Compared to some other countries, the United States uses bills rather than coins for relatively small denominations. The smallest Euro bill is for 5 Euros (approximately $8) and the smallest British bill is for 5 pounds (approximately $10). However, even through there have been several attempts to introduce a $1 coin — and starting last year, the U.S. mint has issued new one dollar coins — a very large (76% to 13%) majority of the public prefers a dollar bill to a coin.

Another idea that has been proposed from time to time has been the abolition of the penny. By more than a two-to-one majority (56% to 24%) most people oppose this idea also.

These are some of the results from the latest Harris Poll of 2,513 adults surveyed online between March 11 and 18, 2008 by Harris Interactive®.

While there is a strong reluctance to abolish the penny or to use $1 coins, a large majority (68% to 16%) is in favor of using more colors in bills of different denominations to make it easier to tell them apart. This is, of course, normal practice in many other countries, but until recently all U.S. currency bills in all denominations were green.

Other interesting findings in this Harris Poll include:

* While majorities of people of all ages want to keep the penny, support for abolishing it is much stronger among the more affluent and weaker among people with lower incomes. Only 16 percent of people with household incomes of less than $35,000 favor abolishing the penny, compared to 32 percent of people with household incomes of $75,000 or more;

* Also, men are much more in favor of abolishing the penny than women are (34% versus 14%). This probably has something to do with carrying change in a pocket compared to in a purse. Yet, almost one in five men (18%) say they would prefer a $1 coin compared to just 8 percent of women;

* Only 25 percent of adults have seen one of the new $1 coins even though they have been in circulation since 2007. Four coins were issued that year and four more are being issued each year until each US president is depicted on a coin

* These coins seem to be less used in the East than in other regions as just 19 percent of Easterners have seen one.

FAVOR ABOLISHING THE PENNY?

“Would you favor or oppose abolishing the penny so that the nickel would be the lowest denomination coin?”

FAVOR ABOLISHING THE PENNY – BY INCOME AND GENDER

“Would you favor or oppose abolishing the penny so that the nickel would be the lowest denomination coin?”

Note: Totals may not add to 100% because of rounding

SEEN NEW $1 COINS?

“Starting last year, the U.S. Mint began issuing new one dollar coins depicting the U.S. presidents. Four will be issued each year until all the presidents have been honored. Have you seen one of these coins in circulation?”

PREFER $1 COIN OR BILL?

“Thinking about the one dollar denomination, which would you prefer?”

FAVOR OR OPPOSE USE OF MORE COLORS IN BILLS OF DIFFERENT DENOMINATIONS

“In many other countries, different denominations of currency are different colors. Recently, the U.S. Mint began putting different shades on some of the denominations. Would you favor or oppose using more color so that each bill would be easily identifiable by color?”

FAVOR (Net) 68%
Strongly favor using more color 29
Somewhat favor using more color 39
OPPOSE (Net) 16%
Somewhat oppose using more color 9
Strongly oppose using more color 7
Not at all sure 16

Methodology

The Harris Poll® was conducted online within the United States between March 11 and 18, 2008 among 2,513 adults (aged 18 and over). Figures for age, sex, race/ethnicity, education, region and household income were weighted where necessary to bring them into line with their actual proportions in the population. Propensity score weighting was also used to adjust for respondents’ propensity to be online.

All sample surveys and polls, whether or not they use probability sampling, are subject to multiple sources of error which are most often not possible to quantify or estimate, including sampling error, coverage error, error associated with nonresponse, error associated with question wording and response options, and post-survey weighting and adjustments. Therefore, Harris Interactive avoids the words “margin of error” as they are misleading. All that can be calculated are different possible sampling errors with different probabilities for pure, unweighted, random samples with 100% response rates. These are only theoretical because no published polls come close to this ideal.

Respondents for this survey were selected from among those who have agreed to participate in Harris Interactive surveys. The data have been weighted to reflect the composition of the adult population. Because the sample is based on those who agreed to participate in the Harris Interactive panel, no estimates of theoretical sampling error can be calculated.