrous episode with the Susan B. Anthony dollar coin that looked like a quarter - and was worth far less, in the public mind - the GAO is trying to snatch away our dollar bills and replace them with a "well-designed one-dollar coin."

Give up our warm, well-worn greenbacks for a cold coin?

Never!

That was our initial reaction, anyway, to the report that the GAO is trying to press the coin on Congress.

Given the magnetic attraction between Washington and coined metal of any kind, we figured glumly, the idea almost certainly will be well-received.

We wondered what would happen to the dollar bill's beloved George Washington, father of our country. Since he also graces the face of quarters, someone else presumably would appear on the new dollar coin.

We pictured men with pockets bulging, the weight of added coins tugging at trousers already worn too low. We thought, teeth gritted, about some people's habit of jingling their pocket change, and how this will get louder and even more irritating.

We imagined women cramming these coins into billfolds designed to hold only a few, dropping them into already hefty pocketbooks and hoisting these onto their shoulders or arms. This is sure to cause joint injuries.

Then we noticed the GAO's estimate that the government would save $395 million a year by taking the $1 note out of circulation. That's real money.

And we pictured how dirty and torn those old greenbacks get.

And how hard it is to get one to go through a change machine when you need to break one.

And how many quarters you have to carry around to feed into vending machines and parking meters.

In fact, we noted to ourselves, the vending-machine industry claims we'll carry fewer coins and a lighter burden if the change is made - one dollar for every four quarters.

So we decided this is a fine idea.

But we expect a lot of resistance, as usual, to change.

Given Washington's chronic inability to ignore the whiners and do the sensible thing, we figured glumly, this idea almost certainly will go nowhere.

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