Ho-hum. Another day, another “collectable coin” from the US Mint — the difference being that, well, nobody’s likely to use this one any more than its predecessor.
The U.S. Mint is hoping that Martin Van Buren and Millard Fillmore can do what Susan B. Anthony and Sacagawea couldn’t – get Americans to use dollar coins. The Mint on Monday revealed the design of the new U.S. $1 coin, which will be issued in a series that will eventually include the faces of each U.S. president.
It will release four new presidential dollars each year, starting with George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison in 2007. The Van Buren dollar will be released in 2008 and the Fillmore in 2010.
[…] The Mint is hoping the continually changing faces will entice consumers to break their traditional reluctance to use dollar coins. “We think Americans are going to want to collect the series, and that will drive the coins through the economy,” said U.S. Mint Director Edmund Moy.
Hey, it worked for the comic book industry!
Why, do Mint officials think, have past dollar coins not succeeded?
He hopes to avoid the fate of the Susan B. Anthony dollar, which was issued in 1979-81 and again in 1999 to honor the women’s sufferage pioneer. But due to its size and silver color, it was too easily confused with a quarter and is now largely distributed as change from mass transit system ticket machines.
The gold color Sacagawea dollar followed in 2000, showing the Native American guide to 1804 explorers Merriwether Lewis and William Clark and her infant son.
But limited Sacagawea quantities led to too many being stashed away by collectors, reducing circulation and thus familiarity, said Rod Gillis, head of education at the American Numismatic Association in Colorado Springs, Colo.
The answer is not, really, the form factor Nor is it that only a limited supply got put out (though, if so, that’s not really, the public’s fault). The answer is you just need to get rid of the dollar bill. That’s what’s made unit coins successful elsewhere in the world.
“As long as we have the paper currency out there, dollar coins will never be successful,” Gillis said. “We’re going to have to discard the $1 bill or mass produce so many of these coins so they’ll be out there at retailers.”
Moy said the Mint’s successful 50-state quarters program helped push usage of the coins as even collectors spent their duplicate versions. He is hoping that the presidential dollars will be freely spent as well.
Bah. The “excess” quarters got into circulation because people use quarters, not the other way around. If people aren’t spending dollar coins, and aren’t getting them in change, they simply will accumulate in banks and Federal Reserve warehouses, spiffy pictures of the presidents or not.