New One Dollar Coin
With the creation of the new $1 coin, the United States is honoring its past presidents.
New One Dollar Coin
The US Mint hopes to generate renewed interest in the aesthetic beauty of the dollar coin by rolling out new coins every three months until 2016. The new one dollar coins are being made under the direction of The Presidential $1 Coin Act. The coin act has two main parts. The first calls for the issuance of these coins as a way of updating the look of dollar coins. The goal is to have the coins be something that is sought after for its appearance, and not just because of its face value. The Coin Act also requires that the government make sure that an adequate supply of these coins are available for those who want to collect them as well as for general circulation.
The new one dollar coins will be thicker and larger than the quarter. They will be the exact same size as the Sacagawea dollar, which is the current one dollar coin. It will also weigh the same and be made up of the same metals. The US Mint will be producing over 300 million of the coins for general distribution.
The artwork on the new dollar coins will be bigger and bolder than what is seen on most US coins today. The coins will be produced starting with the first president and working towards the most current. However, there are a few stipulations. First, only presidents who have been deceased for two years will be featured. Also, the coins will only be produced in order, so if a president is deceased but the president who served before him is not, then the coins will not be produced until the earlier president has been deceased for two years. Four coins have been scheduled to be released each year, and the schedule has been planned up until 2016 with Nixon and Ford being the last two coins at this time.
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. This program and legislation is based on the highly successful state quarters program.
