Bye-Bye, Susie B!
Without fanfare, President Clinton signed into law the bills authorizing
the Treasury Department to create a new dollar coin and 50 state-design
quarters.
The new dollar coin will be gold-colored and have a distinctive edge to
differentiate it from quarters. That was a major complaint about the Susan
B. Anthony dollar, first minted in 1979.
"It got easily confused and used and spent as a quarter," Peoria, Illinois,
coin dealer Jack Zillion (?) told WMBD Radio.
The design for the new dollar coin is not set and may be left up to the
Treasury Secretary. Introduction into circulation is expected for 2000.
Coins last much longer than paper currency, and some Members of Congress
had wanted the dollar coin to replace dollar bills, but the law signed by
the President Monday does not require this. "The general public is not
ready to part with the dollar bill," Rep. Michael Castle (R-Delaware),
chairman of the House Monetary subcommittee, has said.
In 1999, the first quarters with different reverses for individual states
will be released. Five will be minted each year for 10 years, with the
states featured in order of their admission to the Union (or ratification
of the Constitution for the first 13).
State governments will choose the subjects, along with two federal panels,
the Citizens Commemorative Coin Advisory Committee and the Commission on
Fine Arts. The Secretary of the Treasury will have final say on all designs.
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