New Dollar Coin

Members of Congress have raised concerns that the U.S. Mint's promotion of its new dollar coin as a "golden dollar" might mislead the public into thinking that the coin actually contains gold. GAO contracted with a national market research firm to survey a sample of more than 1,000 U.S. adults on whether they had seen any advertising on the new dollar coin and, if so, whether they believed that the coin contained any gold. The survey found that 57 percent of the adults had seen or heard advertising on the new dollar coin as of March 2000. Thirteen percent of respondents believed that the new coin contained gold.

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.