Reading Numismatic News the other day, I learned that the Presidential Dollar series is now slated to end with President Ford and not Reagan as previously thought. The reasoning behind this is that ex-President Jimmy Carter is still alive and since living people are not eligible for depiction on coins, the mint is not about to skip his presidency just to do Reagan.
I wonder if this will put Republicans in a phony uproar like they did to get "In God We Trust" moved from the edge of the coin to its obverse (remember the so-called "godless" dollars fiasco that Republicans used to score easy political points with their constituents?). While it would have fit better on the reverse of the coin, it was put on the heads side forcing the use of an even tinier font.
To have their idol shunned like this. Surely it will be some liberal conspiracy and most certainly Obama will have had something to do with it even though the law was written during George W. Bush's term by a Republican dominated House and Senate. I know Republicans have been wanting to put Reagan on either a coin or paper currency for years now. I remember it suggested for the dime in time for the centennial of Reagan's birth. Another for the $10 bill as Alexander Hamilton is an easier target for removal than would be Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, etc.
Now while I'm tired of Presidential portraiture on our nation's coins, I'll admit there would have been some poetry to having Reagan's dime debut in 2011. The Roosevelt dime began in 1946. By 2010, 65 years worth of them would have been produced. How fitting that the dime would be "retired" after its 65th anniversary and that the portrait being retired at the traditional age for retirement would be that of the man who championed Social Security in the first place?
But that did not happen as politics once again got in the way. This is why you shouldn't have real people depicted on coins...you can never get them off once on. Roosevelt's constituencies including the March of Dimes opposed the change, never mind that literally tens of BILLIONS of Roosevelt dimes currently exist and would continue to exist long after a new coin's debut. You regularly find dimes going back to 1965, the first year after silver coins ceased. Fifty years worth of dimes. They're not going away, but (mocking tone) no, we "need" him on the dime because of our charity. Ugh...so provincial.
I'm guessing this "snubbing" of President Reagan will fire the Republicans to finally get their Reagan coin. Maybe he'll be the new dollar coin of the realm. Maybe in their zeal to get Reagan dollars out into the public's hands, the Republicans will finally end the dollar bill (and hopefully the Sacagawea dollar too...I don't need annual concurrent dollar coins) to get their hero into commerce.
We'll see what happens when Fox News gets a hold of this non-story...
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