Welcome to the Business Journal Archives
Search for articles below, or continue to the all new BusinessJournalDaily.com now.
Search
Presidents are Popular on Coins and Bills
BELLEVUE, Wash. -- Americans say Abraham Lincoln is their favorite president currently featured on U.S. currency, according to the 7th annual Coinstar National Currency Poll. Lincoln garnered 27.9% of the votes, followed by George Washington (25.2%) and John F. Kennedy (5.6%). Overall, 53.6% of respondents revealed that they have no opinion about featuring people versus moments in history or other types of images on currency, followed by 36.5% who are generally in favor of having people on U.S. currency. While 40% of respondents said they prefer presidential figures vs. non-presidential figures, a statistically close 42.7% report they have no preference one way or the other.On the subject of whether to add former President Ronald Reagan's image to a U.S. paper bill or coin, 55.1% said they would be in favor of the decision, while 34.9% would not be in favor of the change and 9.6% remain undecided. With a movement in Congress behind a House bill that would authorize officials to explore adding President Reagan's image to a paper bill or coin, more Americans in favor of the change say the former president's image belongs on a paper bill (35.8%) vs. a coin (28.9%). If adding Reagan's image to a current denomination meant removing a president currently featured, Americans appear to be split, with 45.5% not in favor of placing Reagan's image on a bill or coin and 44.9% saying they would still be in favor of making the change. Nearly 10% are undecided.Americans who say Reagan should be featured on a paper bill said the $100 bill (12.4%) followed closely by the $10 bill (12.2%) and the $50 bill (11.8%) would be the most appropriate.Those saying Reagan's image belongs on a coin chose the dollar coin (18.6%), followed by the quarter (11.2%) and the 50-cent coin (10.9%).More than one-fourth (28.9%) of those in favor of placing Reagan's image on a denomination of U.S. currency had no preference as to whether the former president's image should appear on a paper bill or a coin.It has been reported that some, including Reagan himself, believed a minimum of 25 years should elapse before a presidential image should appear on a form of U.S. currency or a monument such as Mount Rushmore.Most Americans feel differently, with 51.9% of those supporting Reagan on currency believing that sometime within the next five years would be an appropriate waiting period. Of those supporting Reagan on currency within the next five years; 15.1% feel within the next six months would be appropriate, 18.5% favor Reagan's image on currency within a year, and the balance (18.2 %) feel within the next five years would be appropriate.When asked which image of Reagan they felt should be featured on a denomination of U.S. currency -- an image of the president during an historical moment from his term in office, an image of Reagan as president, an image of Reagan as governor of California, or the younger image of Reagan as an actor -- the most popular choice (39.8% of respondents) agreed that a memorable moment from Reagan's presidency would be the image they would most like to see featured. A (portrait-style) senior-image of Reagan as president was the second most-popular choice according to (38.8%) of respondents.Since 1998, Coinstar has been polling Americans on a variety of currency-related topics to identify trends and perceptions about an aspect of our society that touches every day of our lives -- U.S. currency.In 1999, for instance, Americans reported the coin they use most often in their day-to-day transactions was the quarter (86.5%).In 2000, the poll revealed that 29.5% of Americans preferred to see a president's image featured on coin. Yet Americans would be interested in featuring other images on U.S. currency as well; in 2002, 51.5% reported they would choose the flag-raising image from the World Trade Center following 9/11 over the flag-raising image from WWII at Iwo Jima (37%) for a U.S. coin.In 2001, 31.5% of Americans said they favored doing away with the penny -- a number that dropped to 22.7% when asked in 2002. In that same year, 60.1% recommended the $2 bill be discontinued.Also in 2001, 48.3% of Americans agreed with the U.S. Treasury's decision to suspend production of the Sacagawea golden dollar coin. Two years earlier, when the coin was first introduced, only 13.2% said they were likely to use the dollar coin more often than the dollar bill.With color added to paper bills in 2003, the poll asked Americans what color they would like to see added to coins: blue, according to 25%, was the most popular response. The poll also found that Americans believed society was approximately 17 years away from going cashless, a sentiment echoed three years earlier in 2000 when 59.6% of Americans said paper coins and bills would eventually be replaced by electronic payment methods.Coinstar Inc. owns and operates a network of nearly 11,000 automated self-service coin-counting machines. Acquisitions during the past year have laid the foundation for the distribution of a wide variety of prepaid products through point-of-sale and self-service kiosks in over 13,000 drugstores, universities, shopping malls and convenience stores, bringing the total to over 24,000 distribution points throughout the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom.Visit Coinstar Inc.: www.coinstar.com"