New Dollar Coin Update

H.R. 3916, the Presidential $1 Coin Act, is still in the House Committees. The proposal is seeking legislation to be inacted by Jan 2006.

Mr. Castle, Delaware Representative has garnered enough support for this legislation. If anyone wants their views heard regarding this matter, it must be done immediately.

Contact your states representative concerning H.R. 3916

 

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Man, I can't wait to be the first on my block with a Millard Fillmore $1 coin!!

 

Rather dollar coin than paper...

Over $500 million are spent each year making paper dollars. Their average life cycle is only aroud 16 to 18 months (max). Obviously, coins last way longer and I am sure they would save us tax payers some serious money.

Too bad the public is hung up on paper dollars. Matter of fact, my luck lately in the Express line at the grocery store seems to put me behind some moran that wants to write a check or use his debit card for a candy bar.

If I had a dollar coin, I would throw it at him/her!

I say this because more and more people seem to write checks, use their debit/credit for EVERYTHING!...no matter how painstaking it is for us that still use cash for items costing less than $1.09.

If the public can adapt to paying everything with credit/debit cards...as well as paying at the gas pump without even talking to a person, then they should be able to adjust to life without paper dollars.

The design postings were great! Bring back Lady Liberty or some form of her. That way we can keep politics at bay and hopefully the coin will between the avergae size of a Kennedy and currrent quarter with a nice SAC gold color.

 

How did Mr. Castle respond when you presented your case (against) to him? Where does he see public clamoring for the Presidential dollars? And has he considered making this conditional on phasing out the paper dollar so it is not doomed to fail???

 

have any pictures been relesed for the 1 dollar coin?

 

Coin world had a "rendering" a few issues ago, it was so beautiful I almost cried ;-)

 

dont worry about last post found a picture

 

Mr. Castle has thanked me for my efforts, but that is about it. He hopes that the passage of this bill will help to revitalize US coinage and encourage Americans to replace the paper dollars. Of course, no bill is currently before congress to eliminate the dollar bill. He believes that H.R. 3916 would encourage people to collect the coins, thus taking them out of circulation. Does anyone else notice the contradiction in his statements? How can they circulate if people collect them?
He agrees that popular public sentiment suggests that most Americans are more comfortable using the paper dollar. He also recognizes my comcern with the perceived designs and marketing flaws of the dollar coin. He believes that this bill will act as an important catalyst in bringing much needed attention to the benefits of dollar coins.

The bill in its current form would create a new dollar coin (same size and color) bearing the images of presidents starting with George Washington in January 2006. It also provides a provision instructing the US Mint to produce commemorative $10 "bullion" coins which would run concurrently with the Presidential dollars. The policy of not having a living president would still apply.

Who believes that one?

 

Me. me, , me!

 

Ugh!!! Typical politician. Gee, sounds like he is talking out of both sides of his mouth!!! What a shock!!! The American public is more "comfortable" with the dollar bill -- weasel words for "lazy".

Gee, when most states passed seat belt laws, the public was not "comfortable" with using them. You know what? they got used to them, now everybody wears them!!! We can get used to a $1 coin too!!! But I am preaching to the chior . . . . .

 

i dont remember being asked if i wanted to where my seatbelt or not. but i didnt write my representative either.

if this bill does get approved how is it a bad marketing move? also i thought i read somewhere that the government or the mint i cant remember which, makes a profit when we take coins out of circ. i think it (the article) was about the state quarter program. any truth to this? if so i guess i could see why they would push for change in our change. i dont particularly agree but......

hey nd. i commend you trying to fight this. it is good to know that people like you are looking out for what you beleive in and think is best for the hobby as a whole.. thanx

 

That's the point. The public was not asked -- state lawmakers, citing statistics from the auto insurance industry and other sources, deemed it was in the public's best interest to "force" seatbelts on drivers. Now everybody I know just buckles up without thinking about it -- not big deal, lives are saved, insurance rates are lower -- all in the public good.

Now, if we "force" the dollar coin on the public (like Canada and Britain), everybody will get used to it, it will ultimately be more convenient, and the gov't will save money -- all in the public good.

 

I agree that the gov. would make an estimated 500 million extra dollars if we eliminate the dollar bill. I also have no doubt that the gov. would find a way to waste that 500 million dollars.
Our leaders constantly make new laws without getting the actual views of Americans. They use polls. Their staff calls 500 to 1000 people, and ask would you use a dollar coin. This is the same tactic used for the Ike, Susan, Sac, and now one more failed dollar.
If you don't make your voice heard, you can't complain about it later....

 

Here is the official bill introduced. Please read carefully. They are once again looking at a multi-million dollar advertising campaign. We all know how well that worked with the Sac dollar.


3/9/2004--Introduced. Presidential $1 Coin Act - Amends Federal monetary law to set forth requirements for the redesign and issuance of circulating $1 coins emblematic of each of the Presidents of the United States. Prohibits the inclusion of a President who has not completed such President's term of service. Instructs the Secretary of the Treasury to issue bullion coins that are emblematic of the spouse of each such President during the same period in which the $1 coins are issued. Expresses the sense of Congress that: (1) the American tradition of not issuing a coin with the image of a living person has served the country well and deserves to be continued as a general practice; (2) the full circulation potential and cost-savings benefit projections for the presidential $1 coin program are not likely to be achieved unless barriers to the circulation of such coins are removed; and (3) the presidential $1 coin program should not be introduced with an expensive taxpayer-funded public relations campaign, including the use of the taxpayer-funded United States Mint Public Enterprise Fund. Expresses the further sense of Congress that the Director of the U.S. Mint should: (1) work with consumer groups, media outlets, and schools to ensure an adequate amount of news coverage about the start of the coin program so consumers will know of the availability of the coins; and (2) work closely with merchants who will use the coins, vending machine and other coin acceptor manufacturers, vending machine operators, transit officials, and municipal parking officials, as well as with the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and the various banking and business associations, to ensure that the infrastructure for the acceptance of such coins will be in place.

 

Here are the sponsers:

Sponsor/Co-sponsor(s) 11
May. 04, 2004 Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)
--- Rep. Michael Castle (R-DE)
May. 04, 2004 Rep. Jerry Costello (D-IL)
Mar. 24, 2004 Rep. Doug Bereuter (R-NE)
May. 04, 2004 Rep. Amory Houghton (R-NY)
Mar. 24, 2004 Rep. Joseph Pitts (R-PA)
Mar. 30, 2004 Rep. Philip English (R-PA)
Mar. 29, 2004 Rep. Paul Gillmor (R-OH)
Mar. 09, 2004 Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY)
Mar. 24, 2004 Rep. John Shimkus (R-IL)
Apr. 22, 2004 Rep. Jim Leach (R-IA)


Current status:

Mar. 09, 2004 Referred to the House Committee on Financial Services.
Mar. 29, 2004 Referred to the Subcommittee on Domestic and International Monetary Policy, Trade, and Technology.
Apr. 28, 2004 Forwarded by Subcommittee to Full Committee (Amended) by Voice Vote.
Apr. 28, 2004 Subcommittee Consideration and Mark-up Session Held.

 

More interesting reading.

HON. MICHAEL N. CASTLE
OF DELAWARE
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
TUESDAY, MARCH 9, 2004

Mr. CASTLE. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to introduce the ``Presidential $1 Coin Act of 2004.'' When it is approved, it will create enormous opportunities to educate both children and adults about the history of this country. This legislation is the type we rarely have the opportunity to pass in Congress, and although it is not the goal of the program, it will likely earn the government as much as five billion dollars.

In many ways, this legislation is modeled after the wildly successful ``50-State Quarter Program'' which I authored and Congress passed and which at the end of last year reached its halfway point. We all know the story: five quarters a year bear images connected with one of the states, so that over a decade each state will have been honored. We all know how popular the program was: before the state quarter program started, the U.S. Mint was making about 400 million quarters a year, but by the next year it was making about 1.2 billion quarters. The Mint estimates that one person in each household is collecting the quarters and they are collecting a full set. According to the most recent numbers from the Mint, about $4 billion worth of savings has been created for the federal government with an expected $2 billion more through the life of the program.

The program I am introducing today adopts the same model, but uses the one-dollar gold coin introduced in 2000. For a number of reasons, that coin never achieved its promise of being a useful niche product for use in vending machines, transit systems and low-dollar-value transactions. This bill seeks to address each of the ills that befell the one-dollar coin.

Mr. Speaker, this legislation addresses all of the problems to the circulation of the dollar coin that were identified in an exhaustive General Accounting Office study of a year or so ago. Merchants said the coin wasn't available in useful quantities, and collectors and consumers often had a hard time finding the coin--if they could find it at all. Others said they would use it in commerce, but never got it as change.

The cost of counting and handling currency is much higher than the cost of counting and handling change, Mr. Speaker, and for those sectors of the economy that rely on low-dollar-value transactions, or high-volume transactions such as vending machines or transit systems, having a widely available, easily dispensed and accepted one-dollar coin will save money for businesses, which will help keep costs down for consumers.

Mr. Speaker, the legislation directs the Mint and the Federal Reserve to work with all aspects of the economy to eliminate the barriers to circulation that seem to have harmed the current one-dollar coin, ranging from making sure that the coin is accepted by vending machines--and that the machines are ``stickered'' to say so--to making sure it is conveniently packaged for retailers and is available in rolled form when it re-circulates through the system, which is not now the case.

It is important to note, Mr. Speaker, this program would be accepted by the public. In a
[Page: E333] GPO's PDF
2002 General Accounting Office Report to Congress, it was found 25 percent of respondents would use the dollar coin more for purchases if there was a rotating design similar to the 50 State Quarter Program. Additionally, nearly 50 percent of respondents stated they would collect the new coin if it featured a rotating design. And 69 percent of respondents favored U.S. Presidents as the choice for the new rotating design on the dollar coin.

Under the program, the images on the front and back of the coin temporarily would be replaced beginning in 2006 with images of the United States presidents. Four presidents a year would be honored, in the order of their service, with a likeness of the President, his name and dates of service and a number signifying the order in which he served, on the front of the coin. The image on the reverse would be that of the Statue of Liberty, large enough to be dramatic but not so large as to create a so-called ``two-headed'' coin. The date, mint mark and other important mottoes on the coin would go on the edge of the coin, leaving room on the faces for more dramatic artwork, harking back to the so-called Golden Age of American coins at the beginning of the last century.

Mr. Speaker, the educational aspects of this program are obvious. We all know George Washington was the first president, but how many can tell the exact dates of his service to the country? How about the dates of service of the famous Civil War general Ulysses S. Grant, who later became president? And how many in this Chamber can name the only President who would end up with two coins in the series because he served twice, in terms separated by another president's term?

The bill specifies that the program would end at the point when the next coin issued would have to be for a sitting President, as our founding fathers wisely thought that no sitting president's image should be carried on a coin. At that point the coin would return to the images now carried on it, with the stigma of inadvertently being associated with a failed coin program washed from the rich legacy of Sacagewea.

Mr. Speaker, this coin program by itself would be hard to argue with. Teachers will, as they have with the state quarter program, devise lesson plans around it. We will all look at the change in our pocket more closely, and learn more about our country in the process.

But that is only half of this legislation. The second title of the bill creates a nearly pure gold investment-grade bullion coin, the same diameter as the dollar coin and of an appropriate weight and thickness, honoring the First Spouses, who have done so much for our country. On the front, as with the Presidential coins, would be the likeness of the spouse, his or her terms of service and the order in which they served. On the reverse would be images emblematic of the spouse's works. In the five instances to date in which Presidents had no spouses while in office--there's the educational part again--the bill calls for the image on the front of the coin to be that of an image of ``Liberty'' as used on a U.S. coin circulating during that President's term, and the reverse of the coin to carry images related to the President's term.

These investment-grade coins would be struck in gold that is .9999 percent pure, a purity of gold the Mint never before has used to strike coins. Mr. Speaker, I think using pure gold for the spouse coin is appropriate, and I think it is appropriate that the President and spouse coins can be sold or collected in all sorts of combinations. Additionally, the spouse coins could be sold merely for their intrinsic investment value.

Mr. Speaker, this legislation gives the Mint a great opportunity to show off its design and engraving talents and to develop new ones. It gives the Mint the opportunity to package the coins in a variety of ways, and the Mint gets more than a year to prepare to issue the first coin, so they can plan and get it right. As well, it allows for a transitional minting of the current dollar coins, though the demand will mostly be for collectors, so that 2006-dated Sacagewea dollar coins may be sold in large Lewis and Clark-Louisiana Purchase commemorative sets with 2006-dated Thomas Jefferson dollar coins. And with both the increase in dollar coins and the striking of bullion investment-grade coins, it creates jobs in a number of industries.

In short, Mr. Speaker, I don't see any downsides to this bill and believe there are so many upsides that it should pass in short order, giving all of us something good, and fun, to talk about when we go back to our constituents.

Mr. Speaker, so that the new $1 coin may be introduced into circulation in 2006 and that the Mint will be given adequate time to plan this program to ensure it is a logistic as well as an artistic success, I will be seeking to move the legislation quickly. I urge my colleagues to cosponsor this legislation and look forward to working with the Financial Services Committee to bring this bill to the House Floor as soon as possible.



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As you can tell, we will once again see Sacagawea if this passes.

 

First Ladies!!

I am not a fan of ALL of the dead presidents gracing our coinage. Imagine getting excited about Millard Fillmore, Warren Harding or Chester B. Arthur?

As for First Ladies...excuse me, we did not elect them. They just came along for the ride. What happens if we elect a woman president some day? Are we going to have first husbands!?!

I am telling you...all of this is going to fail IF the paper dollar still is in circulation. Ike, SBA, SAC's and now the presidential coins will fail if America has a choice!

Last but not least...to see Hillary Clinton's face on a dollar coin will have me flocking back to the forum demanding we elminate dollar coins altogher!

 

Ugh!!! The wives on gold coins?? What will they do for James Buchanan?? What if Hillary is elected President?? We will have 4 Clinton coins!!! Of course I will then then be collecting Mexican coins.

Not one mention of what to do with the Dollar Bill.

Egad, nothing will cheapen our coinage more than coins of bad to mediocre presidents, and then expensive gold coins of no-name first ladies. The US will be the laughingstock of world coins!!!

Oh, but it will create jobs!!! Let's just crank out 30 commems per year like we do for stamps!!! Castle can eliminate unemployment in Delaware if we expand the coin program enough!!!

 

Well I have two more meetings with Mr. Castle. I am going to give this effort a few more trys. There is a small glimmer of hope. I have received several emails from a few senators that are not in favor of this latest idea. Lets keep our fingers crossed, and the emails to your congressmen going.