On January 24, 2013, Sen. David Vitter of Louisiana introduced a bill which seeks to terminate the Presidential $1 Coin Program. He had introduced an identical bill in the last session of Congress, however since that time the circumstances of the program have significantly changed.
During 2011, the Presidential $1 Coin Program had come under a great deal of scrutiny following media reports about a growing hoard of $1 coins held in storage at Federal Reserve Banks. The build up was an unintended consequence of a requirement for the Reserve Banks to make each release of the program available to depository institutions in unmixed quantities during an introductory period. For each of the four annual releases, financial institutions would order quantities that they deemed necessary to meet the needs of their customers. When many of these coins went unused or ultimately redeposited, they would be returned to the Federal Reserve Banks.
By June 2011, Federal Reserve Banks held a hoard of more than 1.2 billion of the $1 coins and faced impending costs of $3.65 million to construct a new storage facility and ship the coins to the new location. Following the report, several bills were introduced in Congress which sought to either curtail or terminate the Presidential $1 Coin Program. Among these was a bill introduced by Sen. Vitter, which would to terminate the program by striking the relevant subsection from the United States Code.
Ultimately, the issues related to the build up of Presidential Dollars would be addressed in December 2011 when the Treasury Department announced the suspension of production for circulation. The coins would only be minted in quantities necessary to fulfill demand from collectors.
Following the announcement, Sen. Vitter proclaimed a victory and provided the following statements in a press release:
“This is a big victory in the fight against mindless government waste, because these coins are a textbook case of wasteful spending – something Americans just don’t want or need. More than 1.4 billion of these coins have been sitting around unwanted and unused, just taking up space in the Federal Reserve’s vaults and costing taxpayers millions more dollars to store and secure them. I introduced a bill earlier this year with bipartisan support to end the presidential dollar coin and I’m glad the Obama administration has finally listened to those of us in Congress who have been arguing for this common-sense move.”
Since this suspension came into effect, the mintage levels for Presidential Dollars have plunged, with the limited production released exclusively within numismatic products sold to collectors at a premium to face value.
Despite the dramatic change in circumstances and the previous declaration of “victory,” the new bill introduced by Sen. Vitter still seeks to terminate the Presidential Dollar Program by striking the relevant subsection of the Code.
None of the previous arguments for termination seem applicable to the current situation. The coins are now produced in only the quantities which Americans actually want, the build up of excess coins in storage has stopped, and the coins are sold to the public at a premium price. It is difficult to see any government waste in what has become a purely profitable endeavor.
After being introduced on January 23, the new bill S. 94 has been referred to the Committee on banking, Housing, and Urban Affair. The bill has no cosponsors.
So if this holds true the First Spouse Gold coins will also be discontinued, since they are based on the Presidential coins and the same bill? If this does happen maybe the US Mint will be able to issue coins in the year that is stamped on the coin(we’ll see 2013 coins in 2013).
I thought that switching to the coin would be a saving? By eliminating the paper bill that has a shorter time of usage…..??
Well if the goverment would terminate the $1 paper bill then we wouldn’t have waste! These congressmen really are stupid aren’t they!
Oh Great! Another US Senator demonstrating his grasp of reality and figuring out the best way to waste his time while in office! To hell with addressing the budget…..lets do something really stupid.
How do these nitwits manage to get elected anyway?
Rich – Actually, the quote in the article above is very relevant: “Among these was a bill introduced by Sen. Vitter, which would to terminate the program by striking the relevant subsection from the United States Code.” What that means is that they can strike the part of the bill relating to the dollar coins while leaving the portion relating to the FS Gold coins intact. It’s all kind of odd since the bill was originally meant to honor the presidents with the wives being an afterthought in my mind; however, it is possible that only the portion honoring the president’s wives might be left when the ink dries…
I’ve been collecting the presidential dollars in mint sets every year, something that I’ve enjoyed. While ending circulation levels of the presidential coins makes a lot of sense, ending the collector mintages doesn’t. For one thing they need only make what collector’s buy and they are sold at a premium. The proof and annual sets will be less desirable if it ends. They already tampered with the look and continutity of the set by moving “In God We Trust” the the obverse from the edge, I’d appreciate it if they wouldn’t mess with the set any more than they have. The one change they should make is to skip living presidents rather then end the series or honor living presidents. Why do you need to be dead to be honored? I suspect the Reagan coin would be a hot seller, but won’t be produced because Carter is still alive.
No one uses these coins !!!! Why mint them for circulation ?? Pass that Bill !!
They are already not being minted for circulation, as explained in the article.
1.2 billion coins ? They will be circulated, just not in the next couple of years. I don’t think the Fed is just gonna throw them in the trash. I will never pay a premium for them.
I still spend the older dollar coins that I got at face value wherever I have to use cash. Unfortunately that isn’t a whole lot of places these days. However, cash will make a comeback for me if any of the places I use credit cards ever try to charge me that 4% surcharge! If that ever happens, I’ll brandish a roll of dollar coins at them threateningly and say “I’ll spend these with you if you try to charge me extra for using my credit card!” Maybe that would make them back off. 🙂
If Congress was REALLY serious about this issue, they would axe the $1 note and force the American public to use the $1 coins, saving the taxpayer millions in the long run. It’s that simple.
Other countries did away their one-dollar notes years ago. Canada has had the toonie (2-dollar coin) since 1996 and it freely circulates alongside their loonie. I know, because I’ve been there for extended periods. These coins are used everywhere including parking meters.
What the heck is the matter with America? Why are we always playing catch-up on these issues?
They need to get rid of the penny, nickel, quarter, and paper dollar. Instead, we should have dime, half dollar, dollar, and two dollar coins. It’s time to quit wasting money minting and printing things that we don’t need. We will have to do this eventually. Now is the perfect time given that the penny and nickel compositions need to be changed and we have billions of dollar coins ready to go.
Fed gets no interest aka debt note from legal tender Mint issue coins. No payment for Fed, no distribution. We should coin $2 and $5 coins and more to cut Fed out.
Yes, this makes sense to me.
Keep producing the cent & nickel which cost double face value to make. Stop producing dollar coins that cost less than face value to make which now only collectors can buy at a profit for the mint. Yes, this makes perfect sense.
You forgot to mention the Kennedy half dollar John…
lol hi ho silver, he was being sarcastic,
seriously tho, I really want to finish this set, and my favorite president (Calvin Coolidge) has yet to be featured. Honestly this makes no sense whatsoever, the mint is making a PROFIT on these coins, if collectors keep buying them like they bought several million this year, there is no reason that some of the more popular presidents will bring in millions in revenue.
The profit motive killed the stamp collecting hobby when USPS decided to produce wallpaper for collectors. The Mint has followed the same path. Stay tuned.
change our coin structure
get rid of the penny, all together
the present dime size becomes the nickel
the penny size becomes the dime
the nickel size becomes the quarter
and the current dollar will work as designed
also make a two dollar coin like the canadian two dollar coin with a center insert
*********you also have to get rid of the paper 1 dollar and 2 dollar bills
The mint makes money. I have no idea why this senator does not think so. I don’t think the US buys gold at high cost, mints the gold coin, and loses money by selling them. In fact, I would say that the mint should produce more gold, silver, and collector’s coins so that eventually the deficit is paid off. Get rid of the dollar bill, penny, and nickel and tell people to round off to quarters. People love quarters more than any other coin. I would start circulating the dollar coins, especially presidential coins. Although not to confuse people, I would adopt the color of the Sacagwea dollar coin so that it is impossible to mistake a quarter for a dollar coin or vice versa. And like many European and Canadian countries, mint a 2 dollar coin. Make sure it is heavier and thicker than the other coins. If you want to fix the pension problem, tell the fund administrators to buy 80% in gold and silver coins. They will never lose value completely unlike these mortgage bonds. When someone retires, simply sell the coins to future investors and give the retiree the profit from the sale in paper money.
All over the New York city and its boroughs, individual old parking meters are being eliminated very single day and are being replaced by one central meter machine located on the sidewalk in the middle of each block. It costs 25 cents for 15 minutes and most people dump one dollar to be on the safe side. A golden dollar is the fastest and surest way to get you a ticket printed for 60 minutes which you can place on your dashboard!! If only word would spread that there is such a coin that can handle one hour of parking without much fuss!!!!!! However, no one makes any mention of the fact that the golden dollar is so convenient for your parking needs. Maybe the US Mint should advertise this convenient way of using your golden dollars so that they could get rid of those 1.2 billion coins that they have sitting in their vaults.
“More than 1.4 billion of these coins have been sitting around unwanted and unused, just taking up space in the Federal Reserve’s vaults and costing taxpayers millions more dollars to store and secure them.” – Sen. Vitter
Then pray tell why is it that almost every bank I go to, they have to scrounge around to try and get me a full $25 roll of dollar coins?! It’s very rare I can go to a bank, ask for a roll of dollar coins, and get them quickly. Most banks only can come up with $10-$15 worth of the coins.
I could buy them from the Mint directly, but there’s a surcharge of $7.95 on top of the $25 price for the roll of 25 coins. Then there’s a $5 shipping fee on top! $12, half a roll’s face value, in fees PLUS the $25 face value of the roll? I shouldn’t have to pay both. Just a shipping fee which is understandable. C’mon…
If banks had them more plentiful in stock and we gradually phased out the dollar bill, I think they would circulate better. I love the coins as they are great in toll booths, parking garages, tip jars, vending machines, and in general transactions at stores as people seem enamored with them when I offer them as payment.
I even use two bills regularly and those are much, much easier to get than dollar coins despite the two dollar bill being a rare denomination in circulation.
We can’t even get our own currency right in this country which is a window into how other more influential facets of this once-great nation are viewed/handled. It’s not pretty.
I think its agreed that continuing these coins for collector’s is profitable. Obviously the senator is a non-collector and is one of those who doesn’t understand why anyone collects…therefor its a non-event. In reality is a very profitable business. The US Mint should follow the Perth Mint’s path and offer products such as high relief 5 ounce Silver Eagles. Who has any doubt that a 5 ounce high relief silver eagle would sell out in minutes…even at a high markup.
I also like stamps. I think the design quality is what is killing interest in commemorative stamps. Most these days look like someone created the image on a computer in 10 minutes. And they are all politically correct. Bring back the stunning steel engraved and graveur designs that look good.