A new dollar coin will come out Thursday and disappear without a trace, for reasons I discussed at length here last fall. Until a few congressmen stop requiring the continued issue of one-cent coins and/or dollar bills, these babies don’t have a chance. At least domestically; apparently the Sacagawea gold-colored dollar is a big hit (along with a batch of counterfeits) in Ecuador, where about half the total mintage has gone. I guess we should be happy to receive a $10m indefinite no-interest loan, secured by hardware that cost a quarter of that to make, from a very poor country, right?