The days of the $1 bill would be numbered if the Unified Savings and Accountability Act is passed by Congress.
But the ragbag bill does not make a clean kill of the denomination. It buries it in legalese near a section restricting the use of photocopies by the government.
Enactment of the legislation into law would begin a four-year countdown to the beginning of the end of the $1 Federal Reserve Note.
This period could be shortened, but only if public demand for the $1 coin rises to 600 million a year. This is not likely to happen.
At the four-year mark, the Federal Reserve would be prohibited from ordering and issuing newly printed $1 Federal Reserve Notes. For a year it could continue to reissue old notes that had been deposited with it through the banking system.
The Federal Reserve would be authorized to issue commemorative $1 bills from time to time that it can sell to collectors.
The legislation also prescribes the retirement of the Susan B. Anthony dollar coin beginning a half year after it becomes law unless the old coins dated 1979-1981 and 1999 are needed to meet collector demand, or demand from a foreign country.
Measures to promote the public use of $1 coins instead of paper dollars also are assigned to the Federal Reserve by the legislation.
Numbered as H.R. 3300, the legislation was introduced in the House of Representatives July 29.
This article was originally printed in Numismatic News Express.
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