NEW DOLLAR COIN

Public Perception of

Advertising

United States General Accounting Office

GAO Report to the Chairman, Committee on

Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs

U.S. Senate

April 2000

GAO/GGD-00-92

United States General Accounting Office General Government Division

Washington, D.C. 20548

Page 1 GAO/GGD-00-92 Public Perception of Advertising

B-284980

April 7, 2000

The Honorable Phil Gramm

Chairman, Committee on Banking,

 Housing, and Urban Affairs

United States Senate

Dear Mr. Chairman:

This report responds to your request that we conduct a public opinion

survey regarding the United States Mint’s promotion of the new dollar

coin. You were concerned that the Mint’s promotion of the coin as the

“Golden Dollar” might mislead the public into thinking that the coins

contain gold. As agreed with your office, the objectives of our survey were

to determine if the public (1) has seen or heard any advertising of the new

dollar coin; and (2) believes the new dollar coin contains any gold on the

basis of that advertising or the use of the term “Golden Dollar.”

To address our objectives, we contracted with International

Communications Research (ICR), a national market research firm. ICR

conducted a survey of a sample of 1,012 adults that is statistically

representative of approximately 196 million adults (18 years of age or

older) in the continental United States. Survey participants were contacted

between March 3 and 7, 2000. The survey contained three questions. The

first question asked the respondents whether they had seen or heard any

advertising of the new dollar coin. Respondents who indicated yes or not

sure/may have to the first question were then asked whether they believed

the new dollar coin contained any gold on the basis of that advertising. The

third question was asked of those respondents who answered no to the

first question or who answered no or don’t know/not sure to the second

question. For the third question, ICR told the respondents that the Mint has

advertised the new dollar coin as the “Golden Dollar.” ICR then asked the

respondents if, knowing that, they believed it contained any gold.

We requested comments on a draft of this report from the Director of the

Mint. We received written comments from the Deputy Director of the Mint,

which are discussed near the end of this letter and reprented in appendix

III. We conducted our audit work during February and March 2000 in

accordance with generally accepted government auditing standards.

Appendix I provides further details about our objectives, scope, and

methodology.
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Page 2 GAO/GGD-00-92 Public Perception of Advertising

The results of the ICR survey indicate that 57 percent of adults (18 years of

age or older) in the continental United States had seen or heard any

advertising for the new dollar coin as of March 7, 2000.1

 Another 4 percent

of adults indicated they were either not sure whether they had seen or

heard any advertising or they may have seen or heard advertising of the

new dollar coin. The remaining 39 percent said they had not seen or heard

any advertising of the new dollar coin. When asked if they believed the

new dollar coin contained any gold on the basis of the advertising that they

saw or heard (or may have seen or heard), 13 percent said yes, 61 percent

said no, and 27 percent said they did not know or were not sure. During

the survey, ICR informed those who had not seen or heard any advertising

and those who had or may have seen the advertising but said either (1)

they did not believe the new dollar coin contained any gold or (2) did not

know or were not sure whether it contained gold that the Mint has

advertised the new dollar coin as the “Golden Dollar.” ICR then asked if,

knowing that, they believed it contained any gold. Twelve percent said yes,

71 percent said no, and 17 percent said they did not know or were not sure.

In the United States $1 Coin Act of 1997, Congress authorized the new

dollar coin to replace the Susan B. Anthony dollar coin, which was

produced between 1979 and 1981. Even though the Susan B. Anthony coin

never achieved a wide circulation, by 1997 it became clear that the

government’s supply of Susan B. Anthony coins would soon be exhausted.

Congress has recognized that the Susan B. Anthony dollar coin has been

criticized because of the difficulty of distinguishing it from the quarter.

Congress required that the new dollar coin be golden in color and have a

distinctive edge. Congress required the Secretary of the Treasury to select

the design of the new coin but required that it be the same size as the

Susan B. Anthony dollar.

In May 1998, the Secretary of the Treasury established a Dollar Coin

Advisory Committee to consider alternatives and select a design concept

for the obverse (face) side of the coin. The final design selected was an

artist’s rendition of Sacagawea, a Shoshone interpreter who assisted the

Lewis and Clark expedition of 1804-1806 to the Pacific Ocean.

In addition to being the same size as the Susan B. Anthony dollar, the new

dollar coin has similar construction and electromagnetic properties. As a

result, both coins are compatible with mechanical and electromagnetic

coin mechanisms currently used in vending machines that are able to

 

1

 The overall results of our survey for all adults are surrounded by 95 percent confidence levels of plus

or minus 4 percentage points or less.

Results in Brief

Background
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Page 3 GAO/GGD-00-92 Public Perception of Advertising

distinguish legitimate coins from slugs, tokens, and foreign coins. Both the

Susan B. Anthony and the new dollar coins are “clad” coins. They have a

three-layer composite construction, with a pure copper core sandwiched

between, and metallurgically bonded to, outer layers of alloy material. The

Susan B. Anthony alloy layers are composed of cupro-nickel, which is 75

percent copper and 25 percent nickel. The new dollar alloy layers are

composed of manganese brass, which is 77 percent copper, 12 percent

zinc, 7 percent manganese, and 4 percent nickel. The overall composition

of the new dollar coin, taking into account the copper core, is 88.5 percent

copper, 6 percent zinc, 3.5 percent manganese, and 2 percent nickel. The

overall composition of the Susan B. Anthony coin is 87.5 percent copper

and 12.5 percent nickel.

According to the Mint, the first shipments of the new dollars were sent to

the Federal Reserve on January 18, 2000, and the Federal Reserve sent

shipments to financial institutions on January 27, 2000. The Mint said that

the initial promotional efforts for the new dollar coin consisted of

including the new dollar in every 2,000th box of Cheerios cereal, starting

on January 1, 2000; and having Wal-Mart/Sam’s Clubs stores distribute the

new dollars in their cash register drawers, which started on January 30,

2000. The Mint indicated that a large media blitz, consisting of radio and

television advertisements, as well as magazine advertisements, started on

March 6, 2000.

The Mint Director told us in early March that he did not believe the term

“Golden Dollar” was misleading as to the metal content of the new dollar

coin, and the Mint never intended to be misleading. He said the preferred

dictionary term of “golden” refers to color, not metal content; other terms,

such as the Golden Gate Bridge and the Golden Rule, are used without

implying gold content; and the public should know that a coin with a face

value of $1 would not contain gold. The Director further said that

“Sacagawea” was hard to pronounce and had been mispronouced on

television. He said that the Mint wanted to come up with a catchy

nickname for the new coin that would be used by the press rather than the

nicknames that some reporters were using early in the introduction of the

coin, such as “Squawbuck” or “Sacky.”

The ICR survey results indicated that 57 percent of the approximately 196

million adults (18 years of age or older) in the continental United States

had seen or heard Mint advertising for the new dollar coin, 4 percent were

not sure or may have seen the advertising, and 39 percent had not seen or

heard the advertising. (See table 1 for the results from various categories

of the U.S. adult population.)

Over One-Half of U.S.

Adults Had Seen or

Heard Advertising for

New Dollar Coin
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Page 4 GAO/GGD-00-92 Public Perception of Advertising

 “The U.S. Mint has recently introduced a new dollar coin. Have you seen or heard any

advertising for this new dollar coin?” a

Responses

Category Yes No

Not sure/

may have

Sex

 Male 57.2 38.9 3.8

 Female 56.6 38.8 4.6

Age

 18 - 34 54.6 40.2 5.2

 35 - 44 51.7 44.8 3.5

 45 - 54 59.0 35.6 5.5

 55 - 64 62.3 33.2 4.4

 65+ 64.6 32.7 2.7

Household income

 Under $20K 57.7 40.2 2.0

 $20K - $39.9K 62.6 33.7 3.7

 $40K - $74.9K 54.7 39.0 6.2

 $75K+ 56.0 37.3 6.7

Region

 Northeast 58.0 37.9 4.1

 North central 59.0 33.4 7.6

 South 58.0 39.9 2.2

 West 51.8 43.9 4.3

Education

 High school or less 59.8 37.0 3.3

 Some college 57.9 37.5 4.7

 College or postcollege 50.3 43.8 5.8

Race

 White 59.5 36.1 4.4

 Black 45.7 49.0 5.3

 Hispanic 40.4 57.2 2.4

Metro status

 Metro 55.4 40.1 4.5

 Nonmetro 63.0 33.7 3.2

Overall 56.9% 38.9% 4.3%

Note 1: Percentages may not total 100 due to rounding.

Note 2: The 95 percent confidence intervals for the percentages in this table are less than

approximately plus or minus 10 percentage points except for the Black and Hispanic subgroups, for

which the 95 percent confidence intervals may be as large as approximately plus or minus 15

percentage points.

a

Based on total respondents who represent approximately 196 million adults (18 years of age and

older) in the continental United States.

Source: March 2000 ICR Survey.

Table 1: Results of the Survey Question

Regarding Whether U.S. Adults Had

Seen or Heard Any Advertising for the

New Dollar Coin
B-284980

Page 5 GAO/GGD-00-92 Public Perception of Advertising

The ICR survey results indicated that 13 percent of the approximately 120

million adults who had or may have seen or heard advertising for the new

dollar coin believed the new dollar coin contained gold, 61 percent did not,

and 27 percent did not know or were not sure. (See table 2 for the results

from various categories of the U.S. adult population.)

On the basis of advertising that you may have seen or heard, do you believe this new

dollar coin contains any gold?” a

Responses

Category Yes No

Don’ t

know/not

sure

Sex

 Male 9.6 67.4 23.0

 Female 15.9 54.3 29.8

Age

 18 - 34 11.0 56.3 32.7

 35 - 44 12.6 65.8 21.7

 45 - 54 13.3 69.2 17.5

 55 - 64 15.9 58.0 26.0

 65+ 14.9 56.4 28.8

Household income

 Under $20K 17.4 58.1 24.5

 $20K - $39.9K 8.5 62.4 29.1

 $40K - $74.9K 14.9 61.4 23.7

 $75K+ 15.7 65.5 18.8

Region

 Northeast 16.2 63.1 20.7

 North central 10.2 57.6 32.2

 South 13.4 58.2 28.4

 West 12.1 65.8 22.1

Education

 High school or less 12.6 58.2 29.2

 Some college 11.8 64.8 23.3

 College or postcollege 14.1 61.4 24.5

Race

 White 12.7 61.1 26.2

 Black 21.1 45.1 33.7

 Hispanic 11.6 67.0 21.4

Metro status

 Metro 13.2 60.4 26.4

 Nonmetro 11.8 61.2 27.0

Overall 12.9 60.5 26.5

Note 1: Percentages may not total 100 due to rounding.

About One in Eight

U.S. Adults Who Had

or May Have Seen or

Heard Advertising

Believed the New

Dollar Coin Contained

Gold

Table 2: Results of the Survey Question

Regarding Whether U.S. Adults Who

Have or May Have Seen or Heard

Advertising Believed the New Dollar

Coin Contained Gold
B-284980

Page 6 GAO/GGD-00-92 Public Perception of Advertising

Note 2: The 95 percent confidence intervals for the percentages in this table are less than

approximately plus or minus 10 percentage points except for the Black and Hispanic subgroups, for

which the 95 percent confidence intervals may be as large as approximately plus or minus 20

percentage points.

a

Based on respondents who have or may have seen or heard advertising for the “Golden Dollar” who

represent approximately 120 million adults (18 years of age or older) in the continental United States.

Source: ICR March 2000 Survey.

The ICR survey also told the respondents who (1) indicated they had not

seen or heard the Mint advertising or (2) had seen or heard the advertising

but either indicated they did not believe the new dollar coin contained gold

or did not know or were not sure if it contained any gold that the Mint has

advertised the new dollar coin as the “Golden Dollar.” Knowing that, ICR

asked them, did they believe it contained any gold? Of these survey

respondents who represent approximately 181 million U.S. adults, 12

percent said they believed it contained gold, 71 percent did not, and 17

percent could not say or were not sure. (See table 3 for the results from

various categories of the U.S. adult population.)

“The U.S. Mint has advertised this new dollar coin as the “Golden Dollar.” Knowing this, do

you believe it contains any gold?”a

Responses

Category Yes No

Don’t

know/not

sure

Sex

 Male 13.7 71.5 14.8

 Female 10.3 71.1 18.6

Age

 18 - 34 14.5 66.8 18.7

 35 - 44 12.0 75.4 12.6

 45 - 54 12.7 74.6 12.7

 55 - 64 9.9 67.8 22.3

 65+ 7.1 72.6 20.3

Household income

 Under $20K 8.7 75.0 16.3

 $20K - $39.9K 10.9 69.6 19.5

 $40K - $74.9K 15.0 75.2 9.9

 $75K+ 15.6 79.0 5.4

Region

 Northeast 8.2 74.2 17.5

 North central 14.0 68.3 17.7

 South 14.7 71.7 13.7

 West 8.4 71.5 20.1

Education

About One in Eight

U.S. Adults Who Were

Told That the Mint

Advertised the Coin As

the “Golden Dollar”

Also Believed the New

Dollar Coin Contained

Gold

Table 3: Results of the Survey Question

Regarding Whether U.S. Adults Who

Were Told That the U.S. Mint Advertised

the Coin as the “Golden Dollar”

Believed the New Dollar Coin Contained

Gold
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Page 7 GAO/GGD-00-92 Public Perception of Advertising

“The U.S. Mint has advertised this new dollar coin as the “Golden Dollar.” Knowing this, do

you believe it contains any gold?”a

Responses

Category Yes No

Don’t

know/not

sure

 High school or less 10.8 67.4 21.8

 Some college 11.3 78.7 10.0

 College or postcollege 14.9 70.7 14.4

Race

 White 13.4 72.5 14.1

 Black 7.7 68.9 23.4

 Hispanic 11.3 64.6 24.0

Metro status

 Metro 11.8 71.4 16.7

 Nonmetro 12.2 70.8 17.0

Overall 11.9 71.3 16.8

Note 1: Percentages may not total 100 due to rounding.

Note 2: The 95 percent confidence intervals for the percentages in this table are less than

approximately plus or minus 10 percentage points except for the Black and Hispanic subgroups, for

which the 95 percent confidence intervals may be as large as approximately plus or minus 15

percentage points.

a

Based on respondents who have not seen or heard advertising for the “Golden Dollar” or do not

believe or are not sure if the “Golden Dollar” contains gold on the basis of advertising they may have

seen or heard.

Source: March 2000 ICR Survey.

The Deputy Director of the United States Mint said the Mint accepted the

methodology we used and commented that the Mint was pleased with our

findings.

We are sending copies of this report to Senator Paul Sarbanes, Ranking

Minority Member, Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban

Affairs; Representative Spencer Bachus, Chairman, and Representative

Maxine Waters, Ranking Minority Member of the House Subcommittee on

Domestic and International Monetary Policy, House Committee on

Banking and Financial Services; the Honorable Lawrence H. Summers,

Secretary of the Treasury; Mr. John P. Mitchell, Deputy Director of the

Mint; and other interested parties. We will also make copies available to

others upon request.

Agency Comments
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Page 8 GAO/GGD-00-92 Public Perception of Advertising

Major contributors to this report are acknowledged in appendix IV. Please

contact me or John Baldwin on (202) 512-8387 if you have any questions

about this report.

Sincerely yours,

Bernard L. Ungar

Director, Government Business

 Operations Issues
Page 9 GAO/GGD-00-92 Public Perception of Advertising
Page 10 GAO/GGD-00-92 Public Perception of Advertising

Contents

1 Letter

Appendix I 12

Objectives, Scope, and

Methodology

Appendix II 14

New Dollar Coin

Questionnaire

Appendix III 15

Comments From the

United States Mint

Appendix IV 16

GAO Contacts and

Staff

Acknowledgments

Table 1: Results of the Survey Question Regarding

Whether U.S. Adults Had Seen or Heard Any

Advertising for the New Dollar Coin

4

Table 2: Results of the Survey Question Regarding

Whether U.S. Adults Who Have or May Have Seen or

Heard Advertising Believed the New Dollar Coin

Contained Gold

5

Table 3: Results of the Survey Question Regarding

Whether U.S. Adults Who Were Told That the U.S. Mint

Advertised the Coin as the “Golden Dollar” Believed

the New Dollar Coin Contained Gold

6

Tables
Page 11 GAO/GGD-00-92 Public Perception of Advertising
Appendix I

Objectives, Scope, and Methodology

Page 12 GAO/GGD-00-92 Public Perception of Advertising

Our objectives were to determine if the public has seen or heard any

advertising of the new dollar coin and believes the new dollar coin

contains any gold on the basis of that advertising or the use of the term

“Golden Dollar.”

To expedite our report, we contracted with International Communications

Research (ICR) of Media, PA, a national market research firm, to include

our questions regarding the new dollar coin in one of the national

telephone surveys ICR conducts on a regular basis.

The survey contained three questions. The first question asked the

respondents whether they had seen or heard any advertising of the new

dollar coin. Respondents who indicated yes or not sure/may have to the

first question were then asked whether they believed the new dollar coin

contained any gold on the basis of that advertising. The third question was

asked of those respondents who answered no to the first question or who

answered no or don’t know/not sure to the second question. For the third

question, ICR told the respondents that the Mint has advertised the new

dollar coin as the “Golden Dollar.” It then asked the respondents if,

knowing that, they believed it contained any gold. (See app. II for the exact

wording of the questions used by ICR.)

A total of 1,012 adults aged 18 and older in the continental United States

were interviewed between March 3 and 7, 2000. ICR’s survey was made up

of a random-digit-dialing sample of households with telephones. Once a

household was reached, one adult was selected at random using a

computerized procedure based on the birthday of household members.

The survey was conducted over a 5-day period, including both weekdays

and weekends, and up to four attempts were made to reach each telephone

number.

To ensure that survey results could be generalized to the adult population

(18 years of age and older) in the continental United States, ICR adjusted

the results from the survey to account for selection probabilities and to

match the characteristics of all adults in the general public according to

demographic groups, such as age, gender, region, and education. The 1,012

respondents can be generalized to approximately 196 million U.S. adults

(18 years of age or older) in the continental United States.

Because ICR surveyed a random sample of the population, the results of

the survey have a measurable precision or sampling error. Sampling errors

are stated at a certain confidence level. The overall results of our survey

for all adults are surrounded by 95 percent confidence levels of plus or
Appendix I

Objectives, Scope, and Methodology

Page 13 GAO/GGD-00-92 Public Perception of Advertising

minus 4 percentage points or less. Estimates of the subgroups listed in

tables 1 to 3 were calculated from smaller numbers of respondents and,

unless otherwise noted, are surrounded by 95 percent confidence levels of

plus or minus 10 percentage points or less.

The practical difficulties of conducting any survey may introduce

nonsampling errors. As in any survey, differences in the wording of

questions, in the sources of information available to respondents, or in the

types of people who do not respond can lead to somewhat different

results. We took steps to minimize nonsampling errors. For example, we

developed our survey questions with the aid of a survey specialist.

To obtain information on the background of the advertising of the new

dollar coin and its introduction, we reviewed our prior reports1

 on the

dollar coin, the legislative history of the United States $1 Coin Act of 1997,

and Mint documents and interviewed officials at the United States Mint.

We did our audit work in February and March 2000 in accordance with

generally accepted government auditing standards.

 

1

 New Dollar Coin: Public Prefers Statue of Liberty Over Sacagawea (GAO/GGD-99-24, Jan. 22, 1999);

Coin and Currency Production: Issues for Congressional Consideration (GAO/T-GGD-97-146, June 26,

1997); A Dollar Coin Could Save Millions (GAO/T-GGD-95-203, July 13, 1995); 1-Dollar Coin:

Reintroduction Could Save Millions If It Replaced the 1-Dollar Note (GAO/T-GGD-95-146, May 3, 1995);

1-Dollar Coin: Reintroduction Could Save Millions If Properly Managed (GAO/GGD-93-56, Mar. 11,

1993); A New Dollar Coin Has Budgetary Savings Potential But Questionable Acceptability (GAO/TGGD-90-50, June 20, 1990); Limited Public Demand for New Dollar Coin or Elimination of Penny

(GAO/T-GGD-90-43, May 23, 1990); and National Coinage Proposals: Limited Public Demand for New

Dollar Coin or Elimination of Pennies (GAO/GGD-90-88, May 23, 1990).
Appendix II

New Dollar Coin Questionnaire

Page 14 GAO/GGD-00-92 Public Perception of Advertising
Appendix III

Comments From the United States Mint

Page 15 GAO/GGD-00-92 Public Perception of Advertising
Appendix IV

GAO Contacts and Staff Acknowledgments

Page 16 GAO/GGD-00-92 Public Perception of Advertising

Benard L. Ungar, (202) 512-8387

John Baldwin, Sr., (202) 512-8387

In addition to those named above, Lucy M. Hall, Clair Hoffman, Jr., and

Stuart Kaufman made key contributions to this report.

GAO Contacts

Acknowledgments
Page 17 GAO/GGD-00-92 Public Perception of Advertising
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