Presidential dollar coins (authorized by ) are a series of

United States dollar coins United may refer to: Places * United, Pennsylvania, an unincorporated community * United, West Virginia, an unincorporated community Arts and entertainment Films * ''United'' (2003 film), a Norwegian film * ''United'' (2011 film), a BBC Two f ...

with engravings of relief portraits of

U.S. presidents The president of the United States is the head of state and head of government of the United States, indirectly elected to a four-year term via the Electoral College. The officeholder leads the executive branch of the federal government and ...

on the obverse and the Statue of Liberty (''Liberty Enlightening the World'') on the reverse. From 2007 to 2011, Presidential dollar coins were minted for circulation in large numbers, resulting in a large stockpile of unused $1 coins. From 2012 to 2016, new coins in the series were minted only for

collectors Collector(s) may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Collector (character), a fictional character in the Marvel Comics universe * ''Collector'' (2011 film), a 2011 Indian Malayalam film * ''Collector'' (2016 film), a 2016 Russian film * ''Colle ...

. A new coin was released on December 4, 2020, to honor George H. W. Bush, who died after the original program ended.

Legislative history

, the Presidential $1 Coin Act of 2005, was introduced on May 17, 2005, by Senator John E. Sununu with over 70 co-sponsors. It was reported favorably out of the

U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs The United States Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs (formerly the Committee on Banking and Currency), also known as the Senate Banking Committee, has jurisdiction over matters related to banks and banking, price controls, d ...

without amendment on July 29, 2005. The Senate passed it with a technical amendment (), by unanimous consent on November 18, 2005. The House of Representatives passed it (291-113) on December 13, 2005 (a similar bill, H.R. 902, had previously passed in the House, but it was the Senate bill which was passed by both chambers). The

enrolled bill In the United States Congress, an enrolled bill is the final copy of a bill or joint resolution which has passed both houses of Congress in identical form. In the United States, enrolled bills are engrossed—prepared in a formally printed copy� ...

was presented to president

George W. Bush George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, Bush family, and son of the 41st president George H. W. Bush, he ...

on December 15, 2005, and he signed it into law on December 22, 2005.

Program details

The program began on January 1, 2007, and like the 50 State quarters program, was not scheduled to end until every eligible subject was honored. The program was to issue coins featuring each of four presidents per year on the obverse, issuing one for three months before moving on to the next president in chronological order by term in office. To be eligible, a president must have been deceased for at least two years prior to the time of minting. The United States Mint called it the Presidential $1 Coin Program. The reverse of the coins bears the Statue of Liberty, the inscription "$1" and the inscription "United States of America" in

all caps In typography, all caps (short for "all capitals") refers to text or a font in which all letters are capital letters, for example: "THIS TEXT IS IN ALL CAPS". All caps may be used for emphasis (for a word or phrase). They are commonly seen in ...

, in the font ITC Benguiat. Inscribed along the edge of the coin is the year of minting or issuance of the coin, the mint mark, 13 stars, and also the legend in the following arrangement: ; before 2009, '' In God We Trust'' was also part of the edge lettering. The legend "

Liberty Liberty is the ability to do as one pleases, or a right or immunity enjoyed by prescription or by grant (i.e. privilege). It is a synonym for the word freedom. In modern politics, liberty is understood as the state of being free within society fr ...

" is absent from the coin altogether, since the decision was made that the image of the Statue of Liberty on the reverse of the coin was sufficient to convey the message of liberty. The text of the act does not specify the color of the coins, but per the U.S. Mint "the specifications will be identical to those used for the current Golden dollar". The

George Washington George Washington (February 22, 1732, 1799) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. Appointed by the Continental Congress as commander of th ...

$1 coin was first available to the public on February 15, 2007, in honor of

Presidents' Day Presidents' Day, also called Washington's Birthday at the federal governmental level, is a holiday in the United States celebrated on the third Monday of February to honor all persons who served as presidents of the United States and, since 187 ...

, which was observed on February 19. This marked the first time since the

St. Gaudens Double Eagle The Saint-Gaudens double eagle is a twenty-United States dollar, dollar gold coin, or double eagle, produced by the United States Mint from 1907 to 1933. The coin is named after its designer, the sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens, who designed the ...

(1907–1933) that the United States had issued a coin with edge lettering for circulation. Edge-lettered coins date back to the 1790s. The process was started to discourage the shaving of gold coin edges, a practice which was used to cheat payees. In December 2007, Congress passed , moving "In God We Trust" to either the obverse or reverse of the coins. This is the same bill that created a program that included quarters for

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, Na ...

, Puerto Rico, Northern Mariana Islands, Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and

American Samoa American Samoa ( sm, Amerika Sāmoa, ; also ' or ') is an unincorporated territory of the United States located in the South Pacific Ocean, southeast of the island country of Samoa. Its location is centered on . It is east of the International ...

. The act had been introduced because of the failure of the

Sacagawea $1 coin The Sacagawea dollar (also known as the "golden dollar") is a United States dollar coin introduced in 2000, although not minted for general circulation between 2002 to 2008 and again from 2012 onward because of its general unpopularity with th ...

to gain widespread circulation in the United States. The act sympathized with the need of the nation's private sector for a $1 coin, and expected that the appeal of changing the design would increase the public demand for new coins (as the public generally responded well to the State Quarter program). The program was also intended to help educate the public about the nation's presidents and their history. In case the coins did not catch on with the general public, then the

Mint MiNT is Now TOS (MiNT) is a free software alternative operating system kernel for the Atari ST system and its successors. It is a multi-tasking alternative to TOS and MagiC. Together with the free system components fVDI device drivers, XaAE ...

hoped that

would be as interested in the dollars as they were with the State Quarters, which generated about $6.3 billion in seigniorage (''i.e.,'' the difference between the face value of the coins and the cost to produce them) between January 1999 and December 2008. George stack

Unlike the State Quarter program and the

Westward Journey nickel series A nickel is a five-cent coin struck by the United States Mint. Composed of cupronickel (75% copper and 25% nickel), the piece has been issued since 1866. Its diameter is 0.835 inches (21.21 mm) and its thickness is 0.077 inches ( ...

, which suspended the issuance of the current design during those programs, the act directed the Mint to continue to issue Sacagawea dollar coins during the Presidential series. The law states that at least one in three issued dollars must be a Sacagawea dollar. Furthermore, the Sacagawea design is required to continue after the Presidential Coin program ends. These requirements were added at the behest of the North Dakota congressional delegation to ensure that Sacagawea, whom North Dakotans consider to be one of their own, ultimately remains on the dollar coin. However, Federal Reserve officials indicated to Congress that "if the Presidential $1 Coin Program does not stimulate substantial transactional demand for dollar coins, the requirement that the Mint nonetheless produce Sacagawea dollars would result in costs to the taxpayer without any offsetting benefits." In that event, the Federal Reserve indicated that it would "strongly recommend that Congress reassess the one-third requirement." The one-third requirement was later changed to one-fifth by the Native American $1 Coin Act, passed on September 20, 2007. Previous versions of the act called for removing from circulation dollar coins issued before the Sacagawea dollar, most notably the

Susan B. Anthony dollar The Susan B. Anthony dollar is a United States dollar coin minted from 1979 to 1981 when production was suspended due to poor public acceptance, and then again in 1999. Intended as a replacement for the larger Eisenhower dollar, the new smalle ...

, but the version of the act which became law merely directs the

Secretary of the Treasury The United States secretary of the treasury is the head of the United States Department of the Treasury, and is the chief financial officer of the federal government of the United States. The secretary of the treasury serves as the principal a ...

to study the matter and report back to Congress. The act required federal government agencies (including the United States Postal Service), businesses operating on federal property, and federally funded transit systems to accept and dispense dollar coins by January 2008, and to post signs indicating that they do so.

Minting errors

On March 8, 2007, the United States Mint announced, that on February 15, 2007, an unknown number of

Presidential $1 coins were released into circulation without their edge inscriptions (the U.S. mottos, "In God We Trust" and "", the coin's mint mark, and its year of issuance; i.e. (where is either or )). Ron Guth, of the

Professional Coin Grading Service Professional Coin Grading Service (PCGS) is an American third-party coin grading, authentication, attribution, and encapsulation service founded in 1985. The intent of its seven founding dealers, including the firm's former president David Hall, ...

, estimated at least 50,000 coins were released without the edge inscriptions. The first such coin discovered was sold on

eBay eBay Inc. ( ) is an American multinational e-commerce company based in San Jose, California, that facilitates consumer-to-consumer and business-to-consumer sales through its website. eBay was founded by Pierre Omidyar in 1995 and became a ...

for , while later coins were selling for , as of late March 2007. Because one of the inscriptions missing from the coins is the motto "In God we trust", some articles on the subject have referred to them as "Godless dollars". Fake "Godless dollars" have been produced with the edge lettering filed off. Also, John Adams Presidential dollars have been discovered with plain edges. They are fewer in quantity than George Washington plain-edge dollars, making them rarer, thus more expensive. A more frequently encountered edge lettering error for the John Adams dollar is a coin with doubled edge lettering. This error occurs when a coin passes through the edge lettering machine twice. Most examples of the doubled-edge-letter John Adams dollar are from the Philadelphia Mint (Denver Mint issues are comparatively scarce). They are seen in two varieties: 1) with both edge lettering inscriptions reading in the same direction, called "overlapped", and 2) with the two inscriptions running in opposite directions—i.e., inverted or upside-down relative to one another—called "inverted". In early March 2007, a Colorado couple found a dollar coin which had not been struck with a die pair (missing the portrait of the president and the Statue of Liberty), but with edge lettering on the otherwise-blank planchet. Some of the coins have the words on the rim struck upside down (president face up). These are not minting errors, but rather a variation created by the minting process. Such upside-down coins have been sold on auction websites like eBay and Amazon for greater than their face value, though they represent roughly 50% of the minted population.

Stockpile and suspension of production

By 2011, 1.4 billion uncirculated $1 coins were stockpiled, which, if laid flat, could reach from Los Angeles to Chicago. By 2016, this number might have reached two billion if the minting had continued unchanged. Rep.

Jackie Speier Karen Lorraine Jacqueline Speier ( ; born May 14, 1950) is an American lawyer and politician serving as the U.S. representative for , serving in Congress since 2008. She is a member of the Democratic Party. The district, numbered as the 12th Dis ...

of California circulated a "Dear Colleague" letter recommending that the U.S. not produce any dollar coins. She was planning to introduce legislation calling for the immediate halting of all dollar coin programs. The United States

Government Accountability Office The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) is a legislative branch government agency that provides auditing, evaluative, and investigative services for the United States Congress. It is the supreme audit institution of the federal govern ...

has stated that discontinuing the dollar bill in favor of the dollar coin would save the U.S. government about $5.5 billion over 30 years. On December 13, 2011, Vice President Joe Biden and Treasury Secretary

Timothy Geithner Timothy Franz Geithner (; born August 18, 1961) is a former American central banker who served as the 75th United States Secretary of the Treasury under President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013. He was the President of the Federal Reserve Bank ...

announced that the minting of Presidential $1 coins for circulation would be suspended.Wolin, Neal (December 13, 2011)
Reducing the Surplus Dollar Coin Inventory, Saving Taxpayer Dollars
Treasury Notes Blog. Retrieved December 13, 2011. Future entries in the program, beginning with those of

Chester A. Arthur Chester Alan Arthur (October 5, 1829 – November 18, 1886) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 21st president of the United States from 1881 to 1885. He previously served as the 20th vice president under President James A ...

, would be issued in reduced quantities, only for collectors.

The program's end and continuation

The act specifies that for a former president to be honored, they must have been deceased for at least two years before issue. Hence, former presidents George H. W. Bush, Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton,

, and then-current president

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the U ...

were ineligible to have a dollar coin issued in their honor when the series ended in 2016, after honoring Ronald Reagan, the last president who was eligible. Since the program has terminated, producing coins for those presidents not yet honored would require another

Act of Congress An Act of Congress is a statute enacted by the United States Congress. Acts may apply only to individual entities (called private laws), or to the general public ( public laws). For a bill to become an act, the text must pass through both hous ...

. On February 12, 2019, Senator John Cornyn introduced a bill to authorize a Presidential dollar honoring George H. W. Bush and an accompanying First Spouse gold coin for

Barbara Bush Barbara Pierce Bush (June 8, 1925 – April 17, 2018) was First Lady of the United States from 1989 to 1993, as the wife of President George H. W. Bush, and the founder of the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy. She previously w ...

, which was signed into law by President Donald Trump on January 28, 2020.

Collecting

Despite not seeing widespread use in circulation, the series has seen a few lower-mintage issues, mostly in specially marketed sets. Reverse Proof issues were made for the coins depicting Harry S. Truman,

Dwight D. Eisenhower Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower (born David Dwight Eisenhower; ; October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) was an American military officer and statesman who served as the 34th president of the United States from 1953 to 1961. During World War II, ...

John F. Kennedy John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), often referred to by his initials JFK and the nickname Jack, was an American politician who served as the 35th president of the United States from 1961 until his assassination i ...

Lyndon B. Johnson Lyndon Baines Johnson (; August 27, 1908January 22, 1973), often referred to by his initials LBJ, was an American politician who served as the 36th president of the United States from 1963 to 1969. He had previously served as the 37th vice ...

, Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush between 2015-2020. These issues had mintages between 16,000 and 48,000, depending on the issue.

Coin details

Dollar coins were issued bearing the likenesses of presidents, as follows:

First Spouse program

The United States has honored the spouses of each of the presidents honored by the Presidential $1 Coin Act by issuing half-ounce $10 gold coins featuring their images, in the order they served as first spouse, beginning in 2007. To date, all first spouses have been women (often called first ladies), but the law uses the term first spouse. The obverse of these coins feature portraits of the nation's first spouses, their names, the dates and order of their terms as first spouse, as well as the year of minting or issuance, and the words "In God We Trust" and "Liberty". The United States Mint issued the first spouse gold coins on the same schedule as the Presidential $1 coins issued honoring the presidents. Each coin has a unique reverse design featuring an image emblematic of that spouse's life and work, as well as the words "The United States of America", "E Pluribus Unum", "$10", "1/2 oz.", and ".9999 Fine Gold". When a president served unmarried, as four presidents did, a gold coin was issued bearing an obverse image emblematic of

as depicted on a circulating coin of that era, and bearing a reverse image emblematic of themes of that president. One exception is the coin depicting suffragist

Alice Paul Alice Stokes Paul (January 11, 1885 – July 9, 1977) was an American Quaker, suffragist, feminist, and women's rights activist, and one of the main leaders and strategists of the campaign for the Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, w ...

which represents the era of the

presidency, as Arthur was a widower. The act, as written, explicitly states that the First Spouse coins are to be released at the same time as their respective $1 Presidential coins. Because the act links a first spouse's eligibility for a coin to that of the presidential spouse, it means that a living first spouse could have appeared on a coin; actually this did not happen, though Nancy Reagan died only a few months before the release of her coin. The United States Mint launched these coins officially at 12 pm EDT on June 19, 2007. They provided two versions of the coin: a proof version for $429.95 and an uncirculated version for $410.95. The United States Mint also produces and makes available to the public bronze medal duplicates of the First Spouse gold coins which are not legal tender.U.S. Mint
First Spouse Program
Accessed 2008-06-27. "The United States Mint also produces and make available to the public bronze medal duplicates of the First Spouse Gold Coins." In February 2009 ''

Coin World ''Coin World'' is an American numismatic magazine, with weekly and monthly issues. It is among the world’s most popular non-academic publications for coin collectors and is covering the entire numismatic field, including coins, paper money, med ...

'' reported that some 2007 Abigail Adams medals were struck using the reverse from the 2008 Louisa Adams medal. These pieces, called mules, were contained within the 2007 First Spouse medal set. Although the First Spouse program ended in 2016, it was continued in 2020 to honor

. A full listing of the coins is: * Due to volatility in the gold market, the U.S. Mint lowered the price to $549.95 on November 12, 2008, to more accurately reflect the current spot price of gold. This however constantly changed as the price of gold changed. The mint used pricing range tables to adjust pricing of gold coin
2016 Pricing Grid
† Chester A. Arthur's wife

Ellen Ellen is a female given name, a diminutive of Elizabeth, Eleanor, Elena and Helen. Ellen was the 609th most popular name in the U.S. and the 17th in Sweden in 2004. People named Ellen include: *Ellen Adarna (born 1988), Filipino actress * Elle ...

died before he succeeded to the presidency. Since there was no First Lady during his presidency, the act explicitly states that

, who was born during his term, would appear on this coin. Since Paul was never First Lady, the coin does not have a served date.

Other provisions

The act also has two other provisions, for the following: * Issuance of a $50

bullion Bullion is non-ferrous metal that has been refined to a high standard of elemental purity. The term is ordinarily applied to bulk metal used in the production of coins and especially to precious metals such as gold and silver. It comes from the ...

coin A coin is a small, flat (usually depending on the country or value), round piece of metal or plastic used primarily as a medium of exchange or legal tender. They are standardized in weight, and produced in large quantities at a mint in order to ...

reproducing the 1913

buffalo nickel The Buffalo nickel or Indian Head nickel is a copper-nickel five-cent piece that was struck by the United States Mint from 1913 to 1938. It was designed by sculptor James Earle Fraser. As part of a drive to beautify the coinage, five denominat ...

American Buffalo (coin) The American Buffalo, also known as a gold buffalo, is a 24-karat bullion coin first offered for sale by the United States Mint in 2006. The coin follows the design of the Indian Head nickel and has gained its nickname from the American Bison on t ...

* Redesign of the reverse of the

Lincoln cent The Lincoln cent (sometimes called the Lincoln penny) is a one-cent coin that has been struck by the United States Mint since 1909. The obverse or heads side was designed by Victor David Brenner, as was the original reverse, depicting two stalks ...

in 2009 to show four different scenes from Abraham Lincoln's life in honor of the bicentennial of his birth. These four scenes include: *# his birth and early childhood in Kentucky *# his formative years in Indiana *# his professional life in Illinois *# his presidency in

In 2009,

numismatic Numismatics is the study or collection of currency, including coins, tokens, paper money, medals and related objects. Specialists, known as numismatists, are often characterized as students or collectors of coins, but the discipline also inclu ...

cents that have the metallic copper content of cents minted in 1909 were issued for collectors. Since 2010, another redesigned reverse for the Lincoln cent is being minted; this "shall bear an image emblematic of President Lincoln's preservation of the United States of America as a single and united country", and replaced the Lincoln Memorial reverse in use from 1959 to 2008.

References

PDF Portable Document Format (PDF), standardized as ISO 32000, is a file format developed by Adobe in 1992 to present documents, including text formatting and images, in a manner independent of application software, hardware, and operating systems ...

) at from the United States Government Printing Office
Report by the Congressional Budget Office
on the cost of H.R. 902 (the companion to S. 1047), which includes information on seigniorage for the State Quarter program. April 12, 2005 * Anderson, Gordon T.
Congress tries again for a dollar coin
. CNN/Money. April 28, 2005 * Press release, Nov. 21, 2005
Legislation to Redesign Lincoln Penny Passes Senate; Creates Presidential $1 Coin Program Similar to 50 State Quarters Program
{{DEFAULTSORT:Presidential 1 Coin Program 2005 in American law Currencies introduced in 2007 United States federal currency legislation United States dollar coins 109th United States Congress Sculptures of presidents of the United States Circulating commemorative coins of the United States Goddess of Liberty on coins Statue of Liberty