New Presidential $1 Coins are Cool

jason — Fri, 16 Feb 2007 15:26:18 +0000

I have been collecting coins since I was a young lad and was particularly interested in the U.S. Mint’s State Quarters program when it began a few years ago. This made me especially interested in the yesterday’s release of the new Presidential $1 Coin Program from the U.S. Mint. I grabbed a few rolls yesterday from the Wilmington Trust Bank in Delaware yesterday and have to tell you that they’re beautiful.

From the U.S Mint:

The United States is honoring our Nation’s presidents by issuing $1 circulating coins featuring their images in the order that they served, beginning with Presidents Washington, Adams, Jefferson and Madison in 2007. The United States Mint will mint and issue four Presidential $1 Coins per year, and each will have a reverse design featuring a striking rendition of the Statue of Liberty. These coins will feature larger, more dramatic artwork, as well as edge-incused inscriptions of the year of minting or issuance, “E Pluribus Unum,” “In God We Trust” and the mint mark. Although the size, weight and metal composition of the new Presidential $1 Coin will be identical to that of the Sacagawea Golden Dollar, there are several unique features that make this coin distinctive.

The edge-incused inscriptions (left) of the new coins is killer too. Again, from the U.S. Mint:

These coins will feature edge-incused inscriptions of the year of minting or issuance, “E Pluribus Unum,” “In God We Trust” and the mint mark. Due to the minting process used on the circulating coins, the edge-incused inscription positions will vary with each coin.
In some strange sense the new Presidential $1 coins remind me of the gold dubloons issued at Burning Man in 2002 (pictured at right).

You can order the new $1 coins as a ’subscription’ from the U.S. Mint’s online catalog. This means that they automatically mail you the new versions as soon as they’re released. I wish that I would have ordered a subscription for the state quarters – dammit!

Rolls of 25 $1 coins will set you back US$36 from the USM (instead of the $25 that you pay at the bank) but they come in really nice red white and blue paper (pictured at top right) and are sure to be worth more in the future. I am partial to the “P” (Philadelphia) versions, but “D” (Denver) versions are also available.
The Sacagawea (2000-present) and Susan B. Anthony (1979-1981) dollar coin (right) never took off, but that was availability problem. The Sacagawea $1 coin depicted a Shoshone woman who helped guide Lewis and Clark across the West. The Susan B. Anthony dollar coin was an 11-sided polygon (a hendecagon).

Canada had such good luck with their $1 “Loonie” dollar coin (1987) that they released a $2 (“Twoonie”) coin in 1995.

Read more on the new Presidential $1 coins at CNN Money and on Wikipedia. More on the Canadian coins at Wikipedia.

Jason O'Grady's Blog » Numismatics

New Presidential $1 Coins are Cool