Congresswoman Jackie Speier’s Proposal to Suspend Minting of $1 Coins Adopted by the Treasury

Washington DC – Congresswoman Jackie Speier (D-San Francisco/San Mateo) today applauded the Administration for doing what she proposed it do in July 2011—stop minting Presidential $1 coins. Speier‘s H.R. 2593, the Wasteful Presidential Coin Act of 2011, would have suspended the presidential coin production. Today the Treasury immediately stopped producing the coins for circulation, a move expected to save taxpayers at least $50 million annually over the next several years.

Speier stated, “Everyone has heard of printing money we don’t have. This is minting coins we don’t use. I’m glad to see the Administration took this commonsense action which reduces government waste.””

In 2005, Congress enacted the Presidential $1 Coin Act which created a series of commemorative coins starting with George Washington and adding a new President every three to four months.  At the end of the most recent fiscal year, the Federal Reserve Banks held nearly 1.4 billion surplus dollar coins in their vaults, which is enough to meet current levels of circulating demand for more than a decade.  Based on current trends, the Federal Reserve estimates that its surplus inventory of $1 coins will grow to 2 billion by the end of the program in 2016.

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