Free Republic

<p>These days, a growing number of two-bit battles are rattling the sleepy U.S. Mint. The federal agency's commemorative quarters program, a pocket-change salute to the 50 states, has pitted politicians, tourism officials and artists against each other in bruising battles. Launched in 1999 as a benign patriotic gambit to revive coin-collecting, it's instead spurring peevish spats over custody of American icons and how states define themselves.</p>

<p>Friday, December 12, 2003 By Amy C. Sims Art can "change" the country — at least that's what the U.S. Mint is hoping.</p> <p>The Mint is calling on all Americans, from aspiring artists and students to professionals, to share their fresh ideas — and possibly get the chance to have their work circulated throughout the country in the form of coins and medals.</p>

Filed at 4:44 p.m. ET WASHINGTON (AP) -- Gold dollar coins weigh down the pockets. They are costly to ship. And few Americans think they're better than the good old greenback. Dollar coins are a flop even before their third birthday, even after a $67.1 million, three-year marketing campaign by the U.S. Mint, a government report says. While initial public awareness generated by the advertising was strong, the new dollar coin, like the Susan B. Anthony dollar coin, ``has failed to achieve widespread use,'' the General Accounting Office reported Friday. According to July, 2001 statistics from the U.S. Mint, people...

NEW YORK - Almost a year has passed now since U.S. Rep. Jim Kolbe made headlines by introducing his anti-penny bill, yet these pesky one-cent coins continue to jingle uselessly in people's pockets. Can nobody rid America of this copper-coated scourge? Kolbe, an Arizona Republican, is doing his best, although his proposed Legal Tender Modernization Act is languishing in a subcommittee. The bill would not ban pennies, but merely discourage their use by establishing a system under which cash transactions would be rounded up or down. That would render the penny unnecessary. "It's practically useless in everyday life," complains Neena...