Passing the Buck?

Equality continues to elude poor Susan B. Anthony. The Government honored the suffragist leader with a $1 coin last summer, and critics have not stopped sneering. "The Edsel of coins," said some. Of the 758 million coins that were minted, only about 270 million have been put into circulation. The rest are piled up in banks and the U.S. Mint.

What to do? A University of Michigan graduate business school study suggested phasing out the dollar bill, which would save taxpayers $50 million a year in production costs because coins are more durable than paper currency, but Congressmen balked. More than 60 have co-sponsored legislation to make sure that dollar bills are not taken out of circulation without congressional consent. The Susan B. is still a wallflower, and the time may come when this buck will no longer be passed.

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