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Steve Jobs and Cray-1 to be featured on 2026 American Innovations $1 coin

usmint.gov

61–70 of 296 posts

Re: Steve Jobs and Cray-1 to be featured on 2026 American Innovations $1 coin

#61
I can't find a photo of Jobs in sneakers and in turkish instead of a lotus pose. The only reference is this toy, which matches the coin:

https://majorspoilers.com/2013/10/17/toys-legend-toys-announ...

But the famous photo I do know doesn't match it:

https://milenanguyen.com/blog/steve-jobs-20s-the-head-of-a-h...

Re: Steve Jobs and Cray-1 to be featured on 2026 American Innovations $1 coin

#62

Not American myself, and never been there - are there really $1 notes and coins, or am I missing something here?

The $1 dollar notes are very economically inefficient (they don't last all that long, haven't had enough value to justify notes for a long time), and the mint has been trying to get people to stop using them and switch to coins for a long time. However, there is significant popular opposition to that, people seem to massively prefer notes. At one point you could order $1 coins from the mint at face value and with fre…

>However, there is significant popular opposition to that, people seem to massively prefer notes.

One of the most important features for cash is that it actually be accepted widely, and if I recall, that is a significant problem for $1 coins. I expect the majority machines that accept cash don't accept them, and trying to use them with a cashier is likely to result in amusement or confusion at best, rejection as a very possible outcome, or even accusations of fraud. That there were few instances where an individual would ever get these in normal activities probably made recognition and use even worse, especially as the instances I cam remember often seemed like attempts to push them inconveniently; I seem to remember that some government machines, I think in post offices, would insist on giving change with enormous numbers of one dollar coins, which would likely generate some resentment for users expecting change that would actually be accepted elsewhere.

It likely doesn't help that the design is rather large, eg, it is wider than a two euro coin and almost as heavy, and that one dollar notes are still being produced. For some reason, the US seems far less willing to be decisive in these changes.

Re: Steve Jobs and Cray-1 to be featured on 2026 American Innovations $1 coin

#63
post #42

Not American myself, and never been there - are there really $1 notes and coins, or am I missing something here?

Yes. $1 coins aren't super common but they're not so odd that someone wouldn't believe it's real. There are also collector-oriented coins but pretty much none of those are actually intended for use. Edit: fun fact, there are also $2 bills (but those are way more rare and someone might not believe it's real).

It's happened more than once that people thought $2 bills were fake; here's a recent example: https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/houston-school-confuses-2-...

I had someone pocket a Susan B. Anthony $1 coin and put their own money in the register to replace it, but that was because it was a rare coin, not because they thought it was fake.

Re: Steve Jobs and Cray-1 to be featured on 2026 American Innovations $1 coin

#64
Norman Borlaug's story is amazing. He brought modern farming practices to Mexico and created a new strain of high yield disease resistant dwarf wheat at quadrupled wheat production in the country. Did the same in India, Pakistan, and Africa. Saved a billion lives as a result. Solved food as a limited resource for the first time in human history. We've now gotten to transcend food scarcity as a society.

It's super cool that the US Mint is commemorating his work.

Re: Steve Jobs and Cray-1 to be featured on 2026 American Innovations $1 coin

#66
post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The $1 dollar notes are very economically inefficient (they don't last all that long, haven't had enough value to justify notes for a long time), and the mint has been trying to get people to stop using them and switch to coins for a long time. However, there is significant popular opposition to that, people seem to massively prefer notes. At one point you could order $1 coins from the mint at face value and with fre…

>However, there is significant popular opposition to that, people seem to massively prefer notes. One of the most important features for cash is that it actually be accepted widely, and if I recall, that is a significant problem for $1 coins. I expect the majority machines that accept cash don't accept them, and trying to use them with a cashier is likely to result in amusement or confusion at best, rejection as a ve…

> I expect the majority machines that accept cash don't accept them,

Worse. What wound up happening was that the feds encouraged (probably grant funded, IDK) support for it and the only implementers were other governments and the easiest way to check the box was to make all your mass transit ticket machines and the like spit them out as change despite often times not supporting them as payment so a machine would eat your $20, give you a $2 ticket and spit out 18 items about as useful as Chuck E Cheese tokens.

This has mostly gone away as those machines have mostly switched over to cashless.

Re: Steve Jobs and Cray-1 to be featured on 2026 American Innovations $1 coin

#67
post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If they're meant for regular circulation, the program is being led by a buffoon. $1 coins have failed to circulate every time they've been introduced. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susan_B._Anthony_dollar https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacagawea_dollar Dollars are worth a lot less now than they were. If vending machines start charging integer numbers of dollars, maybe dollar coins will catch on.

You remind me of the time (probably around 2002) I used a 20 to pay for some transit card/ticket somewhere and ended up with something like 15 dollar coins in change. I want to say it was a metro card in NYC. Concurrent dismay and delight.

[deleted]

Re: Steve Jobs and Cray-1 to be featured on 2026 American Innovations $1 coin

#68

Not American myself, and never been there - are there really $1 notes and coins, or am I missing something here?

I remember using the light rail in DC when I visited, and that used $1 coins.

Caltrain stations' automated machines used to famously give $1 coins as change when buying tickets as well. Getting like 10 $1 coins as change for a $20 bill really weighed your pants down.

Re: Steve Jobs and Cray-1 to be featured on 2026 American Innovations $1 coin

#69
post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The $1 dollar notes are very economically inefficient (they don't last all that long, haven't had enough value to justify notes for a long time), and the mint has been trying to get people to stop using them and switch to coins for a long time. However, there is significant popular opposition to that, people seem to massively prefer notes. At one point you could order $1 coins from the mint at face value and with fre…

>However, there is significant popular opposition to that, people seem to massively prefer notes. One of the most important features for cash is that it actually be accepted widely, and if I recall, that is a significant problem for $1 coins. I expect the majority machines that accept cash don't accept them, and trying to use them with a cashier is likely to result in amusement or confusion at best, rejection as a ve…

Most machines (except those that literally only take quarters) take dollar coins, as these are designed to be the same as susan b anything dollars, which have been around since 1979.

The real key is they don’t stop making the dollar bill and force the issue.

But hey the penny is finally dying so who knows?

Re: Steve Jobs and Cray-1 to be featured on 2026 American Innovations $1 coin

#70
post #42

Not American myself, and never been there - are there really $1 notes and coins, or am I missing something here?

Yes. $1 coins aren't super common but they're not so odd that someone wouldn't believe it's real. There are also collector-oriented coins but pretty much none of those are actually intended for use. Edit: fun fact, there are also $2 bills (but those are way more rare and someone might not believe it's real).

$2 bills aren’t rare at all. You can walk into your local bank and get a stack of them anytime, if you’d like.
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