The Presidential dollar coins have been released and, though I believe they'll be a hit with coin-collecting community, I'll be surprised if the general public likes them any better than their predecessors. But I will admit that the Presidential coins likely stand a better chance at success in the public domain than previous issues. Why? Well I'm glad you asked.

The Presidential dollars, the newest release from the U.S. Mint, follow on the heels of the U.S. states quarter dollars. The states quarters have been a tremendous success with collectors. They've captured the attention of so many U.S. citizens that many new coin collectors have been born. And the new collectors seem to be staying in the hobby. Many of them have begun to collect the older Washington quarters and are also moving on to other denominations. The states quarters are historical and have different designs for each U.S. state. They're being released at the rate of five new designs per year. That has apparently been sufficiently adequate to keep the older collectors interested as well as to draw new blood into the hobby.

The acceptance of the states quarters portends well for the potential acceptance of the President dollars. These new dollar coins are also historical in content. But the more importantly, they're being released at the rate of four new coins per year - one every three months. With a release rate similar to the states quarters, and new designs with each release, the Presidential coins may spark enough interest to catch on.

The other interesting thing about the Presidential coins is the fact that they bear edge lettering. In fact, the edge is where the date and mint mark are presented. Edge lettering has historically been quite scarce on U.S. coins. And there hasn't been a circulating coin with edge lettering for a very long time. Will that novelty be enough to get the attention of the public? Only time will tell. But what will surely get the public's attention is the eventual discovery and promotion of error coins in the series. You see, the edge lettering is added to these coins after the conventional three-die strike. Some of these coins are bound to find their way past this fourth step in the minting process. And when they do, the promotion will bring big bucks for those errors. When the news media picks-up on the phenomenon, the public will be enticed to search for these errors. Hey, maybe the Mint will err on purpose as a ploy to help get these coins to circulate.

On the one hand, the new Presidential dollars are laden with history; they'll be released with new designs several times a year; they have intriguing edge lettering; they're going to a public who's already smitten with ever-changing quarter-dollar designs; and, having the same electronic signature, these dollar coins are designed to work in the majority of U.S. vending machines.

On the other hand, they are just another dollar coin. A coin which much of the U.S. public has scorned; a denomination that has generally failed miserably in circulation since its inception. In fact, it has failed to successfully circulate in three previous attempts in last twenty-six years. Starting in 1971, only a small percentage of the U.S. public ever carried or circulated the Ike dollar; nor did they accept the Susan B. Anthony dollar in 1979 or the Sacagawea dollar a couple of decades later. It seems that the sentiment of most is that as long as the one-dollar paper currency continues to exist, the dollar coins will not succeed.

The Presidential dollar coins are supposed to be the government's newest fix to the "why won't they circulate?" dilemma. The Ike dollars were too large and heavy. The Susan B. Anthony dollars fixed that problem by cutting the size and weight. But the Susan Bs were still a silvery color and not too different in size from the quarter dollars. Many complained that the Susan Bs were confused with quarters. So they fixed that problem with the issuance of the Sacagawea dollar coin. The size remained the same as the Susan B but the Sac was gold in color. That virtually eliminated the confusion with the quarter dollar, but they still failed to circulate. Now we have the Presidential dollar coins. The smaller size remains as does the golden color. But the difference this time is the ever-changing design over the next ten or so years and the edge lettering; along with more potential for error coins.

It seems the one-dollar currency will remain in place for the time being. Will the newest changes to the dollar coin be adequate to spark regular and continued use by the public? Only time will tell. And whereas I believe that most coin collectors will embrace the new dollar coins, I believe they'll be a hard sell to the general public.

A quick anecdote ... Did you know that a couple of the major U.S. third-party grading services already have certification capsules (coin slabs) that permit the viewing of the edge of the new President dollars? NGC and ICG have developed these and currently have them in use. Why? Because in the standard slabs you can't see the date, mint mark and other edge lettering. The new-style slabs permit the viewing of these devices.

Best Regards,
Ralph J. Huntzinger
WINS#158, President