President George H. W. Bush dollar coin

It looks like President George H. W. Bush, who passed away in 2018, will be getting a dollar coin. The bill to mint the coin has passed the House and Senate and awaits the President's signature.

https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/senate-bill/457

 

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Think this is a little late to the party:

• $1 coins bearing the image of President George H.W. Bush for a one-year period beginning on January 1, 2019, and
• bullion coins bearing the image of Barbara Bush during that same period.

 

I am very happy to hear this. Mr. Bush was a gentleman's gentleman and should be honored.

 

I... think I'm okay with issuing dollars for Presidents and First Spouses that die after the "series end". It's going to make things interesting for Dansco and the other album makers, though.

What I wouldn't be okay with is Congress picking and choosing which former Presidents get this treatment. Let's pass legislation ensuring that everyone gets the same honor, or let's set a firm ending date.

 

It's a coin to continue the series.

 

This was supposed to start Jan 2019.

 

So when is the coin going to be released?

 

Yes, the bill was introduced very early in 2019, but there was no action on it until just the last few weeks.

 

I would have thought it would be signed into law by now.

 

Probably sometime before the end of the year. I don't think that the coin, and also the companion coin for Barbara Bush, have been designed yet.

 

The problem with the Barbara Bush bullion coin,
they had all the first ladies done in gold, and it was a huge failure.
Although to a collector, those pieces will probably end up being rare.
I doubt they want to make more of a product they know is going to fail.
The G.H.W. Bush dollar coin is OK, but we don't use the dollar coins we have now.
What are we going to do with more of them every time someone passes?

 

The dollar coins that have been made from 2012 onward haven't actually been intended for circulation. Before 2012 they WERE intended for circulation and many millions of each type were made, whereas much smaller numbers of each type have been made from 2012 onward, meant strictly for collectors. The mint probably does quite well on the sales of all of their various dollar coins, since the metal value of each dollar coin, which they sell for $1.00 plus a premium, is only about 5 cents.

There are some places where dollar coins actually circulate quite extensively, such as in transit systems. In my local transit system, they are accepted and dispensed by fare machines at train and subway stations, and buses also use them. I sometimes find dollar coins there that are worn almost smooth from use. I've found that the SBA dollars wear very slowly, but the golden dollars don't hold up as well and wear much more quickly.

 

Aware of the NIFC of halves and dollars and the dates involved.
If the GHWB coin is NIFC, again it's just for collectors.
As for where the dollar coins circulate, yes it was forced on certain industries,
but compared to the amount of coins produced and how many people use them
the program has been a huge failure for 40 years.

 

I'm glad they are continuing to release these coins for the presidents as they pass. Looking forward to them.

Question though: what is going to happen to the Presidential Dollars that are sitting in a warehouse somewhere?? Why doesn't the Mint at least list them as available and let collectors purchase them over time? Seems stupid for them to just be sitting in a warehouse somewhere!!

 

The dollars sitting in storage will eventually be used up over a long period of time. They will be siphoned off for use in areas that use dollar coins, such as vending machines, toll roads, transit systems, etc. When small dollar coins were first introduced in 1979 (the SBA dollars) and weren't successful, millions of them were put into storage. They lasted for about 2 decades, but by 1999 they were all used up and an emergency batch of SBAs had to be minted that year. Then, in 2000, mintage of the Sac golden dollars began. There are many more dollar coins in storage now than there were back then, so it will take quite a while to use them all up, unless, of course, the powers that be decide to stop making dollar bills. If that happens, the stored dollar coins would disappear in a hurry!

I agree with you that the mint should make the stored dollar coins available for sale to collectors. They can sell them at a premium to collectors, instead of otherwise just letting them go at face value for use in general commerce. There are a number of older presidential dollar coins that I now wish I would have bought before the mint stopped selling them at the end of 2017.

 

So how will they get into circulation. Whoever needs them (vending co., etc.) requests them from their supplier of coins and the supplier orders them from the Fed?

 

All that needs to be done is to eliminate the paper dollar. That's what Canada did. Folks were angry at first, but they settled into it after a time. Folks would grumble here too, but eventually they'd get used to it.

Metal dollars last way longer than their paper counterparts, and thereby, are much more cost effective.

 

Yes, that's the way it works. The coins are stored at the Fed, so when a transit agency, for instance, needs more dollar coins, it notifies its bank and the bank orders them from the Fed.

 

Thanks! I just wish the Mint would make them available-limited supplies, maybe just rolls or bags.

 

I liked H. W. Bush and glad that they've agreed to honor him with a presidential dollar. I wonder if they'll also honor him with a cover series.