Treasury officials devised what they believed to be an innovative plan to distribute the dollar. So, it's no surprise that most members of a focus group of 11 citizens, convened in Exton, Pa., to talk about the poll results, have them. But these middle-class Philadelphia suburbanites don't anticipate switching to these coins from dollar bills. According to Vered Uziel, an associate of Peter Hart who, along with Robert Teeter, conducts the poll, the problem lies with how Americans perceive the Sacagawea coin. Americans are saving the coins because they worry they'll never come across another, but the public needs to be made aware that the more they spend, the more they will come across more of these golden dollar coins.
Some people are more likely to spend the coin than others.
Predictably, younger people are more open to spending the new currency than those age 50 or over, who are addicted to the greenback. Should the coin become more available, people younger than 34, liberals and professionals are more likely to use it in lieu of the dollar bill. However, blacks, seniors and people living in rural areas say they are most likely to remain loyal to the old-fashioned paper variety. Past attempts to generate usage of a dollar coin have also met with strong resistance from Americans. This was followed by the Susan B. Anthony dollar, which circulated from 1979 to 1981, but failed because many Americans were unable to distinguish it from the quarter.