Vending Machines

While fleshy cashiers may frown at the sight of a dollar coin, many vending machines gladly accept them. The vending machine industry is one of the proponents of dollar coins, as coins are easier for the machines to deal with; more than half of machine service calls are due to fix nonfunctional bill acceptors. So adapting vending machines so that they accept dollar coins actually saves the operators money in the long run.

However, in some recent digging I found something interesting while reading the Presidential $1 Coin Act of 2005. Check out section 104:

...all entities that operate any business, including vending machines, on any premises owned by the United States ... shall take such action as may be appropriate to ensure that by the end of the 2-year period beginning on such date--

(A) any business operations conducted by any such agency, instrumentality, system, or entity that involve coins or currency will be fully capable of accepting and dispensing $1 coins in connection with such operations

Stamp and subway ticket machines have been a primary channel for the distribution of dollar coins, even before the Sacagawea. But section 104 seems to stipulate that any vending machine on the premises of a government agency needs the capability of dispensing dollar coins. That means snack machines, drink machines.... pay phones? arcade games?

This sounds good to me. I am unsure why -- a year after this was supposed to kick in -- the government hasn't done something to enforce this, like fining people, or declaring martial law.

Even without intervention though, I think inflation will save the day. Eventually a Coke is going to cost $3.75. People are will want to be able to pay with a five and get change, instead of trying to find 4 acceptable bad ones, or using a fistfull of quarters.