Presidential appeal
Will third time be a charm for $1 coins?

by Richard Foster
for Virginia Business
February 2007

Over the years, The American public hasn't embraced the notion of a $1 coin. The first effort, the Susan B. Anthony dollar honoring the noted suffragist, was released in 1979. By 1981, hundreds of millions of the coins were sitting in Treasury vaults because no one wanted to use them. Only a small number of new coins were being minted, and those were just for coin collectors.

Virtually the same thing happened in 2000 with the Sacagawea dollar. Done in gold, it pictured the American Indian guide for the Lewis and Clark Expedition. After a big initial minting, production of the coins fell dramatically the next year. New Sacagawea coins are being made just for collectors now.

Still, the government's giving the $1 dollar coin another shot: Congress passed an act in 2005 calling for the U.S. Mint to issue for general circulation a series of gold-colored dollar coins of every deceased U.S. president. The first of the coins will be released this month, featuring George Washington. Dollar coins with two other presidents from Virginia - Thomas Jefferson and James Madison - will be released later this year, along with a coin honoring John Adams, the second president, who was from Massachusetts. Four more presidential dollar coins will be released every year, with Reagan, Ford and Nixon coins expected for 2016.

So why is U.S. Mint Director Edmund C. Moy certain that the new series will do better than its predecessors? "We're real optimistic," Moy says. "We're excited that the Mint's been given this responsibility of making these new dollar coins. All the information we have out there is that Americans are very interested in this."

Moy cites several reasons for his optimism. For starters, the new project emulates the 50 States Quarter, "the most successful program the Mint has ever had." Every 10 weeks since 1998, the Mint has released a new quarter with a theme dedicated to a different state. The coins have been popular among collectors and the public, with 3 billion coins minted in 2005 alone. "Americans really love having a series of coins," Moy says. "They look in their change every couple of months to see if they see the new designs. It gets them interested in their coinage again."

But the quarter is an established, widely accepted form of currency already, and the state quarters are the only quarters being minted until the 50 States Quarter Program ends in 2008.

One of the reasons the Susan B. Anthony dollar failed, Moy says, is because it "looked like a quarter. The Sacajawea [dollar] was a great improvement because we changed the color of the coin [to gold] so that Americans could easily distinguish it in their pockets."

Plus, Anthony and Sacagawea were more obscure historical figures than George Washington and Thomas Jefferson.

The attractive golden Sacagawea dollar has been popular with collectors. Though its circulation has been limited, it is also popular with certain vending machines and subway systems, similar to the way that the London Underground uses a pound coin, says Moy.

If timing is everything, then the presidential coins have several factors working in their favor. "New York City announced [in November] that they're converting all their parking meters to be dollar-coin friendly. … There are lots of situations where using a dollar coin is going to be very, very convenient for a lot of Americans," says Moy.

And collectors will like the coins because they will bear mint marks along with the "E. Pluribus Unum" and "In God We Trust" mottos with the year the coins were minted - a combination not seen on U.S. coinage since 1932.

Another hoped-for benefit: piquing Americans' interest in presidential history. Like the 50 States Quarters, the new coins will be accompanied by teachers' lesson plans at www.usmint.gov. "A lot of Americans know who George Washington is, and they're going to be learning fun new facts [about him], but for presidents like [James] Buchanan and Rutherford B. Hayes, this is a chance to get reacquainted with these American presidents who served their country."