In 2007, the U. S. Mint began issuing coins in their Presidential Dollar series, four different ones a year featuring former presidents in order, starting with George Washington. They are "golden" coins similar to the Sacagawea dollars; that is, gold in color only. So far they've been through our twentieth president, James Abram Garfield. His coin came out last November.
This series was inspired by the State Quarters that were issued between 1999 and 2008 on which the Mint made a mint, as it were. It costs about 7 cents to make a quarter, so for every one that was taken out of circulation and saved by somebody, 18 cents went into the Treasury. The total profit from the quarters is estimated at $3 billion.
The presidential dollars haven't had the same success, and they're talking about discontinuing the series. I think the problem is basically that people don't like dollar coins anyway so they really don't circulate widely and lots of people don't have a chance to see very many, much less collect them. And, when it comes to sticking a coin in a drawer, never to be spent again, a dollar is a bigger investment than a quarter.
It will be ironic if the Garfield coin is the last of the presidential dollars since he was in office only six months, the last two in a coma.
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