Let me get this straight-- the federal government is paying him to put metal coins in circulation, and you think that he's the one lacking in ethics?
Exactly right.
He agreed (by clicking the button on the website order form) to put them in circulation, and he's not holding up his side of the contract.
The gummint is doing a good thing by spending a little (in shipping and card processing costs) to save a lot. Dollar bills wear out quickly, and printing them is not that cheap. Replacing them in circulation with long-lasting coins is a significant net savings.
It costs about 8 cents to mint the coin, compared to 3.8 cents to print the bill.
The coin's useful life is 30 years, while the bill's useful life is 1.5 years. So over the 30 year life of the 8 cent coin, the gummint saves the cost of producing 20 dollar bills at a cost of 76 cents.
The Congressional Budget Office estimates ANNUAL savings of over $120 million, the GAO's estimate is $135 million, and the Federal Reserve's estimate is $164 million.
The whole thing is about providing an incentive to people to get the coins in circulation, so they can start saving those long term costs.