Can Abraham Lincoln resurrect the U.S. Presidential dollar coin program?
The American public has made it clear – they don’t want to carry dollar coins around in their pocket. Yet the U.S. Mint continues to stamp out tens of millions of these every year. An act of Congress has resulted in this tremendous waste of taxpayer dollars, and it would take another act of Congress to put an end to it. But since we’re only up to President number 15, James Buchanan, it seems we’re in for many more years of this most recent boondoggle. The mint, to much fanfare, began the series in 2007 with the release of the George Washington dollar coin. Riding on the tails of the successful state quarter program, the first presidential dollar saw a total mintage of over 340 million. Three more dollar coins followed that year (John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison), but immediately the production numbers began to decline. By the end of the first year, the Madison Dollar only saw 172 million coins minted, slightly over 50% of George Washington’s numbers. Total production for
