Where’s the date?

Yesterday we were oohing and aahing over $1 coins in the office. It began when a colleague from the production department arrived in the catalog department to ask why the Sacagawea dollar had no date on it and otherwise looked different.

Stacy Krull had received the coin in a new change machine in our breakroom. Yes, for those who read my blog regularly, dollar coins are once again a regular feature in our main breakroom. Krause Publications is playing musical vendors.

I don’t think the lack of dollar coins was the reason the prior operator was ejected, but it makes an easy distinguishing point, because I had never eaten anything the vendor had provided during its brief time here.

OK, so Stacy was interested to know what was going on. I told her it was a new Native American dollar coin. The date is on the edge. To this, she kind of squinted to see it. She is considerably younger than I am so I didn’t feel particularly self-conscious about removing my glasses for a better look.

The coin is a 2009-P.

I was taking so much interest in it that Stacy said she would give it to me for a paper dollar. I quickly fished one out of my wallet and handed it to her and she walked off.

All the while this was going on, George Cuhaj in the catalog department was examining $20 worth of the change machine’s dollar coins to see what was in it. I asked him if he was going to blog about it, so I won’t tell his story.

I guess this means I am starting a new stash of $1 coins for potential use in a breakroom vending machine.

Life goes on in Iola and we can chalk up a small victory for the U.S. Mint’s effort to circulate dollar coins.