Presidential dollar coins
The Presidential $1 Coin Program, Pub. L. 109–145 (text) (PDF), 119 Stat. 2664 (December 22, 2005), is part of an Act of Congress that directs the United States Mint to produce $1 coins with engravings of the United States Presidents on the obverse.
Legislative history
Senate Bill 1047 was introduced in the United States Senate on May 17, 2005, by Senator John E. Sununu with over 70 cosponsors. It was reported favorably out of the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs without amendment on July 29, 2005. The Senate passed it with a technical amendment (S.AMDT.26760), by Unanimous Consent on November 18, 2005. The House of Representatives passed it (291-113) on December 13, 2005 (A similar bill, H.R. 902, had previously passed in the House, but it was the Senate bill that was passed by both chambers.) The engrossed bill was presented to President George W. Bush on December 15, 2005, and he signed it into law on December 22, 2005.
Program details
The program began on January 1 2007, and is similar to the State Quarter program in that it will not end until every eligible subject is honored. The program will issue coins featuring each of four Presidents per year on the obverse, issuing one for three months before moving on to the next President in chronological order by term in office. The U.S. Mint calls it the Presidential $1 Coin Program.[1]
The reverse of the coins will bear the Statue of Liberty, the inscription '$1' and the inscription 'United States of America'. In addition, inscribed along the edge of the coin will be the year of minting or issuance of the coin, and also the legends E Pluribus Unum and 'In God We Trust.' The legend 'Liberty' will be absent from the coin altogether, since the decision was made that the image of the Statue of Liberty on the reverse of the coin was sufficient to convey the message of liberty. The text of the act does not specify the color of the coins, but per the U.S. Mint "the specifications will be identical to those used for the current Golden dollar".[2] The President Washington $1 Coin was first available to the public on President’s Day, 2007, the release date being February 15.
This marks the first time since the St. Gaudens Double Eagle that the United States has issued a coin with edge lettering for circulation. An edge lettered coin is rare in the world today outside the Eurozone. Edge lettered coins date back to the 1790s. The process was started to discourage the "shaving" of gold coin edges, a practice that was used to cheat payees.
The act had been introduced because of the failure of the Sacagawea $1 coin to gain wide-spread circulation in the United States. The act sympathized with the need of the nation's private sector for a $1 coin and expected that the appeal of changing the design would increase the public demand for new coins (as the public generally responded well to the State Quarter program). The program will also educate the public about the history of the nation's Presidents. Should the coin not catch on with the general public, the Mint is hoping that collectors will be as interested in the dollars as they were with the State Quarters, which generated about $4.6 billion in seigniorage between January 1999 and April 2005, according to a report by the Congressional Budget Office.
Unlike the State Quarter program and the Westward Journey nickel series, which suspended the issuance of the current design during those programs, the act directs the Mint to continue to issue Sacagawea dollar coins during the Presidential series. At least one-fourth of the dollar coins issued in each year of the program must be Sacagawea dollars. (The law says "one-third", but that is of the total Presidential-series coins issued each year; that translates to one-fourth of total production.) Furthermore, the Sacagawea design is required to continue after the Presidential program ends. These requirements were added at the behest of the North Dakota congressional delegation to ensure that Sacagawea, whom North Dakotans consider to be one of their own, ultimately remains on the dollar coin. However, Federal Reserve officials have indicated to Congress that "if the Presidential $1 Coin Program does not stimulate substantial transactional demand for dollar coins, the requirement that the Mint nonetheless produce Sacagawea dollars would result in costs to the taxpayer without any offsetting benefits." In that event, the Federal reserve indicates that it would "strongly recommend that Congress reassess the one-third requirement."[3]
Previous versions of the act called for removing from circulation dollar coins issued prior to the Sacagawea dollar, most notably the Susan B. Anthony dollar, but the version of the act that became law merely directs the Secretary of the Treasury to study the matter and report back to Congress. However, the act does require Federal government agencies (including the United States Postal Service), businesses operating on Federal property, and Federally-funded transit systems to accept and dispense dollar coins by January 2008, and to post signs indicating that they do so.[4]
Even though it would take about 11 years to honor all the Presidents (George W. Bush is the 43rd President and the act allows for a coin for each of Grover Cleveland's two non-consecutive terms), the series may not run that long. The act provides that no former President will be depicted on a coin within two years of his death, and the series will end when all the then-eligible Presidents have been honored.
Coin details
Dollar coins will be issued bearing the likenesses of Presidents, as follows:[5]
Release # | President # | President | Release date | Mintage figures | Design | in office |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 1 | George Washington | February 15, 2007 | 300,000,000[6] | Washington dollar | 1789 – 1797 |
2 | 2 | John Adams | May 18, 2007 | N/A | John Adams dollar | 1797 – 1801 |
3 | 3 | Thomas Jefferson | August 17, 2007 | N/A | Jefferson dollar | 1801 – 1809 |
4 | 4 | James Madison | November 16, 2007 | N/A | Madison dollar | 1809 – 1817 |
5 | 5 | James Monroe | 2008 | N/A | N/A | 1817 – 1825 |
6 | 6 | John Quincy Adams | 2008 | N/A | N/A | 1825 – 1829 |
7 | 7 | Andrew Jackson | 2008 | N/A | N/A | 1829 – 1837 |
8 | 8 | Martin Van Buren | 2008 | N/A | N/A | 1837 – 1841 |
9 | 9 | William Henry Harrison | 2009 | N/A | N/A | 1841 |
10 | 10 | John Tyler | 2009 | N/A | N/A | 1841 – 1845 |
11 | 11 | James K. Polk | 2009 | N/A | N/A | 1845 – 1849 |
12 | 12 | Zachary Taylor | 2009 | N/A | N/A | 1849 – 1850 |
13 | 13 | Millard Fillmore | 2010 | N/A | N/A | 1850 – 1853 |
14 | 14 | Franklin Pierce | 2010 | N/A | N/A | 1853 – 1857 |
15 | 15 | James Buchanan | 2010 | N/A | N/A | 1857 – 1861 |
16 | 16 | Abraham Lincoln | 2010 | N/A | N/A | 1861 – 1865 |
17 | 17 | Andrew Johnson | 2011 | N/A | N/A | 1865 – 1869 |
18 | 18 | Ulysses S. Grant | 2011 | N/A | N/A | 1869 – 1877 |
19 | 19 | Rutherford B. Hayes | 2011 | N/A | N/A | 1877 – 1881 |
20 | 20 | James A. Garfield | 2011 | N/A | N/A | 1881 |
21 | 21 | Chester A. Arthur | 2012 | N/A | N/A | 1881 – 1885 |
22 | 22 | Grover Cleveland | 2012 | N/A | N/A | 1885 – 1889 |
23 | 23 | Benjamin Harrison | 2012 | N/A | N/A | 1889 – 1893 |
24 | 24 | Grover Cleveland | 2012 | N/A | N/A | 1893 – 1897 |
25 | 25 | William McKinley | 2013 | N/A | N/A | 1897 – 1901 |
26 | 26 | Theodore Roosevelt | 2013 | N/A | N/A | 1901 – 1909 |
27 | 27 | William Howard Taft | 2013 | N/A | N/A | 1909 – 1913 |
28 | 28 | Woodrow Wilson | 2013 | N/A | N/A | 1913 – 1921 |
29 | 29 | Warren G. Harding | 2014 | N/A | N/A | 1921 – 1923 |
30 | 30 | Calvin Coolidge | 2014 | N/A | N/A | 1923 – 1929 |
31 | 31 | Herbert Hoover | 2014 | N/A | N/A | 1929 – 1933 |
32 | 32 | Franklin D. Roosevelt | 2014 | N/A | N/A | 1933 – 1945 |
33 | 33 | Harry S. Truman | 2015 | N/A | N/A | 1945 – 1953 |
34 | 34 | Dwight D. Eisenhower | 2015 | N/A | N/A | 1953 – 1961 |
35 | 35 | John F. Kennedy | 2015 | N/A | N/A | 1961 – 1963 |
36 | 36 | Lyndon B. Johnson | 2015 | N/A | N/A | 1963 – 1969 |
37 | 37 | Richard Nixon | 2016 | N/A | N/A | 1969 – 1974 |
38 | 38 | Gerald Ford | 2016 | N/A | N/A | 1974 – 1977 |
39 or 40 (See below) |
40 | Ronald Reagan | 2016 | N/A | N/A | 1981 – 1989 |
- Other Presidents who may be honored:
- Jimmy Carter, George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, future Presidents.
The Act specifies that no former President may be depicted on a coin while he is still alive or within two years of his death. It also specifies that the series will end when every eligible President has been honored. Every former President who served after Ford is still alive with the exception of Reagan. Reagan, who died in 2004, will be honored, but the timing of the release of his coin is uncertain. If, in 2016, Jimmy Carter has been dead for at least two years, then Reagan's coin will be the 40th in the series. Otherwise (assuming Carter survives to the age of 90 or beyond), Reagan's coin will be the 39th (immediately following Ford's). In either case, Reagan's coin will be released sometime in 2016, as either the third or fourth in that year.
However, USA Today reported that "Congress required that presidents be dead at least two years before they can be depicted on a dollar coin and that presidents be featured in the order they served. Ronald Reagan who died in 2004 cannot be pictured on a coin unless Jimmy Carter has been dead two years in 2016 when the program expires" citing their source as the U.S. Mint. Carter will celebrate the 92nd anniversary of his birth in 2016, which calls into question whether Reagan will in fact be honored on a coin under the current program.
Once the program has terminated, continuation of the series for non-honored Presidents (who have died and were not included in this series) will require another act of Congress (31 USC § 5112(n)(8)).
First Spouse Program
The United States is honoring the first spouses of each of the Presidents honored by the Presidential $1 Coin Act by issuing one-half ounce $10 gold coins featuring their images, in the order that they served as first spouse, beginning in 2007. To date, all First Spouses have been First Ladies; however, the law uses the term "First Spouse" because that could change before the end of the program.
The obverse of these coins will feature portraits of the Nation’s First Spouses, their names, the dates and order of their term as first spouse, as well as the year of minting or issuance, "In God We Trust" and "Liberty." The United States Mint will mint and issue First Spouse Gold Coins on the same schedule as the Presidential $1 Coins issued honoring the Presidents. Each coin will have a unique reverse design featuring an image emblematic of that spouse’s life and work, as well as "The United States of America," "E Pluribus Unum," "$10," "1/2 oz." and ".9999 Fine Gold."
When a President served without a First Spouse, such as Thomas Jefferson, a gold coin will be issued bearing an obverse image emblematic of Liberty as depicted on a circulating coin of that era, and bearing a reverse image emblematic of themes of that President.
The act, as written, explicitly states that the first spouse coins will be released at the same time as their respective $1 president coins. [7] This means that it is entirely possible for a living first spouse to still be honored with a coin.
The United States Mint will also produce and make available to the public bronze medal duplicates of the First Spouse Gold Coins. A full listing of the coins is as follows:
Release # | First Spouse | Release date | Mintage figures | Front Design | Reverse Design | Dates Served |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Martha Washington | 2007 | N/A | N/A | N/A | 1789 - 1797 |
2 | Abigail Adams | 2007 | N/A | N/A | N/A | 1797 - 1801 |
3 | Thomas Jefferson’s Liberty | 2007 | N/A | N/A | N/A | 1801 - 1809 |
4 | Dolley Madison | 2007 | N/A | N/A | N/A | 1809 - 1817 |
5 | Elizabeth Monroe | 2008 | N/A | N/A | N/A | 1817 - 1825 |
6 | Louisa Adams | 2008 | N/A | N/A | N/A | 1825 - 1829 |
7 | Andrew Jackson’s Liberty | 2008 | N/A | N/A | N/A | 1829 - 1837 |
8 | Martin Van Buren’s Liberty | 2008 | N/A | N/A | N/A | 1837 - 1841 |
9 | Anna Harrison | 2009 | N/A | N/A | N/A | 1841 |
10 | Letitia Tyler | 2009 | N/A | N/A | N/A | 1841 - 1842 |
10A | Julia Tyler | 2009 | N/A | N/A | N/A | 1844 - 1845 |
11 | Sarah Polk | 2009 | N/A | N/A | N/A | 1845 - 1849 |
12 | Margaret Taylor | 2009 | N/A | N/A | N/A | 1849 - 1850 |
13 | Abigail Fillmore | 2010 | N/A | N/A | N/A | 1850 - 1853 |
14 | Jane Pierce | 2010 | N/A | N/A | N/A | 1853 - 1857 |
15 | James Buchanan’s Liberty | 2010 | N/A | N/A | N/A | 1857 - 1861 |
16 | Mary Todd Lincoln | 2010 | N/A | N/A | N/A | 1861 - 1865 |
17 | Eliza Johnson | 2011 | N/A | N/A | N/A | 1865 - 1869 |
18 | Julia Grant | 2011 | N/A | N/A | N/A | 1869 - 1877 |
19 | Lucy Hayes | 2011 | N/A | N/A | N/A | 1877 - 1881 |
20 | Lucretia Garfield | 2011 | N/A | N/A | N/A | 1881 |
21 | Alice Paul | 2012 | N/A | N/A | N/A | 1881 - 1885 |
22 | Frances Cleveland | 2012 | N/A | N/A | N/A | 1886 - 1889 |
23 | Caroline Harrison | 2012 | N/A | N/A | N/A | 1889 - 1893 |
24 | Frances Cleveland | 2012 | N/A | N/A | N/A | 1893 - 1897 |
25 | Ida McKinley | 2013 | N/A | N/A | N/A | 1897 - 1901 |
26 | Edith Roosevelt | 2013 | N/A | N/A | N/A | 1901 - 1909 |
27 | Helen Taft | 2013 | N/A | N/A | N/A | 1909 - 1913 |
28 | Ellen Wilson | 2013 | N/A | N/A | N/A | 1913 - 1914 |
28A | Edith Wilson | 2013 | N/A | N/A | N/A | 1915 - 1921 |
29 | Florence Harding | 2014 | N/A | N/A | N/A | 1921 - 1923 |
30 | Grace Coolidge | 2014 | N/A | N/A | N/A | 1923 - 1929 |
31 | Lou Hoover | 2014 | N/A | N/A | N/A | 1929 - 1933 |
32 | Eleanor Roosevelt | 2014 | N/A | N/A | N/A | 1933 - 1945 |
33 | Bess Truman | 2015 | N/A | N/A | N/A | 1945 - 1953 |
34 | Mamie Eisenhower | 2015 | N/A | N/A | N/A | 1953 - 1961 |
35 | Jacqueline Kennedy | 2015 | N/A | N/A | N/A | 1961 - 1963 |
36 | Lady Bird Johnson | 2015 | N/A | N/A | N/A | 1963 - 1969 |
37 | Thelma Catherine Ryan Nixon | 2016 | N/A | N/A | N/A | 1969 - 1974 |
38 | Elizabeth Ford | 2016 | N/A | N/A | N/A | 1974 - 1977 |
39 or 40 | Nancy Reagan | 2016 | N/A | N/A | N/A | 1981 - 1989 |
Other provisions
The act also has two other provisions, for:
- Issuance of a $50 bullion coin reproducing the 1913 Buffalo nickel designed by James Earle Fraser.
- Redesign of the reverse of the Lincoln cent in 2009 to show four different scenes from Abraham Lincoln's life in honor of the bicentennial of his birth. These four scenes include:
- his birth and early childhood in Kentucky;
- his formative years in Indiana;
- his professional life in Illinois; and
- his presidency in Washington, D.C.
In 2009, numismatic cents that have the metallic copper content of cents minted in 1909 will be issued for collectors.
After 2009, yet another redesigned reverse for the Lincoln cent is supposed to be minted; this "shall bear an image emblematic of President Lincoln's preservation of the United States of America as a single and united country," and so may replace the Lincoln Memorial reverse in use since 1959. However, it could be argued that the Lincoln Memorial itself meets the requirements of the Act through its design elements (mainly the 36 columns representing the states at his death and the names of all 48 states when it was constructed), and currently, all 50 states, so it is theoretically possible that the Lincoln Memorial reverse could return.
Notes
- ^ http://www.usmint.gov/mint_programs/$1coin/index.cfm
- ^ http://www.usmint.gov/downloads/Whats_New/News_Views/2006-04.pdf
- ^ http://www.federalreserve.gov/boarddocs/testimony/2006/20060719/default.htm
- ^ http://www.usmint.gov/mint_programs/$1coin/index.cfm?action=RemoveBarrier
- ^ http://www.usmint.gov/mint_programs/$1coin/index.cfm?action=schedule
- ^ http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17162680/?GT1=9033
- ^ 31 USC 5112 (o)(5)(A) says: "IN GENERAL- The bullion coins issued under this subsection with respect to any spouse of a President shall be issued on the same schedule as the $1 coin issued under subsection (n) with respect to each such President."
- ^ Numismatist Magazine, February 2007, Volume 120, Number 2, Presidential Spouses, p. 29, Editor-in-Chief, Barbara J. Gregory
References
- U.S. Mint Presidential $1 Coin Act page
- U.S. Mint First Spouse Program page
- Complete text of the Act at Wikisource
- Senate Bill 1047 at Thomas.loc.gov.
- Full Text (PDF) at from the United States Government Printing Office
- Report by the Congressional Budget Office on the cost of H.R. 902 (the companion to S. 1047), which includes information on seigniorage for the State Quarter program. April 12, 2005
- Anderson, Gordon T. "Congress tries again for a dollar coin". CNN/Money. April 28, 2005
- Press release, Nov. 21, 2005: Legislation to Redesign Lincoln Penny Passes Senate; Creates Presidential $1 Coin Program Similar to 50 State Quarters Program