DATE: Friday, November 21, 1997             TAG: 9711210014
SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B10  EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Editorial 

                                            LENGTH:   46 lines

DOLLAR COIN GOING FOR THE GOLD

Of course the United States could use a dollar coin. Nearly every other country issues its basic denomination in coin form. The British, for example, have a coin pound. Lack of enthusiasm for a coin dollar is odd in this land of vending machines.

Yes, the dollar coin must be distinctive - far more distinctive than the Susan B. Anthony dollar, which flopped with the populace because it is so readily mistaken for a quarter.

Anthony dollars are still in circulation. But why the solons who approved the coin didn't foresee how easily it would be confused with the quarter is baffling.

Even so, the Anthony coin has its uses. U.S. Postal Service stamp machines cough it out as change. Some mass-transit-system turnstiles swallow Anthonys.

The gold-colored dollar coin that the U.S. Senate endorsed this month on a voice vote ought to stand out and be popular. Newly designed quarters honoring individual states, a concept that also whistled through the Senate, surely will meet with favor, too.

The paper dollar will be retained, and should be: Americans love the bill. It is a better-known icon than the Great Seal of the Republic.

But the life span of a paper dollar is but a fraction of a coin's, so let's have the gilded coin, too. There will be substantial cost-savings by reducing the government printing bill.

And let's have a rip-roaring fuss over who and what will be depicted on the coin. Feminists want a woman on its face. The Senate, with a lopsided majority of men, sensibly tosses the hot potato to the Treasury Department.

Treasury, excuse the pun, could buck it to the electorate if a national referendum on competing designs could be economically organized. Putting the design question to the people in a presidential year might even boost turnout at the polls.

Some consumer advocates are leery of any dollar coin. They foresee rising prices for vending-machine merchandise. They doubtless foresee clearly.

But dollar denomination coins might increase the size of what vending machines dispense, broadening the range of offerings. An America hell bent on selling everything it can to everybody could start marketing Barbie through vending machines. Screwdrivers. Christmas ornaments. Stainless-steel flatware. Think not?

Never underestimate American enterprise.

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