Recently the United States mint has issued over a billion presidential dollar coins. Their goal is to encourage Americans into using coins instead of paper dollars, which would save the government half a billion dollars annually in printing costs. Unfortunately Americans are showing as much enthusiasm for coins featuring Garfield and Polk as they did for Sacagawea years back. So most of these shiny tributes to past presidents are being stored and here's one example of why. Not only ago I wrote a musical with composer John Dusenberry. The title was The Accidental President and the subject was Millard Fillmore, the 13th President. Since I am still trying to get asecond production (It was procuded in Manhattan Beach, California) I was delighted to hear there was a new Fillmore dollar. Ah, what a good promotional tool to send with the script and sheet music. I went to TD bank and they said they would order fifty coins for me. When I went to pick them up, I was greeted with a box of 1000 James Garfield coins. "But I wanted Fillmore." I protested. "The government doesn't allow you to choose specific presidents." was the response. "Then why did you order coins at all?" I asked. Her answer, "We thought we'd be lucky." Forgetting this foolish move on their part, I think it's stupid of the government not to allow choice. Some states would be more eager to distribute presidents who hailed from their area. (Fillmore, for instance, was from Buffalo.) To address this I called the Treasury and was eventually directed to the coinage department. The rep assured me that yes, I could order only Fillmore coins. However the price for 25 coins for $39.00 plus shipping and handling. I didn't think the government was into ripoffs, but $14.00 plus dollars for $25.00 seems excessive to me. I didn't order, and so my 50 Fillmore coins are sitting on shelves someone along with all the other unwanted presidents.
Sunday, December 11, 2011
The money that nobody wants.
Recently the United States mint has issued over a billion presidential dollar coins. Their goal is to encourage Americans into using coins instead of paper dollars, which would save the government half a billion dollars annually in printing costs. Unfortunately Americans are showing as much enthusiasm for coins featuring Garfield and Polk as they did for Sacagawea years back. So most of these shiny tributes to past presidents are being stored and here's one example of why. Not only ago I wrote a musical with composer John Dusenberry. The title was The Accidental President and the subject was Millard Fillmore, the 13th President. Since I am still trying to get asecond production (It was procuded in Manhattan Beach, California) I was delighted to hear there was a new Fillmore dollar. Ah, what a good promotional tool to send with the script and sheet music. I went to TD bank and they said they would order fifty coins for me. When I went to pick them up, I was greeted with a box of 1000 James Garfield coins. "But I wanted Fillmore." I protested. "The government doesn't allow you to choose specific presidents." was the response. "Then why did you order coins at all?" I asked. Her answer, "We thought we'd be lucky." Forgetting this foolish move on their part, I think it's stupid of the government not to allow choice. Some states would be more eager to distribute presidents who hailed from their area. (Fillmore, for instance, was from Buffalo.) To address this I called the Treasury and was eventually directed to the coinage department. The rep assured me that yes, I could order only Fillmore coins. However the price for 25 coins for $39.00 plus shipping and handling. I didn't think the government was into ripoffs, but $14.00 plus dollars for $25.00 seems excessive to me. I didn't order, and so my 50 Fillmore coins are sitting on shelves someone along with all the other unwanted presidents.
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Surely the true answer is that they didn't know the difference between Fillmore and Garfield.
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