I came across an interesting piece of legislation this week: a commemorative quarter eagle coin has been approved for America’s 250th anniversary, and the Treasury has been directed to study whether such a coin should enter general circulation.
Let that sink in for a moment. A $2.50 coin. Not as a novelty. Not as a collector-only proof. But possibly, just possibly, as real, circulating money.
If that ever happened, it would be one of the most quietly revolutionary monetary shifts in decades. I wouldn't expect it, but then again I wouldn't have expected Congress to even suggest the possibility and direct the Treasury to look into it. Anything can happen!
US coinage has fallen absurdly behind inflation.
We carried around pennies that cost more to make than they are worth for decades longer than we should have. Trump finally ended that one — possibly the only useful thing he's actually done. But that still leaves us with nickels that feel like tokens. Dimes and quarters that barely register in daily life. We do have half dollars coins that could be useful, but they have practically disappeared in daily life because vending machine makers refuse to redesign to accept them. Dollar coins could also be useful, but again vending machines refuse to redesign for them and they will never catch on as long as paper dollar bills are still in circulation.
Historically, American coins carried weight. When the half cent was abolished in 1857 for “having too little value”, its purchasing power in 2026 dollars would be about 13 cents. Thirteen cents. Yet we eliminated it because it had become insignificant. By that logic both the nickel and dime should have been withdrawn from circulation long before now.
But what if coins had kept pace with inflation?
A dime in 1857 would equal roughly $2.60 in today’s money. A quarter from that same year would be just north of $6.00.
By that measure, we should not only have a $2.50 coin, but also a $5 coin. (and a $10 coin if we were also mimicking the buying power of that 1857 half dollar)
Instead, we’ve allowed our denominations to freeze in time while the dollar itself eroded. The result is a coin system that no longer matches economic reality.
A $2.50 coin — the old quarter eagle denomination — would not be radical. It would actually be conservative. It would bring us slightly closer to where coin values should be if they had scaled with inflation. Not perfectly aligned, but at least moving in the right direction.
Remember, that would still be slightly less buying power than a dime once had. It's far from a radical idea.
Imagine how it must have been back in the day. You go into the store with a few dimes and you could actually buy a decent amount of things. A modern quarter eagle would bring that experience back.
Like I said, we also need a $5 coin. But I’ll take $2.50 as a start.
Would Americans accept it?
The modern myth is that Americans resist a dollar coin, but is it true? There is a surprising amount of social resistance to people using them. I've mentioned vending machines not accepting them above. There is also the fact that retail stores refuse to redesign the cash registers, meaning there is no space for an extra coin. This leads to cashiers and stores refusing to accept them. And even if they do accept them, they won't give them out as change, meaning there is no, you know, circulation.
In practice, that means instead of removing dollar bills from circulation and giving out dollar coins, retail stores do the exact opposite. Is it any wonder that when people do receive a dollar coin, they tend to save it as a unique thing or in the hope that it could become a collectable someday.
A quarter eagle bypasses this problem because there will be no equivalent bill to give out instead. That alone means it has a better chance of actually circulating instead of being saved in dresser drawers.
A circulating quarter eagle wouldn’t fix inflation. It wouldn’t restore sound money. It wouldn’t magically solve fiscal policy. But it would acknowledge something we all already know: that the coins in our pockets don’t mean what they used to.
Anyway, go read the story here: https://256today.com/aderholts-bipartisan-coin-bill-for-americas-250th-anniversary-passes-house-unanimously-its-about-celebration-pride-and-patriotism/
What do you think? Would you actually use a $2.50 coin if it entered circulation?
| David is an American teacher and translator lost in Japan, trying to capture the beauty of this country one photo at a time and searching for the perfect haiku. He blogs here and at laspina.org. Write him on Bluesky. |
