Posted on 12/23/2005 4:17:14 PM PST by chet_in_ny
WASHINGTON - New dollar coins featuring all 37 of the nation's dead presidents will begin rolling out of the U.S. Mint in 2007 under a bill President Bush signed into law on Thursday.
Lawmakers hope the coins — and an accompanying $10 gold piece for collectors that features former first ladies — will be a big money raiser for the government like the 50-state quarter program. They also hope the dollar pieces will spur interest in the Sacagawea dollars, which have been little-used.
The front of the new dollar coins will depict former presidents, but not those who are living or have been dead for less than two years; the backs of the coins will show the Statue of Liberty.
Four coins a year will be issued, beginning in 2007, in the presidents' order of service. The treasury secretary will have authority over the designs.
The bill also creates a gold bullion coin program bearing images of former first ladies and emblems of their causes on $10 coins. Companion coins for those presidents who had no spouse will show images of liberty and themes of the presidents' tenures. The coins will be 99.99 percent pure gold.
More waste of money.
ping
Very cool. Especially the $10 gold coin.
Whats a Sacagawea coin, anybody know?
Never mind.
Our parents and grandparents learned all about her. Our children know about her, too, as today her story is taught in classrooms across our nation.
Sacagawea was the Shoshone Indian who assisted the historic Lewis and Clark expedition. Between 1804-1806, while still a teenager, she guided the adventurers from the Northern Great Plains to the Pacific Ocean and back. Her husband, Toussaint Charbonneau, and their son who was born during the trip, Jean Baptiste, also accompanied the group.
Without Sacagawea's navigational, diplomatic, and translating skills, the famous Lewis and Clark expedition would have perished. For one, she helped Lewis and Clark obtain the horses they needed to continue their journey.
Now, almost 200 years later, the resourceful Native American steps back into the limelight. Sacagawea replaces suffragette Susan B. Anthony as the image on the dollar coin. Soon everyone who handles the Golden Dollar will remember the brave 15-year-old who, carrying her child on her back, guided an unprecedented mission.
A coin with Sacagawea's image on it. I got a pocketful of them the other week.
I see the wive's coins will be real gold bullion, having clicked the link.
Who came up with this idea? Do collectors really contribute enough to justify the design/production cost? And do we really need a gold plated coin with Hillary's picture on it?
Pardon my ignorance, but isn't that a contradiction in terms?
It's guaranteed that the $10 gold piece will be 99% brass.
Yay. Here we go again--more useless dollar coins.
Just exactly the opposite.
Every coin minted and then taken out of circulation by a collector reduces the national debt by that amount.
So9
Not. Collectors will make up for it. Multiple sets will sell for more than face value.
Why do you think the Post Office woos stamp collectors? They spend big bucks on commemerative issues.
Reagan should be on a gold coin!
... unless there's a gold bull market, in which case the government is selling gold at what will soon become giveaway prices.
or have been dead for less than two years???
This sounds like a huge snub to President Reagan.
This is the odd $1 coin. Yet another attempt at a $1 coin that failed. It's usually only seen on military bases, a few small towns and several coin collections. Sort of like the Jefferson $2 bill.
BTW - In my town you can still get a Kennedy half dollar as change at the grocery store.
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