The Reality of Presidential Dollars at Banks
I just read an essay on the NumisMaster.com Web site that I wanted to share with you. A 20 year-old coin collector by the name of Jarrett Briscoe has a part-time job working in a bank, and he provides some interesting facts about the reality of what banks face when dealing with Presidential Dollars. For example, unlike the State Quarters, which are popular and move out the door very quickly (in part because the bank can distribute them in normal transactions), the Presidential Dollars are not very popular at all. Few customers want to receive them, so the bank has a policy of not giving them out unless people ask for them. The result is that the boxes of Presidential Dollars, which are shipped to the banks in $1,000 boxes of 40 rolls containing 25 coins each, just sit there taking up space in the vault. But this isn't even the worst of it! When the bank needs the vault space, in order to return the Presidential Dollars to their supplier the bank must empty all of the coins out of the boxes and rolls and place them in $2,000 bags to go back to the supplier's facility! Maybe the U.S. Mint's Direct Ship Program isn't such a bad idea after all.
Briscoe's essay, which will appear in an upcoming issue of Numismatic News in the "Viewpoint" reader opinion column, also includes some insights into his experiences as a young collector with dealers at coin shows. Briscoe comments about how he is often "brushed off, not greeted, or just blatantly ignored" by coin show dealers. Unfortunately, I have found that this is a common experience that has little to do with age. Briscoe goes on to mention that he ended up having a wonderful experience with a particular dealer who sold him a 1922 $20 gold certificate banknote. I wish Briscoe would have named the dealer that treated him so respectfully. If I had to make a guess out of thin air as to who it might have been, I'd put my money on dealer Julian Leidman. Whether I'm correct or not, Briscoe's essay is a great read, and I highly recommend it! Just follow the link below.
Comments
I read the same report and it was a typical article that presents a personal experience or opinion as if it was representative of the entire USA. I do not think so. I visit dozens of different bank branches over hundreds of square miles as I travel around Southern California – from San Diego to Los Angeles. The average bank runs out of their box of Presidential Dollar coins very fast and the biggest problem is they do not know they can re-order more! They simply get a box automatically when they are issued and they remain clueless about the ability to order them as normal “money”. I’ve handed a few tellers a copy of the Fed Flash newsletter that explains the ordering period when you can get boxes of the newest dollar coin and they react as if they’ve never heard of such a thing. Other tellers are well aware of this, and even have the promotional materials from the Mint, like the tent cards that sit on the counter next to the teller window or on the table where you wait while standing in line.
Anyway, just because this one person and their bank treat the Presidential Dollars incorrectly and therefore do not use up their supply, does not mean that everyone else in the USA is as incompetant.
Mercifully, the 50-States coin program is over. Most of the designs were ugly, the Mississippi one being the worst of all. The quarters ressembled play money.
The 2009-reverses to honor Lincoln are atrocious. Why did the Mint not use the wheat reverse for at least one of the designs? The mint could have issued a doubled dated, 1809-2009 Linclon cent with the reverse wheat design and the VDB on the bottm of the reverse. This VDB coin would have been a recognition of the most treasured Lincoln cent along with the nice wheat stalks design.
The 2009 relief gold coin will be an exception to the crap that the mint produces only because the design is from the St. Gaudens original of over 100 years ago.
Otherwise, the US coins all look like play money or tokens. A revival of the designs from long ago would be great for US coins.