[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 9]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages 11997-11998]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                  REGARDING FAIR LAWN MAYOR DAVID GANZ

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. STEVEN R. ROTHMAN

                             of new jersey

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, June 26, 2001

  Mr. ROTHMAN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today as the U.S. Mint is poised to 
issue the 14th in a series of State Quarters that started in 1999 and 
which will continue through at least the year 2008.
  On June 4, 2001, I read an interesting article in the The Record, the 
largest newspaper in my Congressional District, about the origins of 
the state quarter, which came about because of the legislative vision 
of my colleague from Delaware, Representative Michael Castle and the 
tenacity of the Mayor of my hometown, the Borough of Fair Lawn, David 
Ganz.
  Mayor Ganz is not a stranger to the congressional legislative 
process. In 1973, while still a student at Georgetown University here 
in Washington, he was admitted to the Periodical Press Gallery of the 
United States Senate as a Special Correspondent for Numismatic News 
Weekly, a hobby publication based in Wisconsin. He went on to become a 
member of the Board of Governors of the American Numismatic 
Association, a Congressionally-chartered group sometimes referred to as 
the National Coin Club. In 1993, U.S. Treasury Secretary Lloyd Bentsen, 
named him among the first six members of the newly-created Citizens 
Commemorative Coin Advisory Committee.
  Both as President of the American Numismatic Association, and as a 
columnist for various coin collecting hobby publications, David had 
long advocated for a return to commemorative coinage [for which there 
had been a hiatus from 1954 until 1981], but also for truly circulating 
commemorative coins. He testified before the House & Senate Banking 
Committees on numerous occasions in the quarter century following his 
first appearance in March of 1974.
  Mr. Speaker, bureaucracy is often afraid of change for no reason 
beyond the fact that it is not familiar, not predictable, or not safe. 
Mayor Ganz had a vision that circulating commemorative coinage would be 
good for our nation's coin collectors, good for our nation's coffers, 
and ultimately, educational to all

[[Page 11998]]

Americans. From the time that he joined the Citizens Commemorative Coin 
Advisory Committee in 1993 until he departed in January of 1996, he 
began a drum beat for what eventually became the American's State 
Quarters Program. That singular drum beat, initially opposed by the 
U.S. Mint and certain federal bureaucrats, eventually became an 
orchestra playing the same tune--and as a result of the efforts of my 
colleague from Delaware, Representative Castle, and others, the state 
quarter program was born.
  Mayor Ganz recently wrote a book entitled The Official Guide to 
America's State Quarters, published by Random House, as a mass-market 
paperback which tells the compelling story of initially being a voice 
in the wilderness, and later finding that if defeat is an orphan, 
victory has a thousand fathers.
  The story about Mayor Ganz which appeared in the June 4, 2001, 
edition of The Record is a fascinating and interesting one, and I ask 
that it be reprinted in the Congressional Record.
  Mr. Speaker, The Record editorial about Mayor Ganz that was printed 
on June 5, 2001, says that one man can make a difference, and he 
certainly has. I am proud to call this man my Mayor, and proud to have 
him as a friend. I ask that this editorial be reprinted in the 
Congressional Record as well.

                          A great two-bit idea

       It would be an exaggeration to say that David Ganz's 
     achievement reflects the power of one man to change history.
       But it would not be overstated to say that Fair Lawn's 
     mayor has brightened everyone's life a little--not to mention 
     the not inconsequential achievement of adding roughly $5 
     billion a year to the nation's Treasury.
       Mr. Ganz, a 49-year-old lawyer and lifelong numismatist, 
     was the engine behind all those fascinating, new quarters 
     we've been finding in our pockets over the last two years--
     the ones celebrating the nation's 50 states. The 
     commemorative coins have been issued at the rate of five a 
     year since 1999, and the U.S. Mint will continue issuing new 
     coins through 2008, when there will be one for each state.
       The achievement has added a little adventure to the 
     otherwise unremarkable task of handling change, and it has 
     regenerated interest in coin collecting. By setting the 
     Mint's presses into overtime in production of five times more 
     quarters than usual to meet demand, the new coins have added 
     $5 billion a year to the Treasury's coffers. Each quarter 
     costs 3 cents to produce, leaving 22 cents as profit for the 
     Mint.
       Mr. Ganz's idea wasn't unusual. A lot of people have over 
     the years recommended that the Mint spice up the nation's 
     stodgy coin and currency by putting commemorative issues into 
     general circulation. But the bureaucrats resisted, content to 
     issue the occasional limited-production commemorative that 
     only collectors would buy and save.
       Mr. Ganz's prominence, energy, and perseverance as a member 
     of former Treasury Secretary Lloyd Bentsen's Citizens 
     Commemorative Coin Advisory Committee dismantled those 
     bureaucratic hurdles. By doing so, the Fair Lawn mayor has 
     added this sort of color to our lives: Trips to change makers 
     at the laundromat now have possibilities of becoming 
     serendipitous encounters with pieces of history instead of 
     hurried chores to feed the dryer.

     

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