It reminded me a bit of a Superbowl ad that changed vending machines forever. Most of my readership (that I know about) is either my age or a little bit older, so you probably remember how absolutely dreadful vending machines used to be at accepting the dollar. Back then most didn’t, but those that did would seemingly spit out any dollar bill that wasn’t fresh off the mint. If you had a dollar bill and you saw a vending machine that you wanted to take advantage of, you genuinely had to ask yourself if the dollar was in good enough shape to use. These days you only have to worry about it if the dollar is in particularly bad shape. I remember precisely when this started changing.
I can’t remember what Superbowl it was, but there was an ad that took place in a desert landscape with a little wooden building. It slid around the landscape and you heard this “vreeemp… vrooomp” sound. Eventually the camera slid to the other side of the wooden building and it was a guy trying to get a damn vending machine to accept a damn dollar bill. It was hilarious because it was so true. I think the ad served as a wake-up call to the vending machine industry that their failures have been noticed and within a year it started accepting used dollar bills without too much hassle.
Slate has a good piece up about the government’s meek and ineffectual attempts to shift the dollar to coinage rather than paperage, including a good history of the attempts it has made and why they have failed. It includes an interesting bit about vending machines with a rather similar ad:
According to the GAO, “an informal Treasury restriction” prohibited the Mint from suggesting that a coin was superior to a bill—it could say only that a coin was also available. One TV spot showcasing a frustrating vending-machine moment (vvmp-vvvvmp, vvmp-vvvvmp) was scotched, after a combative meeting at the Treasury, on the grounds that it “negatively portrayed the dollar bill.”
Other than the flashback to the aforementioned ad, it brings to light what I’d considered one of the biggest stumbling blocks to a new $1 coin: vending machines. I find it very odd that they would use vending machines since none of them, you know, actually accept dollar coins.
Anyone that’s had to deal with a $50 bill will tell you that no one wants currency that you can only spend in particular places. Okay, granted, if someone handed me a $50 bill I would take it for sure, but not at the expense of two twenties and a ten or five tens. So I figured that the key to getting the $1 coin in circulation would be to make sure that machines, as well as people, accept them. Apparently it’s a little more difficult than even that:
Shoppers won’t use dollar coins till they see businesses taking them; businesses won’t use them until banks give them out routinely; and the banks aren’t going to invest in infrastructure changes, like new coin-counting machines, until they see the public using the coins. Everyone’s waiting for someone else to move first.
The Slate article suggests that the only way to do this is to get rid of the dollar bill, which is probably right. Dollar bills are more convenient and I’d miss them, but I think on the whole he’s probably right and it is time to make the change.
As you probably know, they’re about to try again with the dollar coin and they’re going to put the face of each dead president on it. It’s a gimmick, but whatever it takes to get James K. Polk’s face on a coin is alright by me.
Many vending machines are still quite fussy when it comes to accepting dollar bills. Coins are rarely rejected unless severely nicked or bent, but a bill that more than moderately worn frequently will be rejected.
Comment by Peter — March 20, 2007 @ 8:29 am
I was just thinking how long it has been since I’ve used a vending machine. A year. Maybe two.
Comment by Abel — March 20, 2007 @ 8:49 am
I have to second Peter here; I still see lousy luck using dollar bills in vending machines, even bills that are nearly “fresh from the bank” and have maybe been folded in half once.
The advantage of the dollar bill is that it lightens the pocket; if I’m going to carry $10 in change, I’d rather it be in bills than in coins.
The disadvantage of paper currency is the question of usability in vending machines, and the minor question of ease of forgery compared to coins. However, I’ve never seen a vending machine take a 50-cent piece, and they didn’t take the Susan B’s or the Sacagawea dollars even while those are legal tender either. Mostly this is due to the question of sorting - to be able to accept a change in the bills, you just upgrade the firmware that does the recognizing, but to accept a new coin, you have to physically alter the sensors in the machine itself. In some tightly designed vending machines, there may not even be room to do this.
Comment by Webmaster — March 20, 2007 @ 10:00 am
Peter,
I can’t remember the last time I had a dollar that I could not get in a vending machine save for this one bill I got with the end torn off. Sometimes it took a couple attempts, but never more than that.
Mike,
If it’s not accepting fresh bills, that’s not a matter of it being too particular, it’s a matter of it malfunctioning. Sometimes, for instance, they don’t work in cold or heat for some reason. I put that in a separate category, though I guess it’s correct to state that it wouldn’t be an issue with a dollar coin.
In any case, they are ridiculously better than they used to be in my experience.
Mostly this is due to the question of sorting - to be able to accept a change in the bills, you just upgrade the firmware that does the recognizing, but to accept a new coin, you have to physically alter the sensors in the machine itself. In some tightly designed vending machines, there may not even be room to do this.
Some variation of my company’s product accepts coins. Minor variations in that regard are an absolutely huge deal. It will not be done unless it has to be done, ie they get rid of the paper dollar.
Comment by trumwill — March 20, 2007 @ 10:13 am
Will,
The larger problem is that when a vending machine won’t take a dollar bill, rarely does it not take *every* dollar bill. If you’ve ever seen a vending machine’s sensors for coins go out, however, they go out universally, and the machine is rendered completely useless.
You’re more likely to see a heck of a time lag on getting vending machines to accept dollar coins for the following reasons:
#1 - most coin slots are sized for quarters. If it’s much bigger (50-cent piece comes to mind) it just won’t go in.
#2 - Any dollar coin that’ll go into those slots is likely to be misread as a Quarter, because they’re not going to make it small. Susan B. Anthony dollars come to mind here.
#3 - Any other dollar coin of significantly altered design - the Sacagawea comes to mind - won’t go very far. The only place I’ve ever seen Sacagaweas in common usage was these weird freeze-dried ice cream vending machines that will take a $5 bill and give you two Sacagaweas as “change” for your $3 ice-cream.
And that machine doesn’t even accept Sacagaweas, it just hands them out.
Though, I think the US government’s big mistake with the past two dollar coins may have been putting women of severely obscure historical status (relative to the other candidates that could have been put on to coinage) on them, which limited their popularity in ways that their new gambit - the Presidents - probably won’t be hurt.
Comment by Webmaster — March 20, 2007 @ 10:42 am
Of the three machines at work, all three take dollar coins, and one takes $5 bills (and will return four dollar coins and a dime for a 90-cent purchase).
Comment by CGHill — March 21, 2007 @ 4:07 pm
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