New $1 Presidential Coins

Dave C. wrote:

As many of you may know, there are plans to temporarily replace the Golden
Sacagewea dollar with the new "Presidential Dollar", starting in 2006. The
program is similar to the State Quarter program, in that it will be a
rotating design, with four new presidents released each year.

This makes me rather sad. I really like having a woman and Liberty as
the central themes on one of our country's circulating coins, as was our
custom in the first half of our nation's history. I find the Sacagawea
dollars beautiful among today's offerings.

If we want to commemorate the presidents, it should be done on a coin
that children can readily afford. Either dimes now, or quarters right
after the end of the state quarters program.

--Dave

A lot of good responses to my original post; I agree with many of them. I do
think that the whole concept is to extend the "collector" tax that has
started with the State Quarters. It's a moneymaker for both the mint and the
government, to issue money that doesn't circulate. That being said, the
choice of a presidential theme is probably as good as any, but I'm now
starting to wonder if it will dilute the commemoration of presidents on the
commonly circulated currency. I still don't like the First Spouse thing,
for all of the reasons posted here. (Incidentally, the House Bill wording is
careful not to imply that the First Spouse is female; this leaves the
flexibility for both a future female president, or a gay male president with
a male spouse. We'll leave that for another discussion...)

I very much agree with the comment about the recent proliferation in
currency types; it really has the potential to become a mockery. Some think
that this goes hand in hand with the monetary devaluation of the dollar. The
more varieties of U.S. currency, the less faith there will be in the whole
system, and the whole system relies on faith. Some people think the addition
of "color" to the new twenties and fifties is yet another physical sign of
the Monopolization of fiat currency.

Christian Feldhaus wrote:
bri wrote:

who wants to walk around town with 50 coins?

I know this comes close to beating a dead horse :-) but trust me,
hardly
anybody would do that. Over here we fortunately have =A41 and =A42
coins
instead of low value bills, but I don't think anybody carries so many
coins ...

Christian

I can confirm Christian's observation, based on my own experience in
Spain this past June. The only coins that would clutter my pockets at
the end of the day were the small, low-value ones; the 1 and 2 euros I
tended to spend pretty quickly, as they were actually high enough to be
worth spending. (I ended up with a pile of low-denomination coins,
most of which I brought back to the US and gave to my nieces.) And I
didn't notice any high frequency of Spaniards with holes in their
pockets from carrying too much coinage...

-Robert A. DeRose, Jr.

The last 2 year session of Congress ended and the bill never passed, so this
entire discussion (which was already held last year - do numerous Google
searches) was a waste of time.

Let's see what is intruduced in our 'new' congress. Look on the web for
Thomas.

--
-Fred Shecter
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"Dave C." wrote in message
...
As many of you may know, there are plans to temporarily replace the Golden
Sacagewea dollar with the new "Presidential Dollar", starting in 2006. The
program is similar to the State Quarter program, in that it will be a
rotating design, with four new presidents released each year.

It sounds like a decent idea. What is disturbing is the accompanying plans
to mint a gold bullion "First Spouse" coin, corresponding to each
presidential $1 coin. This will be a $10 coin.

Here's the problem: Both coins will be the same size as the Sacagewea
dollar, which is also nearly the same size as the current $25 dollar Gold
Eagle half-ounce bullion coin. With the issuance of the First Spouse
coins,
that means that we will have two actively minted gold bullion coins of the
same size, but one will have a face value of $25, while the other has a
face
value of $10. Does anyone else find this bothersome?

For background, read the article in USA today at
http://www.usatoday.com/money/2004-03-09-dollar_x.htm, or the U.S. House
Bill http://home.earthlink.net/~smalldoll...ar/hr3916.html which
declares that the President and First Lady coins must be of the same
diameter as the Sacagewea dollar. If anyone has more info on this since
its
April 2004 news release, please fill us in.

On Sun, 6 Feb 2005 08:48:46 -0800, "Bob Flaminio"
wrote:

In any case, it's not like this is a new, untried experiment. It's
worked successfully in Canada, Australia, the UK, and Euro-land. It's
just good ol' American stick-in-the-mudness (and Senator Kennedy) that
keeps it from working here.

Curious. While I don't claim to be a big fan, I am not aware of Sen.
Kennedy's role in this issue. Enlightenment please?

===============

www.peacepond.com
High quality environmental recordings

Phil DeMayo wrote:
On 5 Feb 2005 23:30:29 -0800, "Shystev99" wrote:

I just think the mint is getting in over it's head by trying to
commemerate everything they can think of as quickly as they can mint
the coins.

The mint has nothing to do with it.....it's Congress that comes up
with these dumb ideas.


I completley understand that, But I think the Mint or Mint officials
may have some "Influence" over some of these Senators and Congressmen
who draft these bills. The fact is the mint does operate it's own
storefront on it's website and that storefront is there to generate
revenue by selling items to collectors. So anybody who thinks the Mint
has no say so or suggestion in what laws get passed and what laws don't
when it comes to coins are only kidding themselves.
But the question comes in when the senate passes laws to mint millions
of coins then they never get put into circulation. Then is the Mint and
Congress in the business of passing laws and minting coins the nation
NEEDS for everyday circulation? Or are the Mint and the Senate passing
laws and making coins for collectors?
Now I have no problem with mixing the 2 as long as it's done properly
and in the right proportions. But it seems more and more the
proportions are getting slanted and becoming less about minting coins
for day to day business and more serving a specialty market of
collectors.
That's what I meant when I said they are getting in over their heads by
minting things just for the sake of minting them because the market is
"Hot".
Steve

They will never get rid of paper money for the same reason they got
rid of dollar coins and pushed using paper notes to begin with--who

So let's say they stop printing paper dollars...Just curious...what do
people do when they go to a strip club? Tip the girls with coins? What do
you guys in Canada and Europe do?

Vector wrote:
In any case, it's not like this is a new, untried experiment. It's
worked successfully in Canada, Australia, the UK, and Euro-land. It's
just good ol' American stick-in-the-mudness (and Senator Kennedy)
that keeps it from working here.

Curious. While I don't claim to be a big fan, I am not aware of Sen.
Kennedy's role in this issue. Enlightenment please?

Money paper is manufactured by the Crane Paper company, which is in Sen
Kennedy's state. Dropping the one dollar bill would mean less orders for
money paper, and therefore a drop in revenue for Crane. Presumably, Sen
Kennedy would never let this happen on his watch.

A similar situation exists with the cent. The zinc lobby is a very
strong proponent of continued cent production, despite how useless the
coins have become.

Follow the money, as it were...

--
Bob

Bob Flaminio wrote:
Vector wrote:
In any case, it's not like this is a new, untried experiment. It's
worked successfully in Canada, Australia, the UK, and Euro-land. It's
just good ol' American stick-in-the-mudness (and Senator Kennedy)
that keeps it from working here.

Curious. While I don't claim to be a big fan, I am not aware of Sen.
Kennedy's role in this issue. Enlightenment please?

Money paper is manufactured by the Crane Paper company, which is in Sen
Kennedy's state. Dropping the one dollar bill would mean less orders for
money paper, and therefore a drop in revenue for Crane. Presumably, Sen
Kennedy would never let this happen on his watch.

Both of Massachusetts's senators are Democrats, who don't have
a lot of leverage with the Treasury Department at this point.
However the governor is a Republican and possible presidential
candidate in 2008.

A similar situation exists with the cent. The zinc lobby is a very
strong proponent of continued cent production, despite how useless the
coins have become.

According to "The West Wing," it is the State of Illinois that
presents the strongest opposition to getting rid of the cent.

Well, it was helpful to me. Thanks all. And thanks for the info Fred.

"Fred Shecter" wrote in message
nk.net...
The last 2 year session of Congress ended and the bill never passed, so
this
entire discussion (which was already held last year - do numerous Google
searches) was a waste of time.

Let's see what is intruduced in our 'new' congress. Look on the web for
Thomas.

--
-Fred Shecter
remove zorch two places to reply
Current eBay auctions:

http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQgotopage...sortpropertyZ1
"Dave C." wrote in message
...
As many of you may know, there are plans to temporarily replace the
Golden
Sacagewea dollar with the new "Presidential Dollar", starting in 2006.
The
program is similar to the State Quarter program, in that it will be a
rotating design, with four new presidents released each year.

It sounds like a decent idea. What is disturbing is the accompanying
plans
to mint a gold bullion "First Spouse" coin, corresponding to each
presidential $1 coin. This will be a $10 coin.

Here's the problem: Both coins will be the same size as the Sacagewea
dollar, which is also nearly the same size as the current $25 dollar
Gold
Eagle half-ounce bullion coin. With the issuance of the First Spouse
coins,
that means that we will have two actively minted gold bullion coins of
the
same size, but one will have a face value of $25, while the other has a
face
value of $10. Does anyone else find this bothersome?

For background, read the article in USA today at
http://www.usatoday.com/money/2004-03-09-dollar_x.htm, or the U.S. House
Bill http://home.earthlink.net/~smalldoll...ar/hr3916.html which
declares that the President and First Lady coins must be of the same
diameter as the Sacagewea dollar. If anyone has more info on this since
its
April 2004 news release, please fill us in.