They are concerned because the two Massachusetts senators, Republican Scott Brown and Democrat John Kerry, have authored and introduced the Currency Efficiency Act of 2011. The pair aim to halt “massive over-production” of $1 coins and to eliminate the costs of storing them.

Their proposed legislation responds to a House of Representatives bill, championed by Republican David Schweikert of Arizona, called the Currency Optimization, Innovation and National Savings Act (COINS). He estimates that halting production of $1 bank notes, rather than the coins, would save $5bn over 30 years.

The dollar coin battles have been waged in the United States since 1978. The amusement industry was a vocal member of the Coin Coalition movement, which pushed to eliminate both the dollar bill and pennies – one-cent coins – from the American currency system. One reason for suggesting abolition of the dollar bill was that it would mean operators’ equipment no longer had to incorporate bill validators. The penny, meanwhile, was opposed as an inefficient means of payment.

The U.S. remains the only advanced industrial nation with a low-denomination bank note in mass circulation. All other developed countries have substituted coins for their low-value bills, and coins in these countries have become the dominant source of payment for small transactions, with massive circulation.

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