January 2010

NEW U.S. COINS ON TAP FOR 2010

Although the United States won't release quite as many new and redesigned coins as in 2009, a number of interesting changes are nevertheless coming this year. Per previously enacted laws, the Lincoln cent and the Native American (a.k.a. Sacagawea) dollar will each have a new reverse design. Over the course of the year, the first five "America the Beautiful" parks quarters and four more Presidential Dollar coins, plus new five ounce silver coins will be issued.

The same law that led to a series of four reverse designs on 2009 Lincoln cents requires that the Secretary of the Treasury adopt a new permanent reverse design for the coin beginning in 2010 that symbolizes Lincoln's success in preserving the nation. The Treasury Department has announced that the new design will be based on the union shield, which was used widely during the Civil War. (Click the image at left to view a larger version.)

Under the America's Beautiful National Parks Quarter Dollar Coin Act of 2008, the U.S. Mint will issue a series of 56 quarters honoring a national park or other significant site in each of the 50 states, as well as the District of Columbia and five U.S. territories honored with commemorative quarters during 2009. These quarters will be produced at the rate of five per year. The sites to be honored on 2010 quarters are Hot Springs National Park in Arkansas, Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming, Yosemite National Park in California, Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona and Mount Hood National Forest in Oregon. The same legislation requires the Mint to offer a five ounce silver version of each quarter design in the series.

The second in a series of one year only reverse designs on the Native American dollar is based on the theme "Government - The Great Tree of Peace" and depicts the Hiawatha Belt with five arrows bound together and the inscriptions UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, $1, Haudenosaunee and Great Law of Peace. The bundle of arrows symbolizes strength in unity for the Haudenosaunee, or Iroquois Confederacy. The obverse still features a portrait of Sacagawea and her infant son. With the advent of the new reverse designs last year, the Mint began referring to the coin as the Native American dollar. (Click the image at left to view a larger version.)

Presidential dollar coins will be released at about the rate of one every three months for Millard Fillmore, Franklin Pierce, James Buchanan and Abraham Lincoln, the 13th through 16th U.S. Presidents. Because the current inventory of dollar coins is already adequate for about 12 years at current demand, mintages of 2010 dollar coins are likely to be low.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Mint has announced that it will begin accepting orders from authorized purchasers for uncirculated 2010 silver eagle bullion coins on January 19. The Mint's decision to break from its custom of shipping the coins beginning the first business day of the new year was reported in the previous issue of our newsletter. The coins should begin making their way into the hands of collectors and investors in late January.

DID YOU KNOW?

While designs for most denominations of U.S. Federal Reserve Notes have been updated over the last several years, newly printed U.S. paper money remains the same size. That hasn't always been the case. Until 1929 when the current size was adopted as a cost cutting measure, U.S. paper money was about 50% larger in area. Today, large size notes are collectibles sometimes called "horseblankets."

In addition, a multitude of different note types were in circulation simultaneously. Federal Reserve Notes were first issued following the Federal Reserve Act of 1913 (in the large size just mentioned). Among the most common types of notes also circulating at the time were silver certificates, National Bank Notes and legal tender notes. These and other note types were phased out by 1971. Only Federal Reserve Notes with the familiar green Treasury seal and serial numbers are printed today.

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