House, Senate Pass Bills Creating New $1 Coins

The Senate has joined the House in passing The Presidential $1 Coin Act, which would call for a series of dollar coins in which the coin's face would change four times a year, displaying images of the presidents in the order they served. The reverse would feature an image of the Statue of Liberty.

In addition, the legislation would also create a new pure-gold bullion coin for investors that feature the images of the first spouses in sequence with the presidential dollars. In conjunction with the educational theme of the dollar coin, the program makes provisions for issuing two spouse bullion coins each for the two presidents who remarried while in office and for using the image of Liberty on the face of the coins of presidents who had no spouse.

Backers of the $1 coin say it will produce cost savings for businesses and consumers. Supporters also believe that if collectors take to the coins as they have the 50-state quarters program, it could put $4 billion into the Treasury as collectors take the coins out of circulation.

Finally, the legislation creates a new one-ounce pure gold investment-grade coin that mimics the design of the old buffalo nickel, and calls for a re-design of the reverse of the penny in 2009, the bicentennial of Abraham Lincoln's birth, with one new reverse issued each calendar quarter.

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