Another dollar coin is coming

They sure are keeping busy over at the Mint.

Can George Washington and Thomas Jefferson succeed where Susan B. Anthony and Sacagawea failed? The U.S. Mint is hoping U.S. presidents will win acceptance, finally, for the maligned dollar coin.

The public will get the chance to decide starting in February when the first of the new coins, bearing the image of the first president, is introduced.

Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison are scheduled to grace the coin in 2007, with a different president appearing every three months.

The series will honor four different presidents per year, in the order they served in office. Each president will appear on only one coin, except for Grover Cleveland, who will be on two because he was the only president to serve nonconsecutive terms. To be depicted on a coin, a president must have been dead for at least two years.

The idea of rotating designs borrows from the highly successful 50-state quarter program. Since its launch in 1999, this program has featured five state designs each year in the order the state joined the union.

The quarter program introduced millions of people to coin collecting for the first time. The Mint hopes the presidential program will enjoy similar success, in part because of the bold designs on the new coins.

I'm sure the Millard Fillmore model will become an instant collector's item. Lord knows I'll want one.

I'm all in favor of new and interesting coin designs. I remain skeptical of the idea that the dollar coin could, or should, eventually replace the dollar bill. I don't know how other people feel about it, but I'd rather have bills in my wallet than coins in my pocket. Simple as that.

Edmund C. Moy, director of the Mint, is optimistic about the success of the new coins. Rising prices mean it takes more quarters to feed meters and vending machines. People might be willing to carry the dollar coin to replace four quarters.

Though this sounds practical, I've heard it before as well. Unless those meters and vending machines take dollar coins - and at least where I work, the vending machines take dollar bills but not dollar coins - then you've got the same problem as before. People won't carry the coins because they can't use them, and the machines won't be updated to accept them because no one carries them. I wish the Mint luck with their efforts, but I wouldn't bet on it. Kevin Drum sees it more or less as I do.

Posted by Charles Kuffner on November 21, 2006 to National news | TrackBack