what is the thing with $coins we were on hol in New York and got two coins in change from a vending machine?

Americans are strangely resistant to using dollar coins. They are almost never given as change by commercial businesses or banks -- only government vending machines (such as at a post office or train station). I like them and don't understand why much of our country doesn't--you get over confusing them with quarters after just a few occasions of use.

We are on our third sequence of dollar coins since the 1970's-the first two featured women on the coins, which the US had never done before, but now we're back to using the same ol' male presidents.

The dollar coin isn't that rare, I see them more often then I see fifty-cent pieces at least. I'll admit that they're a lot easier to use in a vending machine then paper money. The current gold dollar coin has been used since about 2000, so I'm surprised you haven't seen or heard about them before.

Anyway, the US has been trying to get people to switch over from paper dollars to coin dollars for years. Sort of like Canadian money. However, just like the metric system people don't seem to like it very much.

There is a 'new' series of the dollar coins that are gold-toned and feature the portraits of our early presidents.

I have just seen my first glimpse of this series.

The Sacajawea dollars were not all that rare - just not widely used. I don't know the reason...could be colllectors, hoarders, etc.

The Susan B Anthony dollar was a bust partly because it was too similar in size & weight for vending machines to process properly - and the weight & look was just too much like a quarter.