Presidential Dollar Coins - $1 Golden Presidents Coins (2024)

1. USA Coin Book
2. Coin Encyclopedia
4. Presidential Dollar Coins

The purpose of the Presidential Dollar Coin Program was to honor each US President by depicting them on a new one dollar coin. The planning of this program first began on May 17, 2005 when US Senator John E. Sununu (R-New Hampshire) introduced the idea in Senate Bill 1047. The bill was sent to the US Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, where on July 29, 2005, it was deemed favorable without amendment. Once this was done, the Senate voted to approve it on November 18, 2005 and the House of Representatives passed it shortly later on December 13, 2005. Two days later, it was then sent to US President George W. Bush and then signed the "Presidential $1 Coin Act of 2005" into law on December 22, 2005.

This new program started on January 1st, 2007. The design on the obverse (front side or heads side) of the Presidential dollar coins depicted US President George Washington and the reverse (back side or tails side) of the coin depicted a common Statue of Liberty design that would be used on all of the coins throughout the series. Each year, 4 different US Presidents would be depicted on the coins and the new design would be released around every 3 months. The Presidents would be depicted in the order that they were inaugurated into their term in office.

The reverse of the dollar coin would depict the Statue of Liberty, which was designed by US Mint Engraver and Sculptor Don Everhart (who also designed and engraved a number of other US President portraits for this series). Also depicted on the back is "$1" and the words "UNITED STATE OF AMERICA" along the rim. The obverse of the coin depicts a portrait of a US President with their name above their relief portrait along the upper rim. Along the lower rim depicts the words "#th PRESIDENT" (whatever number president they were), and the date range in years that they served in office. The words typically found on US Coinage, "LIBERTY", was noticeably absent on this coin. It was decided that the Statue of Liberty was sufficient enough to symbolize "LIBERTY".

The edge of the coin itself had words on it. It was the first time an official US coin had lettering on the edge since 1933 when the Saint Gaudens Gold Double Eagle was last minted. The words on the edge included 13 stars (★), the year of mintage and the mintmark. In addition, our motto "E PLURIBUS UNUM" was depicted. Also, the words "IN GOD WE TRUST" was first depicted on the edge of the coin between 2007-2008. In 2009, "IN GOD WE TRUST" was moved to the obverse of the coin along the bottom rim and before the President number. So if you were looking for many of these words and information about the coin, take a quick look at the edge of the coin!

Photo showing location of lettering, year and mintmark location on the edge of the Presidential Dollar Coins.

Although the bill authorizing the Presidential $1 Coins did not specify a color, it did state that the specifications should be the same used on the current Golden Dollar. At the time, this would be known as the Sacagawea Golden Dollar. Due to the failure of the Susan B. Anthony dollar, due to it's size and color being similar to the US Quarter Dollar, the newer Sacagawea dollar was minted in a golden color to help people distinguish it better. The Presidential dollars were minted with the same color as well. These coins are not really made out of gold, nor gold plate. In fact, the coin metal composition is 88.5% Copper, 6% Zinc, 3.5% Manganese and 2% Nickel, with the Manganese bronze giving it a golden color. The Sacagawea dollars and Presidential dollars are being produced at the same time, and they still are. The law requires that even after the Presidential gold coin program ends, the Sacagawea dollar shall still be minted.

It turns out that the $1 Sacagawea Coin was not very successful, not many people used it. The US Mint was hoping that a design change would help induce more interest in the coin, and also educate the American public about our past US Presidents. With the astounding success of the 50 State Quarters, the Mint had also hoped that the gold Presidential dollars would become successful as well. If the public still didn't accept the coin, the US Mint hoped that collectors would still be as enthusiastic about the dollar coins as they were for the 50 State quarters.

The first Presidential dollar coins (depicting George Washington) were released on February 15th, 2007 in honor of President's Day, which was held only 4 days later on February 19th, 2007. The US Mint announced in the following month on March 8, 2007 that they had produced an error. It turns out that a number of these first coins were minted without the edge lettering, which was supposed to include the year, mintmark, "E PLURIBUS UNUM" and "IN GOD WE TRUST". PCGS estimates that around 50,000 of these errors were produced. At first, these coins sold for as much as $600 on eBay, but later sold for around $50. These coins are sometimes known as "Godless Dollars" due to the fact that "IN GOD WE TRUST" didn't appear anywhere on the coin's surface.

The John Adams Presidential Dollar also included a few error varieties. One type of dollar had plain edges like the Washington coin, with no lettering on the edge. Another variety included doubled lettering on the edge, which is a result of the coin going through the US Mint's lettering machine twice and the text overlapped each other. In some cases, the doubled lettering is inverted or upside-down, overlapping each other as the the coin gets flipped around and goes through the lettering machine twice. There are countless variations of this coin. Half of the coins have their lettering upside down when the face of the coin is up, or vice versa.

During the production of the first 3 Presidential coins, over 100 million of the general circulation coins for each president were minted at the Denver Mint and Philadelphia Mint. and between 1-3 million collector proof coins being minted at the San Francisco Mint, on average. That number slowly declined into the range of 30-60 million. Unfortunately, the demand for these coins was slim and they weren't circulating, as feared. A huge stockpile and surplus of these coins built up through 2011. In fact, 1.4 billion of these dollars were still in stockpile. If laid on top of each other in a single stack, it would be equivalent to a length between Chicago and Los Angeles. It was decided that starting in 2012, the production of the Presidential dollars be reduced tremendously, typically between 3-5 million coins at each mint would be produced for each President. These coins would be produced only for the coin collectors in order to reduce the massive stockpile. (If you're a coin collector, these are the ones to really go after as these rarer coins are bound to be worth something later on!)

The Presidential dollar coin series is intended to last until 2016. The law requires that in order for a US President to be honored on the coin, they must be deceased for a minimum of 2 years. No living president is allowed to be depicted. Ronald Reagan currently qualifies to be the final US President to be honored in the series, after Gerald Ford. Even though Jimmy Carter came before Ronald Reagan, he is still living and would not qualify to be depicted on the coinage, unless be somehow passes away by 2014. If any other post-Reagan Presidents pass away before 2014, they would be depicted after the Ronald Reagan coin. If the program does end in 2016 and another President passes away, it would require an additional Act of Congress to honor that President on the dollar coin.

Below is a table chart, which organizes all of the Presidential Dollar Coins produced and the ones still scheduled to be produce. This table depicts large, high quality images for each coin design, the President's name, tear of mintage, mintage figures for each Mint (referencing to presidential dollar coin prices and values, and other details), release date of the coin, President's term in office in years and the designer and engraver of the obverse of the coin. This table is incomplete and still growing, so we will add pictures and new details as the US Mint releases the new coins in future years:

- Things get confusing when Presidents are listed in the gray area. According to the rules of the Presidential Dollar Coin Program, a US President can only be honored in the series if they have been deceased for no less than two years. Most of the Presidents listed in the gray area are still living, and would not yet qualify to be depicted on the coinage. If any other currently living President passes away, they would be depicted next on the list 2 years after their death. As it currently stands, George H.W. Bush would be the final President depicted in the Presidential Dollars Series.