These aren’t rare in the sense that everybody has one they keep as a collectible. If I went down to 7/11 and tried to buy something with it they’d give me a funny look.

Thank you; I didn’t know that. You do have a rather big country and I still sort of wonder if it is universally recognized. Again, just going by never having seen them in movies. Maybe United Statesians aren’t just fictional characters in movies. We’ll never know.

Lol... I've only ever seen the Sacajawea coin in the US.

Yep, there’s a pneumatic tube attached to that vending machine that goes all the way to Ecuador. Simple physics, really.

Best way to get dollar coins is vending machines and banks

I have these supposed $6 left over. If they turn out to be fake, I will shed a tear and move on. But thank you.

Movies, TV Shows, and Youtube videos use US dollars a lot.

I like the Sacagawea and "Innovation" dollar coins. The problem with 'em, though, is people horde and collect them so they're not as available as the regular paper bills even though they are currently still in production. They come across so rarely, I also tend to think "oooh I should hold onto this!" Whenever I get one back as change.

The only downside to using them I've run into is having to show the clerk it's a dollar and not a quarter.

I disagree. I hate carrying any coins, while dollars of any denomination fit nicely in my wallet.

I have a hunch that if we were to swap to these instead of paper dollars for $1, prices would go up simply because retailers would you d everything up to the nearest $5 increment.

I lived in Ecuador for a bit and it's pretty terrible when you pay for a $5 item with a twenty dollar bill and the cashier hands you back fifteen of these coins, which has happened to me on multiple occasions.

They're common in vending machines, libraries, ticket machines for bus/train, etc. as change because they're easier to distribute than single dollar bills by a machine

They are normal at Renaissance faires for people who like to carry a sack of "gold".

I work with handling money on the daily. I'd rate them as uncommon but not rare. We will see a handful of them at least every other day.

Nope, I haven't seen one since the early 2000s, when they rolled out Sacajawea dollars and then stopped a few years later because boomers were afraid they'd confuse them with quarters.