Gold presidential dollars (Aug 28, 2009)
Posted by Reel Mountain Theater on Tuesday, October 27, 2009
And your change is... $12,000.00!
Last week I was visiting with Vic at our bank and the subject of Presidential golden dollars came up. He had just ordered a new supply of the 11th president, James K Polk. What caught me by surprise was the number of these coins we used last quarter- twelve thousand.
That little piece of info made me look very well informed the next day, when I had a conversation with a customer as to WHY we give golden dollars as change.... Well, let me tell you....
A few years ago, my Father was working at the US Mint when they released the Colorado state quarter, and we thought it would be cool to hand out uncirculated Colorado quarters as change. We purchased a nice supply from the Mint (without any inside discounts, argh). Our customers thought it was as neat as we did to have these quarters in hand a couple of weeks before the banks even had them in circulation.
When the Presidential dollars were introduced, we jumped in with both feet to try an experiment and use them exclusively when making change. It was a conversation piece at the Mint, as well as among our customers (mission accomplished for the theater marketing guy). We fielded questions about the coins- (some thought they were chocolate novelties at first glance. We fulfilled requests for enough coins to pay the tooth fairies liabilities, and we took some criticism for not having paper bills.
There's a new President featured every 3 months, and the series will run until they run out of Presidents that qualify: are deceased for at least 2 years. In the beginning, these coins found notoriety when the phrase "In God We Trust" was edge-incused, instead of on the face of the coin. I would suggest that more people were aware of the phrase thanks to this change, not less! In 2009, the phrase was moved to the face of the coin to satisfy public concern.
Interesting side note: the life of a coin is 30 years, versus 18 months or less for a paper bill. You could say we're going green with change at Reel Mountain.
Check out the set of gold proof dollars in our lobby, thanks to Bob & Carol at Fall River Coins. Are you an investor? Ask Bob- these coins are a safe bet among others for a return on investment.
So, it started out as a novelty conversation topic, and has ended up our standard in change making that some customers have come to expect (while others loathe another coin in their pocket).
Now at least, you have the whole story.
Last week I was visiting with Vic at our bank and the subject of Presidential golden dollars came up. He had just ordered a new supply of the 11th president, James K Polk. What caught me by surprise was the number of these coins we used last quarter- twelve thousand.
That little piece of info made me look very well informed the next day, when I had a conversation with a customer as to WHY we give golden dollars as change.... Well, let me tell you....
A few years ago, my Father was working at the US Mint when they released the Colorado state quarter, and we thought it would be cool to hand out uncirculated Colorado quarters as change. We purchased a nice supply from the Mint (without any inside discounts, argh). Our customers thought it was as neat as we did to have these quarters in hand a couple of weeks before the banks even had them in circulation.
When the Presidential dollars were introduced, we jumped in with both feet to try an experiment and use them exclusively when making change. It was a conversation piece at the Mint, as well as among our customers (mission accomplished for the theater marketing guy). We fielded questions about the coins- (some thought they were chocolate novelties at first glance. We fulfilled requests for enough coins to pay the tooth fairies liabilities, and we took some criticism for not having paper bills.
There's a new President featured every 3 months, and the series will run until they run out of Presidents that qualify: are deceased for at least 2 years. In the beginning, these coins found notoriety when the phrase "In God We Trust" was edge-incused, instead of on the face of the coin. I would suggest that more people were aware of the phrase thanks to this change, not less! In 2009, the phrase was moved to the face of the coin to satisfy public concern.
Interesting side note: the life of a coin is 30 years, versus 18 months or less for a paper bill. You could say we're going green with change at Reel Mountain.
Check out the set of gold proof dollars in our lobby, thanks to Bob & Carol at Fall River Coins. Are you an investor? Ask Bob- these coins are a safe bet among others for a return on investment.
So, it started out as a novelty conversation topic, and has ended up our standard in change making that some customers have come to expect (while others loathe another coin in their pocket).
Now at least, you have the whole story.
