The U.S. Mint will start releasing, this Thursday, the first of a new series of dollar coins. This new series will pay tribute to our Presidents and of course will start off with George Washington and be issued in sequence of office. A new coin will be released every three months, four times a year. This will take over ten years to complete the series. There is a rule that living people will not have their image on our coins. If our living ex presidents are still alive when the time for their release arrives, will they be skipped over? No official explanation of that. Are we ready, or want, another dollar coin? Will this be moneymaker for the mint as a collectors gimic? We still have almost two years left to complete the state coin series. This coin will also be cold colored. 300,000,000 of the Washington coin has been preordered.
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I remember the Susan B. Anthony coins, and barely knew about the Sacajawea coins. The problem with the Susan B's is that they were too similar to quarters. Maybe what they need to do is phase out the half-dollar coins (are they used fairly often, or are they just an oddity?) and replace them with a similarly-sized dollar coin.
"What we call luck, what we call chance, is what happens when preparation meets opportunity. If you stay ready, you ain't gotta get ready." -- Will Smith
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The Presidential $1 Coin Act of 2005 (Public Law 109-145) seeks to revitalize the design of United States coins and return circulating coinage to its position as an object of aesthetic beauty in its own right. Accordingly, the new Presidential $1 coins will feature larger, more dramatic artwork, as well as edge-incused inscriptions of the year of minting or issuance, "E Pluribus Unum," "In God We Trust" and the mint mark.
In addition to authorizing these new coins, the Presidential $1 Coin Act specifies measures to ensure that an adequate supply of $1 coins is available for commerce and collectors. It requires Federal agencies and instrumentalities (including certain nonappropriated fund instrumentalities), entities that operate any business on Federal property, the United States Postal Service, and certain transit systems to be fully capable of accepting and dispensing $1 coins and to display signs and notices of this capability.
Public Law 109-145 also requires the Director of the United States Mint to work closely with consumer groups, media outlets, and schools to increase public awareness about the inauguration of the Presidential $1 Coin Program and the availability of the $1 coin.
2007 coins will be:
1 George Washington 1789-1797
2 John Adams 1797-1801
3 Thomas Jefferson 1801-1809
4 James Madison 1809-1817
Here's to it and here's to it again...if you get to it and don't do it...may you never get to it again!
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What a waste! Besides mass transit, please tell me how many people actually found the Sacajawea dollar coin useful? Given the country's blasse attitude on coins anyway, why continue to produce these? Other than as a collector, why would somebody want these? Besides, if it's collecting you're doing, it's not going to help the matter that there will be at least 300,000,000 others, which definitely doesn't make the coin rare.
Actually, The waste is the use of the dollar bill. Considering the average lifespan of a paper currency and the cost to continually replace them, current estimates state that phasing out the dollar bill in favor of the coin would save 500 Million annually (and that is just government savings). I'm not fully decided on the whole deal, but I will say, coins are far more convenient and reliable when using them in what most people do (vending machines).
What a waste! Besides mass transit, please tell me how many people actually found the Sacajawea dollar coin useful? Given the country's blasse attitude on coins anyway, why continue to produce these? Other than as a collector, why would somebody want these? Besides, if it's collecting you're doing, it's not going to help the matter that there will be at least 300,000,000 others, which definitely doesn't make the coin rare.
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Actually, The waste is the use of the dollar bill. Considering the average lifespan of a paper currency and the cost to continually replace them, current estimates state that phasing out the dollar bill in favor of the coin would save 500 Million annually (and that is just government savings). I'm not fully decided on the whole deal, but I will say, coins are far more convenient and reliable when using them in what most people do (vending machines).
It'd be different if we were still on the gold standard with the government backing all moneys with gold, but we aren't. The only thing that gives money value is faith or trust in the American government, so it's not that big a deal about the efficiency of paper currency. Considering that most vending machines don't accept anything larger than a quarter, the viability of the dollar coin is still extremely limited. Besides, most vending machines have the dollar bill slot, so even if you refuse to carry change, you can still buy what you want semi-conveniently.
The vending machine companies are falling all over themselves in favor of the coins. One, the Coin scanners are much more reliable and cheaper to make. The Bill scanners frequently break down and more expensive to maintain. They also have issues with many of the bills that are accepted too trashed to be used, so they have to trade them in for new bills. If they could ditch the bill scanners, they would.
Also, the savings is not having to reprint the currency, has nothing to do with being on a gold standard or not.
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Actually, The waste is the use of the dollar bill. Considering the average lifespan of a paper currency and the cost to continually replace them, current estimates state that phasing out the dollar bill in favor of the coin would save 500 Million annually (and that is just government savings).
Of course, strippers and exotic dancers are watching this issue with much concern. Not alot of room for 100 dollar coins in a g string.
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