Dollar (United States Coin)

Dollar coins have been minted in the United States in gold, silver, and base metal versions. Silver dollars, the first dollar coin issue, were minted beginning in 1794.

The term silver dollar is often used for any large white metal coin issued by the United States with a face value of one dollar; although purists insist that a dollar is not silver unless it contains some of that metal. Gold and gold-colored dollars have also been produced by the United States. The Sacagawea and Presidential dollars are usually referred to as golden, despite not containing any gold, as they are a golden color.

Dollar coins have found little popular acceptance in circulation in the United States, despite several attempts since 1971 to phase in a coin in place of the one dollar bill. This contrasts with currencies of many other developed countries, where denominations of similar value exist only in coin, such as the Canadian loonie and toonie, British 50 pence coin (as well as the 1 pound and 2 pound British coins, though the Royal Bank of Scotland still maintains a £1 note), the 1 and 2 Australian Dollar coins, the 50 New Taiwan dollar coin, 100 and 500 Japanese yen coin, 1 euro coin and 2 euro coin. These coins have largely succeeded because of a removal (or lack) of their corresponding paper issues, whereas the US is resistant to the removal of the dollar bill from production and circulation.