Did You Know? Interesting Facts About Presidential Coin Rings.
The $1 Dollar Presidential Coin Program
The President Dollar Coin is the result of the Presidential Coin Act of 2005, commissioned by the United States Congress to create and circulate dollar coins to honor the country’s past presidents. The Presidential Coin Act was created to memorialize the country’s successive leaders after the success of the State Quarter program that was enacted in 1999. Each presidential coin, worth $1 dollar, is imprinted with the head of a president of the United States. Originally, these coins were minted in large numbers for circulation, but as of 2011, they are only issued in small quantities for collectors. The coins are released in the historical order that the presidents served their terms.
Interesting Facts about the Presidential Coin Program
The program was started in 2005 after the success of the 50 States Quarter Program
Only deceased presidents will be honored.
The program issued four presidents per year, one every 3 months
The program was discontinued in 2011
These coins are identical in size and shape to the $1 Sacagawea Coin
All of the Presidential Dollar Coins, such as the James Monroe and James Garfield coins, will share a same reverse that depicts a view of The Statue of Liberty and reads United States of America.
Only one depiction for each president will be made – no matter how many terms they served – with sole exception of Grover Cleveland, who will receive a different depiction on 2 separate coins since he served 2 non-consecutive terms.
These coins will contain the date, motto and mintmark, but not where typically printed. These new dollar coins have those markings on the edge of the coin.
The George Washington $1 coin, our first president, was released to the public on February 15th, 2007 in honor of Presidents’ Day, which was observed on February 19th.
These coins mark the first time since the St. Gaudens Double Eagle (1907 – 33) that the United States has issued a coin with edge lettering for circulation.
Edge-letter coins date back to the 1970s. The process was started to discourage the shaving of gold coin edges, a practice which was used to cheat payees.
The reverse side of the coins contains the Statue of Liberty, the inscription “$1” and the inscription of “United States of America”. Contained on the inscription along the edge of the coin are inscriptions of the year of minting or issuance of the coin, 13 stars, the mint mark and the words “E Pluribus Unum”. An interesting fact is that the word “liberty” is not actually inscribed on the coins. It was decided that the Statue of Liberty on the reverse side of the coin was sufficient to convey the message of liberty, a stark variance from most minted coins.
Another reason for the introduction of the presidential coin series was in response to the perceived failure of the Sacagawea $1 coin to gain widespread circulation. Unlike the previously mentioned State Quarter program, the introduction of this Presidential Coin Act did not require the suspension of the production of Sacagawea coins. The law states that at least one in three issued dollars must still be a Sacagawea dollar during the presidential series. After the presidential coin program ends, the Sacagawea design production will continue onwards. This requirement was placed into the act by the congressional delegation from North Dakota, who considers Sacagawea to be one of their own, this ensuring that she’ll ultimately remain on the dollar coins.
