On January 7, 2015, Sen. David Vitter of Louisiana introduced a bill in the Senate which seeks to terminate the Presidential Dollar Program. Sen. Vitter has previously introduced identical bills in 2011 and 2013, which had gained little traction.
Back in 2011, the Presidential Dollar Program had come under scrutiny due to the build up of a hoard of more than 1.2 billion excess $1 coins at Federal Reserve Banks. The build up was the result of continued production and distribution to circulation despite limited use in commerce.
In late 2011, the Treasury Department made the decision to suspend production of Presidential Dollars for circulation. Starting in 2012, new issues of the series have only been minted in the limited quantities necessary to meet the demand of collectors. These coins have been distributed by the Mint directly to collectors in rolls, bags, or box quantities at prices which reflect a premium to the face value of the coins.
As it stands, the Presidential Dollar Program currently sees limited production, distribution at a premium to face value, and is scheduled to reach its natural conclusion in 2016. Nonetheless, the new bill S. 95 makes a third attempt to terminate the program.
Specifically, the bill would amend Section 5112 of title 31 of the United States Code to strike subsection (n), which authorizes the Presidential Dollar Program.
The initial version of the bill introduced in the 112th Congress had garnered 7 cosponsors, but died in committee. The first re-introduced version of the bill in the 113th Congress had no cosponsors and also died in committee. The latest re-introduced version of the bill in the 114th Congress has no cosponsors and has been referred to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.
And we’re not getting rid of the more costly paper dollar why?? oh yeah, the facility that prints them is in an influential law makers district.
By the time the bill got to the President’s desk (If it got that far.) the dollar program will be over.
So what’s the goal here now? Kill the program before it gets to Nixon? It’s almost over. BTW…I actually buy these things from the mint…and spend them. It’s been my own little experiment and I’ve found they’re very difficult to spend, hard to store and carry or buy anything of value. I’ve got hundreds hanging around in rolls. They’re good for items in the $5 range or less or in addition to a bill. But man it’s a real bummer when you spill a few coins in the car. Much more incentive to go looking for 3 or 4 dollar coins than quarters. But I’ve found I end up with many purchases in the $10-$15 range and I don’t feel right about dumping 15 $1 coins on someone and if you hit an ATM you get $20s, which you then have to break and end up with…dollar bills. Based on my experience I’d like to see $2 and $5 coins instead. $12? boom 3 coins. I’ve also been snatching up Canadian $20 for $20 and $50 for $50 coins which you can get at no premium with free shipping. Of course they assume they’ll mostly end up out of circulation so they’re making a killing off of the metal content.
@Bilbo: agree on a two dollar of five dollar coin. Canada seems to do so many common sense things that the US doesn’t except your last comment being SPOT on, the RCM is truly fleecing hundreds of thousands of people by putting a fictitious face value on a non circulating coin and ripping unsuspecting people off blindly. I guess it is up to us to educate ourselves and I encourage anyone buying these coins to do so by checking into if you in fact can exchange said coin for paper fiat to pay your bills with??
Even though I was a bit surprised to read the information regarding this bill being introduced to end the Presidential dollar coin programme, I wouldn’t be terribly bothered if the bill passes. Although a lot of Americans were looking forward to the Reagan issue, there has been a lot of criticism with this series since it went into production on two fronts and it has been a “hard-sell” for the US Mint.
First, there has been substantial criticism over the designs, opinion has reflected that the US Mint should have endeavoured to include profiles of the former Presidents wherever possible instead of front-facing depictions which have given the coins more of a “medallic” look rather than the traditional style of coins Americans have been accustomed to. The reverse is also lacking in originality – as much as we love Lady Liberty, perhaps a more presidential emblem should have been designed & included.
Second, there is simply no demand for the Dollar coins as the Treasury, the Bureau of Engraving and Printing AND… the House & Senate refuse to retire the Dollar note in favour of this dollar denominated coin which would save millions in overall production for the dollar value. In this instance, Government is just going to have to remove the choice of “paper or coin” in favour of saving money long term. To have over a billion of these coins in Federal Reserve vaults is simply money wasting, a waste of time & effort, transportation, storage and of course production and materials which all costs money if these coins have no or even little use.
The last coin design submitted to the design committee was that of Gerald Ford, perhaps let’s just leave it at that and if need be, re-visit this programme in the future if there is significant call from collectors and the American public to update & conclude the series.
I’m not too sure what the purpose of killing the dollar coin program at this stage would be. They’ve already stopped producing the coins for circulation and just sell to collectors now as I understand it, so I have to imagine the mint is probably making a profit off the newer issues. I’d also be pretty unhappy if the program died right when they’re set to release the Jackie Kennedy first spouse and the JFK Coin & Chronicles this year, both of which I am genuinely looking forward to.
I will agree there are major issues with the designs, though. The last several presidential dollars have had very poor quality designs.
Like a lot of other things that were unnecessary or unrequested, this nonsense will end when the Mint (and other agencies/corporations) are immune from congressman’s pork. The old days of “bringing home the money to the district are over.
There are hundreds (thousands?) of examples where these slimy pols have shoved expensive things down the throats of state and local governments. These back-slapping, boozing, corrupt pols need to get a reality check. And the public needs to also stop demanding things we can’t pay for.
@ fmtransmiter: Actually, you very wrong about the RCM. They are selling the coins at face value. Why? Because it costed them WAY below face value to strike them. So, Canada wins and Canadians win since they are able to purchase at face value. Also, you CAN spend the non-circulating Canadian coins at face value, if you dumb enough. Those coins are semi-numismatic coins and ARE legal tender in Canada. So, how the RCM is fleecing people as you stated, beats me……..
@Durain I occasionally visit our frozen friends to the North. I can’t wait to have dinner out and pop a $50 coin on the table. So we’ll see. I personally don’t care about the collector value of them and they cost me nothing above the exchange rate. At some point someone else will probably pull them out of circulation again so again the mint wins. If they weren’t legal tender than the whole thing would be a scam.
I’m with everyone else…why are we bothering to try to shut down the program at this point? May as well let it finish up…not like it’s costing anything and accumulating in the vaults. As to the point of a Reagan coin, sounds like there may not be one…all depends on how the legislation is interpreted…and it sounds like the mint may be going with the interpretation that stops the program due to the gap prior to Reagan. Reagan also is not listed on the mint’s web site.
And speaking to the person who has been spending the $1 coins…why would you spend $15 of them on a purchase? You wouldn’t be likely to spend $15 in dollar bills, so why would it be any different with coins? On any given day, I have 6 half dollars and 2 dollar coins in my pocket. Doesn’t seem to be a big deal, at least not to me, and I’ve never had any trouble spending them. No one ever seems to mind (though they might if I handed them 10 or 20 of them), and you get the occasional person that is really excited about a new and different coin. In my mind, they take the place of my spending a $1 bill, or prevent me from getting one back in change. It’s also a way to slowly get rid of the accumulated half dollars from roll searching, rather than taking them back to the bank. Everyone gripes about how it would be terrible to have a pocket full of dollar coins…but who would be likely to have more than 4 at a time anyway? Not much different than having 3 quarters left over from a transaction…prices have risen so much that a dollar really is “pocket change” these days anyway…
@Wesley I think where prices are at the $1 is in a unique spot. Most people toss quarters and other change in center consoles or bowls or have a few hanging around. They don’t carry lots of them around. The $1 coin has sufficient value that you wouldn’t let many sit around but at the same time it’s not worth enough to pay for average daily items. This is what I’m finding. I have to make a conscious effort to spend them. Bills sit nice and light in my wallet. Coins are loose. So my statement earlier is that if I had $2 and $5 coins I could pay for most of my items with a few or fewer coins. Of course these days hard currency is also being replaced by debit cards and smart pay options. I prefer something physical. I also get annoyed chasing down $5-$10 receipts from my wife while balancing accounts.
Come on, I could just see you walking down the the street with 6 dollar coins, 3 quarters, 3 nickels, a couple 5 dollar coins and some pennies. You would look like a punk with his pants half way down. I carry cash quite a lot and having dollar coins and 5 dollar coins would be just down right …….
They just want to kill it before it gets to Nixon. The program is almost over. Let it run out. There are bigger things going on in the world to worry about.
According to Govtrack it’s not going anywhere:
Introduced:
Jan 7, 2015
Status:
Referred to Committee on Jan 7, 2015
Prognosis
1% chance of being enacted
And don’t forget it has to go through the House as well. A waste of time, like too much else Congress does these days. Anyway, since no circulating dollars are being minted only collectors will notice the Nixon dollars. (Too bad, I was looking forward to spending a few for laughs.)
More seriously, I wish the mint would stop producing so much stuff–can anyone say overkill? The latest plan is to start a new series of gold $100 (or $75) “coins”, plus silver medals, for no apparent reason. Ridiculous.