U.S. Mint Decides to Give $1 Coins Another Chance

Posted on 29. Nov, 2006 by in Economy, News, Saving & Investing

$1 Coins Washington If you are one of those people who love to have change in their pocket, then this is your lucky day! The U.S. Mint has decided that Americans aren’t carrying around enough forms of money and have announced the new $1 coin. The $1 coins are being introduced as a result of the Presidential Coin Act of 2005, which requires the United States Mint to mint the dollar coins commemorating the service of former United States Presidents in the order in which they served. The first four $1 coins will commemorate George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. Apparently the public was so outraged that only a handful of presidents were showing up on coins that congress had to force the mint to print some more faces. Each President will be honored with a single $1 coin, regardless of the number of consecutive terms he served. However Grover Cleveland, the only United States President to serve non-consecutive terms, will be honored on two coins. And, according to the Coin Act, no living former or current President can be honored on a coin.
$1_Coins_Adams.jpg
The new Presidential $1 Coins will also be identical in color and size to the Sacagawea Golden Dollar Coins, and have the same distinctive rim and tactile features to assist the visually impaired. Additionally, the new $1 coins carry the same electromagnetic signature as both the Sacagawea Golden Dollar coin and the Susan B. Anthony dollar coin, making them readily acceptable in vending machines that currently accept dollar coins.

The face of each coin will feature an image of a former President and the years of his term of office. The reverse of the coin shows an image of the Statue of Liberty and the inscriptions “The United States of America” and “$1.” Personally, I think that coins are very cool collectibles. As a kid I used to collect coins (what kid doesn’t?) and even inherited a fairly large collection from my grandfather when he passed away. However, I also think that the idea of a $1 coin is a waste of the government’s time and money to produce. With the use of cash on the decline as it is, spending money designing and minting new coins seems like a waste of taxdollars to me. Unless they decided to put my face on a coin…

Tags: ,

4 Responses to “U.S. Mint Decides to Give $1 Coins Another Chance”

  1. Ashley

    30. Nov, 2006

    Love your blog , you are doing a great job. Swing by mine, check things out and leave a comment or sign my guestbook. Have a great day

  2. Richard

    15. Feb, 2007

    Merchants hated the $2 bills because they were odd; the registers were not setup for a stack of them; and checkout clerks too often accidentally accepted them as fives and made change accordingly.

    Similarly, the customer learned to hate the $1 coin because it had the same instant look and feel as a quarter, and was often accidentally handed to checkout clerks as a quarter. Clerks readily accepted them as quarters. Customers had to be on their toes. The “mistakes” were good for clerks, but bad for customers. The same will be true with this new quarter-sized , quarter-shaped $1 coin.

Trackbacks/Pingbacks

  1. US Mint Decides to Give $1 Coins Another Chance :: Newstack - December 2, 2006

    […] Read more: here […]
  2. BeancounterBlog.com | Question of the Day: Are the New $1 Coins a Good Idea? - February 4, 2009

    […] that the new $1 coins are in circulation (and being sold for a premium on eBay), I thought I would ask the readers to […]

Leave a Reply