New Dollar Coin: Public Perception of Advertising (Letter Report,
04/07/2000, GAO/GGD-00-92).
Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed a public opinion
survey regarding the United States Mint's promotion of the new dollar
coin as the "Golden Dollar," focusing on whether the public: (1) has
seen or heard any advertising of the new dollar coin; and (2) believes
the new dollar coin contains any gold on the basis of that advertising
or the use of the term "Golden Dollar."
GAO noted that: (1) the results of the International Communications
Research (ICR) survey indicate that 57 percent of adults (18 years of
age or older) in the continental United States had seen or heard any
advertising for the new dollar coin as of March 7, 2000; (2) another 4
percent of adults indicated they were either not sure whether they had
seen or heard any advertising or they may have seen or heard advertising
of the new dollar coin; (3) the remaining 39 percent said they had not
seen or heard any advertising of the new dollar coin; (4) when asked if
they believed the new dollar coin contained any gold on the basis of the
advertising that they saw or heard (or may have seen or heard), 13
percent said yes, 61 percent said no, and 27 percent said they did not
know or were not sure; (5) during the survey, ICR informed those who had
not seen or heard any advertising and those who had or may have seen the
advertising but said either: (a) they did not believe the new dollar
coin contained any gold; or (b) did not know or were not sure whether it
contained gold that the Mint has advertised the new dollar coin as the
"Golden Dollar;" (6) ICR then asked if, knowing that, they believed it
contained any gold; and (7) 12 percent said yes, 71 percent said no, and
17 percent said they did not know or were not sure.
--------------------------- Indexing Terms -----------------------------
REPORTNUM: GGD-00-92
TITLE: New Dollar Coin: Public Perception of Advertising
DATE: 04/07/2000
SUBJECT: Public opinion polls
Currency and coinage
Precious metals
Advertising
Public relations
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United States General Accounting Office
GAO
Report to the Chairman, Committee on Banking,
Housing, and Urban Affairs
U.S. Senate
April 2000
GAO/GGD-00-92
NEW DOLLAR COIN
Public Perception of Advertising
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Contents
Page 101GAO/GGD-00-92 Public Perception of Advertising
Letter 1
Appendix I 12
Objectives, Scope, and
Methodology
Appendix II 14
New Dollar Coin
Questionnaire
Appendix III 15
Comments From the United
States Mint
Appendix IV 16
GAO Contacts and Staff
Acknowledgments
Tables Table 1: Results of the Survey 4
Question Regarding Whether U.S.
Adults Had Seen or Heard Any
Advertising for the New Dollar Coin
Table 2: Results of the Survey 5
Question Regarding Whether U.S.
Adults Who Have or May Have Seen or
Heard Advertising Believed the New
Dollar Coin Contained Gold
Table 3: Results of the Survey 6
Question Regarding Whether U.S.
Adults Who Were Told That the U.S.
Mint Advertised the Coin as the
"Golden Dollar" Believed the New
Dollar Coin Contained Gold
B-284980
Page 7GAO/GGD-00-92 Public Perception of Advertisi
ng
B-284980
April 7, 2000
The Honorable Phil Gramm
Chairman, Committee on Banking,
Housing, and Urban Affairs
United States Senate
Dear Mr. Chairman:
This report responds to your request that we
conduct a public opinion survey regarding the
United States Mint's promotion of the new dollar
coin. You were concerned that the Mint's promotion
of the coin as the "Golden Dollar" might mislead
the public into thinking that the coins contain
gold. As agreed with your office, the objectives
of our survey were to determine if the public (1)
has seen or heard any advertising of the new
dollar coin; and (2) believes the new dollar coin
contains any gold on the basis of that advertising
or the use of the term "Golden Dollar."
To address our objectives, we contracted with
International Communications Research (ICR), a
national market research firm. ICR conducted a
survey of a sample of 1,012 adults that is
statistically representative of approximately 196
million adults (18 years of age or older) in the
continental United States. Survey participants
were contacted between March 3 and 7, 2000. The
survey contained three questions. The first
question asked the respondents whether they had
seen or heard any advertising of the new dollar
coin. Respondents who indicated yes or not
sure/may have to the first question were then
asked whether they believed the new dollar coin
contained any gold on the basis of that
advertising. The third question was asked of those
respondents who answered no to the first question
or who answered no or don't know/not sure to the
second question. For the third question, ICR told
the respondents that the Mint has advertised the
new dollar coin as the "Golden Dollar." ICR then
asked the respondents if, knowing that, they
believed it contained any gold.
We requested comments on a draft of this report
from the Director of the Mint. We received written
comments from the Deputy Director of the Mint,
which are discussed near the end of this letter
and reprented in appendix III. We conducted our
audit work during February and March 2000 in
accordance with generally accepted government
auditing standards. Appendix I provides further
details about our objectives, scope, and
methodology.
Results in Brief
The results of the ICR survey indicate that 57
percent of adults (18 years of age or older) in
the continental United States had seen or heard
any advertising for the new dollar coin as of
March 7, 2000.1 Another 4 percent of adults
indicated they were either not sure whether they
had seen or heard any advertising or they may have
seen or heard advertising of the new dollar coin.
The remaining 39 percent said they had not seen or
heard any advertising of the new dollar coin. When
asked if they believed the new dollar coin
contained any gold on the basis of the advertising
that they saw or heard (or may have seen or
heard), 13 percent said yes, 61 percent said no,
and 27 percent said they did not know or were not
sure. During the survey, ICR informed those who
had not seen or heard any advertising and those
who had or may have seen the advertising but said
either (1) they did not believe the new dollar
coin contained any gold or (2) did not know or
were not sure whether it contained gold that the
Mint has advertised the new dollar coin as the
"Golden Dollar." ICR then asked if, knowing that,
they believed it contained any gold. Twelve
percent said yes, 71 percent said no, and 17
percent said they did not know or were not sure.
Background
In the United States $1 Coin Act of 1997, Congress
authorized the new dollar coin to replace the
Susan B. Anthony dollar coin, which was produced
between 1979 and 1981. Even though the Susan B.
Anthony coin never achieved a wide circulation, by
1997 it became clear that the government's supply
of Susan B. Anthony coins would soon be exhausted.
Congress has recognized that the Susan B. Anthony
dollar coin has been criticized because of the
difficulty of distinguishing it from the quarter.
Congress required that the new dollar coin be
golden in color and have a distinctive edge.
Congress required the Secretary of the Treasury to
select the design of the new coin but required
that it be the same size as the Susan B. Anthony
dollar.
In May 1998, the Secretary of the Treasury
established a Dollar Coin Advisory Committee to
consider alternatives and select a design concept
for the obverse (face) side of the coin. The final
design selected was an artist's rendition of
Sacagawea, a Shoshone interpreter who assisted the
Lewis and Clark expedition of 1804-1806 to the
Pacific Ocean.
In addition to being the same size as the Susan B.
Anthony dollar, the new dollar coin has similar
construction and electromagnetic properties. As a
result, both coins are compatible with mechanical
and electromagnetic coin mechanisms currently used
in vending machines that are able to distinguish
legitimate coins from slugs, tokens, and foreign
coins. Both the Susan B. Anthony and the new
dollar coins are "clad" coins. They have a three-
layer composite construction, with a pure copper
core sandwiched between, and metallurgically
bonded to, outer layers of alloy material. The
Susan B. Anthony alloy layers are composed of
cupro-nickel, which is 75 percent copper and 25
percent nickel. The new dollar alloy layers are
composed of manganese brass, which is 77 percent
copper, 12 percent zinc, 7 percent manganese, and
4 percent nickel. The overall composition of the
new dollar coin, taking into account the copper
core, is 88.5 percent copper, 6 percent zinc, 3.5
percent manganese, and 2 percent nickel. The
overall composition of the Susan B. Anthony coin
is 87.5 percent copper and 12.5 percent nickel.
According to the Mint, the first shipments of the
new dollars were sent to the Federal Reserve on
January 18, 2000, and the Federal Reserve sent
shipments to financial institutions on January 27,
2000. The Mint said that the initial promotional
efforts for the new dollar coin consisted of
including the new dollar in every 2,000th box of
Cheerios cereal, starting on January 1, 2000; and
having Wal-Mart/Sam's Clubs stores distribute the
new dollars in their cash register drawers, which
started on January 30, 2000. The Mint indicated
that a large media blitz, consisting of radio and
television advertisements, as well as magazine
advertisements, started on March 6, 2000.
The Mint Director told us in early March that he
did not believe the term "Golden Dollar" was
misleading as to the metal content of the new
dollar coin, and the Mint never intended to be
misleading. He said the preferred dictionary term
of "golden" refers to color, not metal content;
other terms, such as the Golden Gate Bridge and
the Golden Rule, are used without implying gold
content; and the public should know that a coin
with a face value of $1 would not contain gold.
The Director further said that "Sacagawea" was
hard to pronounce and had been mispronouced on
television. He said that the Mint wanted to come
up with a catchy nickname for the new coin that
would be used by the press rather than the
nicknames that some reporters were using early in
the introduction of the coin, such as "Squawbuck"
or "Sacky."
Over One-Half of U.S. Adults Had Seen or Heard
Advertising for New Dollar Coin
The ICR survey results indicated that 57 percent
of the approximately 196 million adults (18 years
of age or older) in the continental United States
had seen or heard Mint advertising for the new
dollar coin, 4 percent were not sure or may have
seen the advertising, and 39 percent had not seen
or heard the advertising. (See table 1 for the
results from various categories of the U.S. adult
population.)
Table 1: Results of the Survey Question Regarding
Whether U.S. Adults Had Seen or Heard Any
Advertising for the New Dollar Coin
"The U.S. Mint has recently introduced a new
dollar coin. Have you seen or heard any
advertising for this new dollar coin?" a
Category Responses
Yes No Not
sure/
may
have
Sex
Male 57.2 38.9 3.8
Female 56.6 38.8 4.6
Age
18 - 34 54.6 40.2 5.2
35 - 44 51.7 44.8 3.5
45 - 54 59.0 35.6 5.5
55 - 64 62.3 33.2 4.4
65+ 64.6 32.7 2.7
Household income
Under $20K 57.7 40.2 2.0
$20K - $39.9K 62.6 33.7 3.7
$40K - $74.9K 54.7 39.0 6.2
$75K+ 56.0 37.3 6.7
Region
Northeast 58.0 37.9 4.1
North central 59.0 33.4 7.6
South 58.0 39.9 2.2
West 51.8 43.9 4.3
Education
High school or less 59.8 37.0 3.3
Some college 57.9 37.5 4.7
College or postcollege 50.3 43.8 5.8
Race
White 59.5 36.1 4.4
Black 45.7 49.0 5.3
Hispanic 40.4 57.2 2.4
Metro status
Metro 55.4 40.1 4.5
Nonmetro 63.0 33.7 3.2
Overall 56.9% 38.9% 4.3%
Note 1: Percentages may not total 100 due to
rounding.
Note 2: The 95 percent confidence intervals for
the percentages in this table are less than
approximately plus or minus 10 percentage points
except for the Black and Hispanic subgroups, for
which the 95 percent confidence intervals may be
as large as approximately plus or minus 15
percentage points.
aBased on total respondents who represent
approximately 196 million adults (18 years of age
and older) in the continental United States.
Source: March 2000 ICR Survey.
About One in Eight U.S. Adults Who Had or May Have
Seen or Heard Advertising Believed the New Dollar
Coin Contained Gold
The ICR survey results indicated that 13 percent
of the approximately 120 million adults who had or
may have seen or heard advertising for the new
dollar coin believed the new dollar coin contained
gold, 61 percent did not, and 27 percent did not
know or were not sure. (See table 2 for the
results from various categories of the U.S. adult
population.)
Table 2: Results of the Survey Question Regarding
Whether U.S. Adults Who Have or May Have Seen or
Heard Advertising Believed the New Dollar Coin
Contained Gold
On the basis of advertising that you may have seen
or heard, do you believe this new dollar coin
contains any gold?" a
Category Responses
Yes No Don' t
know/no
t sure
Sex
Male 9.6 67.4 23.0
Female 15.9 54.3 29.8
Age
18 - 34 11.0 56.3 32.7
35 - 44 12.6 65.8 21.7
45 - 54 13.3 69.2 17.5
55 - 64 15.9 58.0 26.0
65+ 14.9 56.4 28.8
Household income
Under $20K 17.4 58.1 24.5
$20K - $39.9K 8.5 62.4 29.1
$40K - $74.9K 14.9 61.4 23.7
$75K+ 15.7 65.5 18.8
Region
Northeast 16.2 63.1 20.7
North central 10.2 57.6 32.2
South 13.4 58.2 28.4
West 12.1 65.8 22.1
Education
High school or less 12.6 58.2 29.2
Some college 11.8 64.8 23.3
College or postcollege 14.1 61.4 24.5
Race
White 12.7 61.1 26.2
Black 21.1 45.1 33.7
Hispanic 11.6 67.0 21.4
Metro status
Metro 13.2 60.4 26.4
Nonmetro 11.8 61.2 27.0
Overall 12.9 60.5 26.5
Note 1: Percentages may not total 100 due to
rounding.
Note 2: The 95 percent confidence intervals for
the percentages in this table are less than
approximately plus or minus 10 percentage points
except for the Black and Hispanic subgroups, for
which the 95 percent confidence intervals may be
as large as approximately plus or minus 20
percentage points.
aBased on respondents who have or may have seen or
heard advertising for the "Golden Dollar" who
represent approximately 120 million adults (18
years of age or older) in the continental United
States.
Source: ICR March 2000 Survey.
About One in Eight U.S. Adults Who Were Told That
the Mint Advertised the Coin As the "Golden
Dollar" Also Believed the New Dollar Coin
Contained Gold
The ICR survey also told the respondents who (1)
indicated they had not seen or heard the Mint
advertising or (2) had seen or heard the
advertising but either indicated they did not
believe the new dollar coin contained gold or did
not know or were not sure if it contained any gold
that the Mint has advertised the new dollar coin
as the "Golden Dollar." Knowing that, ICR asked
them, did they believe it contained any gold? Of
these survey respondents who represent
approximately 181 million U.S. adults, 12 percent
said they believed it contained gold, 71 percent
did not, and 17 percent could not say or were not
sure. (See table 3 for the results from various
categories of the U.S. adult population.)
Table 3: Results of the Survey Question Regarding
Whether U.S. Adults Who Were Told That the U.S.
Mint Advertised the Coin as the "Golden Dollar"
Believed the New Dollar Coin Contained Gold
"The U.S. Mint has advertised this new dollar coin
as the "Golden Dollar." Knowing this, do you
believe it contains any gold?"a
Category Responses
Yes No Don't
know/no
t sure
Sex
Male 13.7 71.5 14.8
Female 10.3 71.1 18.6
Age
18 - 34 14.5 66.8 18.7
35 - 44 12.0 75.4 12.6
45 - 54 12.7 74.6 12.7
55 - 64 9.9 67.8 22.3
65+ 7.1 72.6 20.3
Household income
Under $20K 8.7 75.0 16.3
$20K - $39.9K 10.9 69.6 19.5
$40K - $74.9K 15.0 75.2 9.9
$75K+ 15.6 79.0 5.4
Region
Northeast 8.2 74.2 17.5
North central 14.0 68.3 17.7
South 14.7 71.7 13.7
West 8.4 71.5 20.1
Education
High school or less 10.8 67.4 21.8
Some college 11.3 78.7 10.0
College or postcollege 14.9 70.7 14.4
Race
White 13.4 72.5 14.1
Black 7.7 68.9 23.4
Hispanic 11.3 64.6 24.0
Metro status
Metro 11.8 71.4 16.7
Nonmetro 12.2 70.8 17.0
Overall 11.9 71.3 16.8
Note 1: Percentages may not total 100 due to
rounding.
Note 2: The 95 percent confidence intervals for
the percentages in this table are less than
approximately plus or minus 10 percentage points
except for the Black and Hispanic subgroups, for
which the 95 percent confidence intervals may be
as large as approximately plus or minus 15
percentage points.
aBased on respondents who have not seen or heard
advertising for the "Golden Dollar" or do not
believe or are not sure if the "Golden Dollar"
contains gold on the basis of advertising they may
have seen or heard.
Source: March 2000 ICR Survey.
Agency Comments
The Deputy Director of the United States Mint said
the Mint accepted the methodology we used and
commented that the Mint was pleased with our
findings.
We are sending copies of this report to Senator
Paul Sarbanes, Ranking Minority Member, Senate
Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs;
Representative Spencer Bachus, Chairman, and
Representative Maxine Waters, Ranking Minority
Member of the House Subcommittee on Domestic and
International Monetary Policy, House Committee on
Banking and Financial Services; the Honorable
Lawrence H. Summers, Secretary of the Treasury;
Mr. John P. Mitchell, Deputy Director of the Mint;
and other interested parties. We will also make
copies available to others upon request.
Major contributors to this report are acknowledged
in appendix IV. Please contact me or John Baldwin
on (202) 512-8387 if you have any questions about
this report.
Sincerely yours,
Bernard L. Ungar
Director, Government Business
Operations Issues
_______________________________
1 The overall results of our survey for all adults
are surrounded by 95 percent confidence levels of
plus or minus 4 percentage points or less.
Appendix I
Objectives, Scope, and Methodology
Page 13GAO/GGD-00-92 Public Perception of Advertis
ing
Our objectives were to determine if the public has
seen or heard any advertising of the new dollar
coin and believes the new dollar coin contains any
gold on the basis of that advertising or the use
of the term "Golden Dollar."
To expedite our report, we contracted with
International Communications Research (ICR) of
Media, PA, a national market research firm, to
include our questions regarding the new dollar
coin in one of the national telephone surveys ICR
conducts on a regular basis.
The survey contained three questions. The
first question asked the respondents whether they
had seen or heard any advertising of the new
dollar coin. Respondents who indicated yes or not
sure/may have to the first question were then
asked whether they believed the new dollar coin
contained any gold on the basis of that
advertising. The third question was asked of those
respondents who answered no to the first question
or who answered no or don't know/not sure to the
second question. For the third question, ICR told
the respondents that the Mint has advertised the
new dollar coin as the "Golden Dollar." It then
asked the respondents if, knowing that, they
believed it contained any gold. (See app. II for
the exact wording of the questions used by ICR.)
A total of 1,012 adults aged 18 and older in
the continental United States were interviewed
between March 3 and 7, 2000. ICR's survey was made
up of a random-digit-dialing sample of households
with telephones. Once a household was reached, one
adult was selected at random using a computerized
procedure based on the birthday of household
members. The survey was conducted over a 5-day
period, including both weekdays and weekends, and
up to four attempts were made to reach each
telephone number.
To ensure that survey results could be
generalized to the adult population (18 years of
age and older) in the continental United States,
ICR adjusted the results from the survey to
account for selection probabilities and to match
the characteristics of all adults in the general
public according to demographic groups, such as
age, gender, region, and education. The 1,012
respondents can be generalized to approximately
196 million U.S. adults (18 years of age or older)
in the continental United States.
Because ICR surveyed a random sample of the
population, the results of the survey have a
measurable precision or sampling error. Sampling
errors are stated at a certain confidence level.
The overall results of our survey for all adults
are surrounded by 95 percent confidence levels of
plus or minus 4 percentage points or less.
Estimates of the subgroups listed in tables 1 to 3
were calculated from smaller numbers of
respondents and, unless otherwise noted, are
surrounded by 95 percent confidence levels of plus
or minus 10 percentage points or less.
The practical difficulties of conducting any
survey may introduce nonsampling errors. As in any
survey, differences in the wording of questions,
in the sources of information available to
respondents, or in the types of people who do not
respond can lead to somewhat different results. We
took steps to minimize nonsampling errors. For
example, we developed our survey questions with
the aid of a survey specialist.
To obtain information on the background of
the advertising of the new dollar coin and its
introduction, we reviewed our prior reports1 on
the dollar coin, the legislative history of the
United States $1 Coin Act of 1997, and Mint
documents and interviewed officials at the United
States Mint.
We did our audit work in February and March
2000 in accordance with generally accepted
government auditing standards.
_______________________________
1 New Dollar Coin: Public Prefers Statue of
Liberty Over Sacagawea (GAO/GGD-99-24, Jan. 22,
1999); Coin and Currency Production: Issues for
Congressional Consideration (GAO/T-GGD-97-146,
June 26, 1997); A Dollar Coin Could Save Millions
(GAO/T-GGD-95-203, July 13, 1995); 1-Dollar Coin:
Reintroduction Could Save Millions If It Replaced
the 1-Dollar Note (GAO/T-GGD-95-146, May 3, 1995);
1-Dollar Coin: Reintroduction Could Save Millions
If Properly Managed (GAO/GGD-93-56, Mar. 11,
1993); A New Dollar Coin Has Budgetary Savings
Potential But Questionable Acceptability (GAO/T-
GGD-90-50, June 20, 1990); Limited Public Demand
for New Dollar Coin or Elimination of Penny (GAO/T-
GGD-90-43, May 23, 1990); and National Coinage
Proposals: Limited Public Demand for New Dollar
Coin or Elimination of Pennies (GAO/GGD-90-88, May
23, 1990).
Appendix II
New Dollar Coin Questionnaire
Page 15GAO/GGD-00-92 Public Perception of Advertis
ing
Appendix III
Comments From the United States Mint
Page 16GAO/GGD-00-92 Public Perception of Advertis
ing
Appendix IV
GAO Contacts and Staff Acknowledgments
Page 16GAO/GGD-00-92 Public Perception of Advertis
ing
GAO Contacts
Benard L. Ungar, (202) 512-8387
John Baldwin, Sr., (202) 512-8387
Acknowledgments
In addition to those named above, Lucy M.
Hall, Clair Hoffman, Jr., and Stuart Kaufman made
key contributions to this report.
*** End of Document ***