This post is a perfect example of the random, dumb crap I end up reading about as the result of one question of  curiosity I ask myself.  It also highlights the stupid stuff that gets argued over in Washington–as if we don’t have enough of that these days.

It started with my pondering dollar coins in the US and why they weren’t more popular.  I knew they were available, but it didn’t seem they got any attention beyond novelty.  I ended up at the wikipedia pages for the Coin Coalition and a gropu called Save the Greenback.

The Coin Coalition wants to phase out the use of pennies and dollar bills in favor of increased use of dollar coins.  The group is backed by vending machine companies that want to decrease the maintenance costs associated with the dollar bill slots on the machines.  Save the Greenback, backed by companies that produce the “paper” for dollar bills, obviously wants to continue the use of dollar bills.

Is it just me, or does it seem like this is a stupid thing to have large lobbies and advocacy groups for.  With all of the major problems this country has, this seems so freakin trivial.

For what it’s worth, I agree with the Coin Coalition.  Pennies annoy me and they’re what end up filling my pocket the most, and I’d personally prefer to have dollar coins instead of bills.  Add to that the finding by the GAO in 2000 that full implementation of the dollar coin could save $500 million a year for the government.

So what does this all mean?  Nothing except we devise stupid problems for us to argue over.  That and maybe I’ll start my own little grassroots movement to expand the use of dollar coins in the country.  Oh and most concretely, I find and waste time reading about dumb things when I fall down the wikipedia trap.