George Washington Dollar Coin
Comparable to the popular state quarters program, the US Mint began a presidential dollar coin program in 2007. The first coin to roll out, in February of 2007, was the George Washington Dollar coin.
George Washington Dollar Coin
The golden colored coin is thicker and larger than a quarter. The US Mint will be producing over 300 million of the coins for general distribution. This is not the first time the Mint and the Federal Reserve have tried to successfully introduce a dollar coin. But both the Susan B. Anthony coin (1979) and the Sacagawea dollar (2000) failed to gain enough popularity to replace their paper equivalent. The mint is hoping to succeed where these failed by rotating the presidential faces every three months, in the order the presidents served.
It is planned that the program will run until 2016. Presidents must have been dead for 2 years in order to be featured on a coin and they will not be produced out of order. The first coins will be released in 2007 and will feature Washington, Adams, Jefferson and Madison. Four presidential coins will be released each year, except in 2016, when only the coins for Nixon and Ford are set to be released. Although President Reagan has been deceased more than two years, he will not be featured in the 2016 series, unless President Carter has been deceased for 2 years by 2016. This is because the coins will be produced in the order that the Presidents served.
The reverse design for the presidential dollar coins, starting with the George Washington dollar coin in 2007, will feature a bold picture of the Statue of Liberty. In general, the artwork on these coins will be larger and bolder. The edge inscriptions will include the year of minting/issuance, "E Pluribus Unum”, “In God We Trust”, and the mint mark. These are all inscription that have traditionally been found on the face of the coins. The new Presidential $1 Coin will be the same size, weight and be composed of the same metal as the Sacagawea dollar.
The legislation that calls for the issuance of this coins is the Presidential $1 Coin Act, Public Law 109-145. The idea behind the legislation is a return to coins being more than just functional, but instead having artistic worth on its own. Because the Sacagawea coin was not as popular as the US Mint had hoped, they are hopeful that people will desire to collect and spend the dollar coins. The legislation also requires that an adequate supply of the Presidential $1 Coins are made available to the public.
Educators, banks and coin groups can all receive free resources, including the cardboard coin collecting sleeves, free of charge from the US Mint.
