Thomas Jefferson Presidential Dollar is Released

The Thomas Jefferson Presidential Dollar was officially released during a ceremony at the Jefferson Memorial in Washington, D.C. on Wed., August 15, 2007, although it wasn't supposed to be available at banks until the next day. However, as with the John Adams Dollar, there were widespread reports of folks who got ahold of the dollars early. Well-known variety coin expert Ken Potter was given $3,000 worth of Jefferson Dollars, apparently by mistake, when he went to buy Adams Dollars to search through.

As part of the release hoopla for the Jefferson Dollar, the U.S. Mint conducted a Gallup Poll to test the average American's knowledge about the U.S. presidents. Just for fun, see how many of the questions you can get correct. The answers are at the bottom of this page.

(1) How many U.S. presidents have there been? (This question asks for the total number of men who have served, not the total number of 4-year terms served.)

(2) Who were the first father and son pair to become president?

(3) Who was the main author of the U.S. Declaration of Independence?

(4) Name the four presidents featured on Mount Rushmore.

(5) Who led the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War?

There were several questions that I'm not going to bother to ask my coin collecting readers, since I'm pretty sure you'd all get them right. I was surprised, though, at the percentage of Americans who got them wrong! Consider these:

Only 7% could name the first four presidents in order!

65% couldn't even tell you which president is on the Nickel!

70% of the Americans surveyed didn't know that Thomas Jefferson was our third president.

Perhaps the most mind-boggling statistic of all - As of June, 2007, only 64% of the population was even aware that the Presidential Dollars were being issued! Unfortunately, I figured the number would be even higher, based on the number of folks who go, "What's this?" when I hand them a Presidential Dollar in commerce or as a tip. I've even had a couple of store clerks argue with me about accepting them, insisting on being paid in "regular" money!

Although I expect the number of Jefferson Presidential Dollar error coins to be minuscule compared to the first two coins, be sure to report your Jefferson Dollar errors to me so that you can claim discovery credit and share your find with other collectors. Be sure to subscribe to my free weekly About Coins newsletter so you'll always be up to date on the latest Presidential Dollar and State Quarter news and errors.

The U.S. Mint's Presidential Quiz Answers:

(Percentages refer to the number of Americans who got that answer correct.)

(1) There have been 43 presidents. (22%)
(2) John Adams and John Quincy Adams (28%)
(3) Thomas Jefferson (57%)
(4) Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt (21%)
(5) George Washington (68%)

Sources: U.S. Mint telephone Gallup Poll of 1,000 Americans on 18-25, 2007. Presidential Dollar awareness figure from June 2007 and other data cited here is from the U.S. Mint Jefferson Dollar press release.