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The U.S. game industry lobbied in Washington, D.C. for a smaller $1 coin, closer to the size of a quarter, arguing that inflation (which had reduced the quarter
by apo 8y ago
The U.S. game industry lobbied in Washington, D.C. for a smaller $1 coin, closer to the size of a quarter, arguing that inflation (which had reduced the quarter's spending power by a third in the early 1980s) was making it difficult to prosper.[17] During the 1970s, the dollar coin in use was the Eisenhower dollar, a large coin impractical for vending machines. The Susan B. Anthony dollar was introduced in 1979, and its size fit the video game manufacturers' demands, but it was a failure with the general public.
I found no evidence that the video game industry specifically lobbied for the diameter of the Anthony dollar. Is there any?
- hakfoo 8y agoIt's likely that they picked a size that fit within the entire vending space-- not arcades specifically. The mechanisms on old games-- like other vending machines-- could be configured with gates to accept different size coins, but they probably topped out at a maximum size smaller than the Eisenhower. So a machine with a big enough opening to take, say, a UK 10p would be able to accept a SBA if you snapped the right gate over it.