Every time a new dollar coin gets inked into legislation there’s a ripple effect many, including the bill’s inkers, don’t take into consideration.
It’s not malicious thoughtlessness. No person can have omnipotent foresight in knowing the consequences of every single decision.
Presidential $1 Coin Act of 2005 mandates vending machine requirements
Take, for example, the Presidential $1 Coin Act of 2005 that’s responsible for the new dollar coins. The law not only mandates the creation of the coin, but also includes requirements to help drive its success with the public.
Although it hasn’t always happened from day one, part of a new coin’s circulating success is ensuring its design and composition work with vending machines. If that doesn’t happen, it’s hard for any new coin to succeed. Obvious? For sure. A coin has to be useful, not just pretty.
Read the rest of this entry »
Just minutes ago the James Madison Presidential $1 Coins officially entered into circulation and are available at U.S. banks and other financial institutions.
The Madison Dollar is the fourth and last presidential coin released this year.
Madison is known as the Father of the Constitution. Having heard himself referenced that way, Madison protested by saying the Constitution was not "the off-spring of a single brain," but "the work of many heads and many hands."
Read the rest of this entry »
The time, effort and expense of counterfeiting one dollar coins just doesn’t make sense.
It’s easy to at least understand a criminal’s motivation in counterfeiting rare and valuable coins. But the incentive to forge a daily and common circulating coin? It defies logic.
Yet, that’s exactly what happened with a New Zealand dollar coin. And there’s currently an investigation into counterfeit U.S. Presidential $1 coins, although it would boggle the mind if those were verified as fake.
The U.S. case has been covered and, so far, nothing is new. However, the New Zealand story is intriguing, although brief in detail.
New Zealand counterfeit dollar coin
Read the rest of this entry »
Two days ago the Peoria Journal Star reported a police investigation alleging the use of counterfeit Presidential $1 Coins at a local McDonald’s restaurant in Macomb, Illinois.
The coins were colored and had the faces of U.S. Presidents George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison.
Each were apparently shiny and because they included what looked like the James Madison Presidential Dollar, it was surmised the coins may have come from a collector’s proof set.
Proof sets are special coins the U.S. Mint specifically makes for coin collectors. Although the Madison Presidential Dollar has not yet been released for public circulation, it is available through the 2007 Presidential $1 Coin Proof Set.
Read the rest of this entry »
President Bush signed the Native American $1 Coin Act mandating the redesign of Sacagawea Dollar. Starting in 2009, the Sacagawea reverse will no longer have the soaring eagle depicted.
Instead, it’ll bear a famous American Indian or American Indian event that’ll change each year.
CoinNews.net has discussed the success and various failures of U.S. dollar coins through past opinions and articles.
Read the rest of this entry »
Curiosity and enthusiasm gets jolted into overdrive when an always changing coin series comes out. You don’t need to look further than the 50 State Quarters® Program. It helped create a booming-hot collector market that’s still going strong. Better, the new quarters soundly made it as "replacements" to older circulating quarters.
The quarters program started in 1999 and ends in 2008. Will the new Presidential $1 Coin series, scheduled to last through 2016 pick up the slack? Will it continue the coin collecting momentum? And, more importantly, will the dollar coin REALLY get used in daily circulation?
Or will the new coin suffer near extinction and virtual boredom like previous $1 coin runs?
Read the rest of this entry »
A week ago from today, August 15, the United States Mint held a release ceremony for the new Thomas Jefferson Presidential $1 Coins. A video of the event sure would have been nice!
But wouldn’t it be great if you could at least see photos from the ceremony? Well, now you can and right here! Fortunately, someone in the news media was taking photos and looking out for those of us who couldn’t attend.
If you’ve never been to a U.S. Mint event before, these photos give you an idea of some of the ceremony trappings and details. By far, the absolute best photos are those showing the kids having a great time. Of course, all the kids received a free, sparkling Jefferson Presidential $1 coin. You can bet that helped bring smiles to their faces.
Read the rest of this entry »
