Presidential Dollars are overproduced yet no one has any

The reasoning by most collectors foregoing Prez dollars is that they're overproduced; Very, VERY true. This they say is the reason they will never have any real value.

However, although there are hundreds of millions of them sitting, idling in the Federal Reserve vaults in plenty of supply, they are not circulating.

Therefore, if they are overproduced but no one has them in hand, does that still mean they won't be worth any more than face value?

What if they decided the program wasn't working out and suddenly stopped producing them and melted down what they have in inventory? Right, probably not but more realistically speaking, the program continues, the mint continues struggling to get them to be used by anyone -- does that indicate scarcity? Does scarcity alone drive up the value? why or why not?

 

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If I find one in circ, generally from a vending machine, I will save it. I see the huge mintage, but I also have noticed that I don't see anyone using them at all. I don't know if i would say they're scarce, If I wanted to have them all I could easily get them, time, numbers, and situations drive value. I suppose on this one I am not much help, time will reveal this answer.

 

You don't see any in circulation b/c they are minted for collectors only. Of course earlier this year or 09, I understand the US Mint was trying to get them into circulation and were selling them from thier website for cost. I think a handful of ppl here bought a couple hundred but nobody really wants them and that idea fell flat. Nobody really collects them, I mean most coin collectors collect pre-65, there's more money in it. Obviously some ppl collect them but not too many.

 

I get them all the time from the change machine where i work so i decided to buy an album and collect them for the heck of it. It is fun cashing a $20 to see if i get any im missing. I found a Jefferson PROOF a couple weeks ago out of the machine as well! Will they ever be worth anything? Prolly not............. No one wants them, they dont have much eye appeal, and there will probably be vast amounts of them always lying around(like susan b. anthony)..........but you never know for sure!

 

I'm keeping one of each to show to the grandkids one day. Otherwise I spend them. I have noticed that they don't stay shiny very long. I put them in Whitmans and they go dull really quick. (as in the first '10 I got straight from a bank roll and its already dull)

 

"You don't see any in circulation b/c they are minted for collectors only."

Well that's just dead wrong! There are scores and scores of business strikes out there. I've found 2010 Nat Am dollars in circulation.

I get the golden $1 coins all the time from the MTA (NYC subway) vending machines. They end up in local shop tills, the post office tills, bank tellers have them at the window... This goes for Pres. dollars, Sac. dollars, SBA dollars... but Ikes and Kennedy Halves are far and few in between. Even bank tellers look at me strange when I ask if they have any Ike's in their drawers-- I usually ask if they have the "old large sized dollar coins" and motion my thumb and forefinger in a large circular shape to demonstrate.

I've recently posted images after finding a 2007-S George Washington Proof $1 I received in a small cash transaction at a store.

 

I noticed that as well lincolncent....... I have put many in my album that are AU with all their lusterous glory, only to look back later and find them tarnished....... Must be the brass that tarnishes so quickly??? Their composition is copper with a manganese brass cladding.
88.5% cu
6% zn
3.5% mn
2% ni

 

My bad, I meant the Sacagawea dollars were available, still are I guess.

http://catalog.usmint.gov/webapp/wc...10001&storeId=10001&productId=16059&langId=-1

Oh, btw. I got a President dollar in change the other day. Spent it right away too!!

 

I like how they call the Sac. Dollars "Golden Dollars" on usmint website........ come on!

 

Well, they can get away with saying "golden" but not "gold". Still, somewhat misleading.

 

I think you will find that 30 years from now there will still be millions of uncirculated examples in bank vaults.

 

For the Presidential Dollars, until the paper dollar goes bye bye, the 1,981,870,000 that have been produced since January 2007 will never be used in day to day financial transaction.

For the Sacagawea Dollars, until the paper dollar goes bye bye, the 1,610,601,110 that have been produced since January 2000 will never be used in day to day financial transactions.

Total small Golden Dollar Prodcution since 2000 has been 3,592,471,110 (3.5 billion).

I'd like to believe that the US Treasury Department is continuing to produce and stockpile these coins for that day when they announce the discontinuation of the Federal Reserve One Dollar Note. That would save an estimated $10,000,000 in production costs.

As for collectibility, the shear volume of coins produced so far insures that they will not be scarce under "current" conditions but should the paper dollar go away, that could change. However, premium based coins will still only exist for high grade examples for these early years primarily because 95% of the production has never been seen. This includes errors.

The annual production of paper dollars for fiscal year 2009 was 2,636,800,000 bills. I would expect this figure to reduce by as much as 90% since replacing coins (lifespan = 30 years) occurs with much less frequency than replacing paper bills (lifespan 18 months) but it would still generate better than 30 million dollars each year. Spread that across 5 different coins and your looking at variety rates of 5 million coins each spread over two different US Mints. It could have an impact on future collections and coin availability.

But, thats in the future, for today:

DON'T look for the golden dollars to get melted since they do represent a viable currency for the country. (Even the SBA's were available well into the 1990's in $2,000 bags from the US Mint.)

DON'T look for significant values on current Presidential Dollars (excluding High Grade examples) since there is quite literally, a buttload of them to choose from.

DO look for increased usage and possible renewed collecting interest as more and more folks come into contact with these on a daily basis should the paper bill go away.

I would also expect $2 and $5 coins in the future.

 

Anyone that thinks that the "golden" dollars have real gold in them are to far gone to help, unfortunately that's 50% of the population..

 

The paper dollar is liked and no politician is going to replace it, so the only way i see it happening anytime soon is if the congress gives the mint full autonomy when it comes to producing coins and currency.

 

Well put Lyds. But for the reason you mention, the Fed is not getting these out there. There is ample supply. The dollar bill is not going away.

I am not saying collecting these is going to make anyone a millionaire but when was the last time you saw a Harrison dollar coin in circulation? Buchanan? Tyler?
There might be some small premium after all is said and done because it takes a while to run across several of them. Anyone running into boatloads of State Park quarters?

 

The only way i see them being collectible is if the mint decides the program failed and melts all the ones stored in bank vaults.

 

I look at every bit of change i get, and i have only found 1 Nat'l park quarter........ Yellowstone P.

 

Yep... thar's gold in them thar hills.

Anyway, every week I ask my favorite teller for at least twenty of the dollar coins (to be used for my $2 daily bridge toll plus a cup of coffee). So, I'm doing my part to get 'em out there...

 

I think you under estimate the intelligence of the American public which is fully adaptable to any form of currency presented to them for daily purchases. The misconception that people don't like these coins is based solely upon the fact the the small dollars are not ordered by US Merchants (big or small) and given out as change. Many do not even know they exist. Why? Because paper dollars are readily available and its the way they've always done it. Folks are willing to change and this is a change which is long over due.

Make no listake, the paper dollar is only liked because folks are "used" to seeing it. It's not required and really not needed. People will easily adapt to the small dollar coin if given the opportunity. Merchants and Banks have simply not afforded them that opportunity.

As for the "no politician" statement, something like this needs to be passed by a majority of the the House and the Senate and I seriously doubt it would create any political hostilities towards those that vote for saving the country money. Of course the conspiracy theorists will have a field day but then they have the unique ability to blow anything out of proportion.

A change such as this is GOOD for the country and GOOD for coin collecting.

 

The US Mint will never "melt" anything since they're portion of the storage equation is very minimal. Most of these coins are in Federal Reserve storage vaults. The US Mint even has to requisition National Parks Quarters and Presidential Dollars from the Federal Reserve for issuance at release ceremonies which is why the coins come in standard wrappers and not US Mint wrappers.