Will Third Time Be Charm for Treasury on $1 Coin?

The U.S. Mint is counting on 37 dead presidents to help it get a new $1 coin into widespread circulation.

Less than a year after the Presidential $1 Coin Act of 2005 was signed into law, the Mint and the Federal Reserve Board today will unveil renderings of $1 coins that feature images of deceased presidents and are to be launched in early 2007.

They will be identical in size and shape to the current Sacagawea Golden Dollar. The Mint will issue four presidential coins each year, in the order in which the presidents served.

"Everyone knows who George Washington is, but Fillmore and Van Buren and some of the lesser-known presidents, this is going to be a chance for Americans to learn about them all over again," said Edmund C. Moy, the director of the Mint.

But the coins are intended to be more than just educational. Mr. Moy said that as more vending machines and parking meters are retrofitted to accept dollar coins, they will become more practical. He said New York, for example, is installing parking meters that will accept the coins.

"If you're going to plug machines, you're going to have to carry a heck of a lot of quarters with you," Mr. Moy said. "Carrying a dollar coin is going to be much more convenient for people today."

Still, the effort to turn the $1 coin into American pocket change could be a challenge, if past campaigns are any indication.

The 11-sided Susan B. Anthony dollar, first issued in 1979, was a hit with coin collectors but failed ..to spark much interest among consumers. And though the Sacagawea coin was launched to great fanfare in 1999, a 2002 Government Accountability Office report found that 94% of Americans had not used it to make a purchase in the previous month.

Americans' comfort with the old-fashioned dollar bill, and the inability thus far of most parking meters and vending machines to accept the dollar coin, have inhibited more widespread use, said Douglas Mudd, the curator of exhibitions at the American Numismatic Association.

"A dollar bill is generally more convenient because it is lighter and it fits in your wallet," Mr. Mudd said. "Nobody likes to carry a lot of change around in your pocket."

He said "it's very unlikely" that the presidential coin "will change our historic aversion to using dollar coins."

But Mr. Moy said that this time would be different. The Mint learned from the successful 50-state quarter program to try to get more Americans interested in collecting $1 coins, he said.

"Americans love to collect a series of things, and right now there are 141 million Americans who collect 50-state quarters," Mr. Moy said. "My nieces and nephews, they all have state maps, they all eagerly go out and collect these quarters."

The Mint's research shows that roughly 150 million people would be interested in collecting the coins, he said.

Such nonprofessional collectors are the key to getting the $1 coin into wider circulation, said Rep. Michael Castle, R-Del., who introduced the legislation creating both the presidential coin and the 50-state quarter program.

"Part of the hope is with the demand for the collector aspect of it, with kids going into fast-food places and people just going out and dealing in coinage in general," circulation will pick up, Rep. Castle said. "I believe it will increase the commercial usage of dollar coins."

Mr. Moy agreed. "When you create interest in someone who doesn't care about coins and they begin taking a look through their change, automatically, the circulation piece is going to lift," he said. "So the more that we can encourage people to take notice, collect them, the more that they're likely to get into circulation."

The new coins will be distributed primarily through banks and will be available on Feb. 15, four days before Presidents Day. Mr. Moy would not give the exact number of coins to be produced but said he expected the amount to be in the hundreds of millions.

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