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Presidential Dollar Coins - Golden $1 President 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:

	Design Image	President Name / Year	Release Date	Mintage	Term In Office	Designer / Engraver
2007 Presidential Dollar Coins:
		George Washington 2007	February 15, 2007	P: 176,680,000 D: 163,680,000 S: 3,965,989	1st President 1789-1797	Joseph Menna
		John Adams 2007	May 17, 2007	P: 112,420,000 D: 112,140,000 S: 3,965,989	2nd President 1797-1801	Joel Iskowitz Charles Vickers
		Thomas Jefferson 2007	August 16, 2007	P: 100,800,000 D: 102,810,000 S: 3,965,989	3rd President 1801-1809	Joseph Menna
		James Madison 2007	November 15, 2007	P: 84,560,000 D: 87,780,000 S: 3,965,989	4th President 1809-1817	Joel Iskowitz Don Everhart
2008 Presidential Dollar Coins:
		James Monroe 2008	February 14, 2008	P: 64,260,000 D: 60,230,000 S: 3,083,940	5th President 1817-1825	Joseph Menna
		John Quincy Adams 2008	May 15, 2008	P: 57,540,000 D: 57,720,000 S: 3,083,940	6th President 1825-1829	Don Everhart
		Andrew Jackson 2008	August 14, 2008	P: 61,180,000 D: 61,070,000 S: 3,083,940	7th President 1829-1837	Joel Iskowitz Jim Licaretz
		Martin Van Buren 2008	November 13, 2008	P: 51,520,000 D: 50,960,000 S: 3,083,940	8th President 1837-1841	Joel Iskowitz Phebe Hemphill
2009 Presidential Dollar Coins:
		William Henry Harrison 2009	February 19, 2009	P: 43,260,000 D: 55,160,000 S: 2,809,452	9th President 1841	Joseph Menna
		John Tyler 2009	May 21, 2009	P: 43,540,000 D: 43,540,000 S: 2,809,452	10th President 1841-1845	Phebe Hemphill
		James K. Polk 2009	August 20, 2009	P: 46,620,000 D: 41,720,000 S: 2,809,452	11th President 1845-1849	Susan Gamble Charles Vickers
		Zachary Taylor 2009	November 19, 2009	P: 41,580,000 D: 36,680,000 S: 2,809,452	12th President 1849-1850	Don Everhart
2010 Presidential Dollar Coins:
		Millard Fillmore 2010	February 18, 2010	P: 37,520,000 D: 36,960,000 S: 2,224,613	13th President 1850-1853	Don Everhart
		Franklin Pierce 2010	May 20, 2010	P: 38,220,000 D: 38,360,000 S: 2,224,613	14th President 1853-1857	Susan Gamble Charles L. Vickers
		James Buchanan 2010	August 19, 2010	P: 36,820,000 D: 36,540,000 S: 2,224,613	15th President 1857-1861	Phebe Hemphill
		Abraham Lincoln 2010	November 18, 2010	P: 49,000,000 D: 48,020,000 S: 2,224,613	16th President 1861-1865	Don Everhart
2011 Presidential Dollar Coins:
		Andrew Johnson 2011	February 17, 2011	P: 35,560,000 D: 37,100,000 S: 1,972,863	17th President 1865-1869	Don Everhart
		Ulysses S. Grant 2011	May 19, 2011	P: 38,080,000 D: 37,940,000 S: 1,972,863	18th President 1869-1877	Don Everhart
		Rutherford B. Hayes 2011	August 18, 2011	P: 37,660,000 D: 36,820,000 S: 1,972,863	19th President 1877-1881	Don Everhart
		James A. Garfield 2011	November 17, 2011	P: 37,100,000 D: 37,100,000 S: 1,972,863	20th President 1881	Phebe Hemphill
2012 Presidential Dollar Coins:
		Chester A. Arthur 2012	February 5, 2012	P: 6,020,000 D: 4,060,000 S: 1,438,710	21th President 1881-1885	Don Everhart
		Grover Cleveland 2012	May 25, 2012	P: 5,460,000 D: 4,060,000 S: 1,438,710	22nd President (1st Term) 1885-1889	Don Everhart
		Benjamin Harrison 2012	August 16, 2012	P: 5,640,001 D: 4,200,000 S: 1,438,710	23rd President 1889-1893	Phebe Hemphill
		Grover Cleveland 2012	November 15, 2012	P: 10,680,000 D: 3,920,000 S: 1,438,710	24th President (2nd Term) 1893-1897	Don Everhart
2013 Presidential Dollar Coins:
		William McKinley 2013	February 19, 2013	P: 4,760,000 D: 3,365,100 S: 1,449,415	25th President 1897-1901	Phebe Hemphill
		Theodore Roosevelt 2013	April 11, 2013	P: 5,310,700 D: 3,920,000 S: 1,449,415	26th President 1901-1909	Joseph Menna
		William Howard Taft 2013	July 9, 2013	P: 4,760,000 D: 3,360,000 S: 1,449,415	27th President 1909-1913	Barbara Fox Michael Gaudioso
		Woodrow Wilson 2013	October 13, 2013	P: 4,620,000 D: 3,360,000 S: 1,449,415	28th President 1913-1921	Don Everhart
2014 Presidential Dollar Coins:
		Warren G. Harding 2014	February 6, 2014	P: 6,160,000 D: 3,780,000 S: 1,373,605	29th President 1921-1923	Michael Gaudioso
		Calvin Coolidge 2014	April 10, 2014	P: 4,480,000 D: 3,780,000 S: 1,373,605	30th President 1923-1929	Phoebe Hemphill
		Herbert Hoover 2014	June 19, 2014	P: 4,480,000 D: 3,780,000 S: 1,373,605	31st President 1929-1933	Phoebe Hemphill
		Franklin D. Roosevelt 2014	August 28, 2014	P: 4,760,000 D: 3,920,000 S: 1,392,798	32nd President 1933-1945	Joseph Menna
2015 Presidential Dollar Coins:
		Harry S. Truman 2015	February 5, 2015	P: 4,900,000 P Reverse Proof: 16,812 D: 3,500,000 S: 1,272,462	33rd President 1945-1953	Don Everhart
		Dwight D. Eisenhower 2015	April 13, 2015	P: 4,900,000 P Reverse Proof: 16,795 D: 3,645,998 S: 1,272,462	34th President 1953-1961	Joseph Menna
		John F. Kennedy 2015	June 18, 2015	P: 6,160,000 P Reverse Proof: 49,226 D: 5,180,000 S: 1,272,462	35th President 1961-1963	Don Everhart
		Lyndon B. Johnson 2015	August 18, 2015	P: 7,840,000 P Reverse Proof: 24,221 D: 4,200,000 S: 1,272,462	36th President 1963-1969	Michael Gaudioso
2016 Presidential Dollar Coins:
		Richard Nixon 2016	February 3, 2016	P: 5,460,000 D: 4,340,000 S: 1,196,673	37th President 1969-1974	Don Everhart
		Gerald Ford 2016	March 8, 2016	P: 5,460,000 D: 5,040,000 S: 1,196,673	38th President 1974-1977	Phebe Hemphill
		Ronald Reagan 2016	July 1, 2016	P: 7,140,000 D: 5,880,000 S: 1,196,673 S Reverse Proof: 47,449	40th President 1981-1989	Richard Masters Joseph Menna
2020 Presidential Dollar Coins:
		George H. W. Bush 2020	December 4, 2020	P: N/A D: N/A S: N/A	41st President 1989-1993	Elana Hagler Joseph Menna
Possible Future Presidential Dollar Coins:
	To Be Determined	Jimmy Carter 2016	To Be Determined	To Be Determined	39th President 1977-1981	To Be Determined
	To Be Determined	Bill Clinton	To Be Determined	To Be Determined	42nd President 1993-2001	To Be Determined
	To Be Determined	George W. Bush	To Be Determined	To Be Determined	43rd President 2001-2009	To Be Determined
	To Be Determined	Barack Obama	To Be Determined	To Be Determined	44th President 2009-2016	To Be Determined
	To Be Determined	Donald Trump	To Be Determined	To Be Determined	45th President 2016-2020	To Be Determined
	To Be Determined	Joe Biden	To Be Determined	To Be Determined	46th President 2020-Present	To Be Determined

      - 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.