[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 29 (Tuesday, March 9, 2004)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E332-E333]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          INTRODUCTION OF THE PRESIDENTIAL $1 COIN ACT OF 2004

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. MICHAEL N. CASTLE

                              of delaware

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, March 9, 2004

  Mr. CASTLE. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to introduce the ``Presidential 
$1 Coin Act of 2004.'' When it is approved, it will create enormous 
opportunities to educate both children and adults about the history of 
this country. This legislation is the type we rarely have the 
opportunity to pass in Congress, and although it is not the goal of the 
program, it will likely earn the government as much as five billion 
dollars.
  In many ways, this legislation is modeled after the wildly successful 
``50-State Quarter Program'' which I authored and Congress passed and 
which at the end of last year reached its halfway point. We all know 
the story: five quarters a year bear images connected with one of the 
states, so that over a decade each state will have been honored. We all 
know how popular the program was: before the state quarter program 
started, the U.S. Mint was making about 400 million quarters a year, 
but by the next year it was making about 1.2 billion quarters. The Mint 
estimates that one person in each household is collecting the quarters 
and they are collecting a full set. According to the most recent 
numbers from the Mint, about $4 billion worth of savings has been 
created for the federal government with an expected $2 billion more 
through the life of the program.
  The program I am introducing today adopts the same model, but uses 
the one-dollar gold coin introduced in 2000. For a number of reasons, 
that coin never achieved its promise of being a useful niche product 
for use in vending machines, transit systems and low-dollar-value 
transactions. This bill seeks to address each of the ills that befell 
the one-dollar coin.
  Mr. Speaker, this legislation addresses all of the problems to the 
circulation of the dollar coin that were identified in an exhaustive 
General Accounting Office study of a year or so ago. Merchants said the 
coin wasn't available in useful quantities, and collectors and 
consumers often had a hard time finding the coin--if they could find it 
at all. Others said they would use it in commerce, but never got it as 
change.
  The cost of counting and handling currency is much higher than the 
cost of counting and handling change, Mr. Speaker, and for those 
sectors of the economy that rely on low-dollar-value transactions, or 
high-volume transactions such as vending machines or transit systems, 
having a widely available, easily dispensed and accepted one-dollar 
coin will save money for businesses, which will help keep costs down 
for consumers.
  Mr. Speaker, the legislation directs the Mint and the Federal Reserve 
to work with all aspects of the economy to eliminate the barriers to 
circulation that seem to have harmed the current one-dollar coin, 
ranging from making sure that the coin is accepted by vending 
machines--and that the machines are ``stickered'' to say so--to making 
sure it is conveniently packaged for retailers and is available in 
rolled form when it re-circulates through the system, which is not now 
the case.
  It is important to note, Mr. Speaker, this program would be accepted 
by the public. In a

[[Page E333]]

2002 General Accounting Office Report to Congress, it was found 25 
percent of respondents would use the dollar coin more for purchases if 
there was a rotating design similar to the 50 State Quarter Program. 
Additionally, nearly 50 percent of respondents stated they would 
collect the new coin if it featured a rotating design. And 69 percent 
of respondents favored U.S. Presidents as the choice for the new 
rotating design on the dollar coin.
  Under the program, the images on the front and back of the coin 
temporarily would be replaced beginning in 2006 with images of the 
United States presidents. Four presidents a year would be honored, in 
the order of their service, with a likeness of the President, his name 
and dates of service and a number signifying the order in which he 
served, on the front of the coin. The image on the reverse would be 
that of the Statue of Liberty, large enough to be dramatic but not so 
large as to create a so-called ``two-headed'' coin. The date, mint mark 
and other important mottoes on the coin would go on the edge of the 
coin, leaving room on the faces for more dramatic artwork, harking back 
to the so-called Golden Age of American coins at the beginning of the 
last century.
  Mr. Speaker, the educational aspects of this program are obvious. We 
all know George Washington was the first president, but how many can 
tell the exact dates of his service to the country? How about the dates 
of service of the famous Civil War general Ulysses S. Grant, who later 
became president? And how many in this Chamber can name the only 
President who would end up with two coins in the series because he 
served twice, in terms separated by another president's term?
  The bill specifies that the program would end at the point when the 
next coin issued would have to be for a sitting President, as our 
founding fathers wisely thought that no sitting president's image 
should be carried on a coin. At that point the coin would return to the 
images now carried on it, with the stigma of inadvertently being 
associated with a failed coin program washed from the rich legacy of 
Sacagewea.
  Mr. Speaker, this coin program by itself would be hard to argue with. 
Teachers will, as they have with the state quarter program, devise 
lesson plans around it. We will all look at the change in our pocket 
more closely, and learn more about our country in the process.
  But that is only half of this legislation. The second title of the 
bill creates a nearly pure gold investment-grade bullion coin, the same 
diameter as the dollar coin and of an appropriate weight and thickness, 
honoring the First Spouses, who have done so much for our country. On 
the front, as with the Presidential coins, would be the likeness of the 
spouse, his or her terms of service and the order in which they served. 
On the reverse would be images emblematic of the spouse's works. In the 
five instances to date in which Presidents had no spouses while in 
office--there's the educational part again--the bill calls for the 
image on the front of the coin to be that of an image of ``Liberty'' as 
used on a U.S. coin circulating during that President's term, and the 
reverse of the coin to carry images related to the President's term.
  These investment-grade coins would be struck in gold that is .9999 
percent pure, a purity of gold the Mint never before has used to strike 
coins. Mr. Speaker, I think using pure gold for the spouse coin is 
appropriate, and I think it is appropriate that the President and 
spouse coins can be sold or collected in all sorts of combinations. 
Additionally, the spouse coins could be sold merely for their intrinsic 
investment value.
  Mr. Speaker, this legislation gives the Mint a great opportunity to 
show off its design and engraving talents and to develop new ones. It 
gives the Mint the opportunity to package the coins in a variety of 
ways, and the Mint gets more than a year to prepare to issue the first 
coin, so they can plan and get it right. As well, it allows for a 
transitional minting of the current dollar coins, though the demand 
will mostly be for collectors, so that 2006-dated Sacagewea dollar 
coins may be sold in large Lewis and Clark-Louisiana Purchase 
commemorative sets with 2006-dated Thomas Jefferson dollar coins. And 
with both the increase in dollar coins and the striking of bullion 
investment-grade coins, it creates jobs in a number of industries.
  In short, Mr. Speaker, I don't see any downsides to this bill and 
believe there are so many upsides that it should pass in short order, 
giving all of us something good, and fun, to talk about when we go back 
to our constituents.
  Mr. Speaker, so that the new $1 coin may be introduced into 
circulation in 2006 and that the Mint will be given adequate time to 
plan this program to ensure it is a logistic as well as an artistic 
success, I will be seeking to move the legislation quickly. I urge my 
colleagues to cosponsor this legislation and look forward to working 
with the Financial Services Committee to bring this bill to the House 
Floor as soon as possible.

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