STOP PASSING BUCKS - PAPER ONES

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, March 12, 1993                   TAG: 9303120108
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Cox News Service
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Short
STOP PASSING BUCKS - PAPER ONES - SAYS GAO
Should Americans say bye-bye to their dollar bills?
The investigative arm of Congress thinks so.
In a report Thursday, the General Accounting Office recommended Congress eliminate the dollar and replace it with "a new, well-designed one-dollar coin."
The $1 Susan B. Anthony coin flopped after its 1979 debut mainly because the dollar bill was not "simultaneously eliminated," the GAO said.
Changing the dollar bill to a coin would save the government about $395 million a year - mainly in replacement costs, the GAO said. The Federal Reserve has to replace the average dollar after about 16 months in circulation, while coins last 30 years.
"For those who prefer paper bills, we will see an increase in production of $2 bills as demand for them increases," said Rep. Jim Kolbe, R-Ariz., who introduced legislation Thursday to replace the dollar bill with a dollar coin.
The GAO report comes on the heels of a 1992 Federal Reserve report that also recommended replacing the dollar bill with a coin. Federal Reserve spokesman Theodore Allison told Congress last summer it is "absolutely essential" that the introduction of a dollar coin be linked to "an unequivocal commitment to discontinuing circulation of the $1 note."
When the Treasury Department considered eliminating the dollar bill in 1979, 97 members of Congress wrote in their objections and the buck survived.

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB