The Planchet
A Publication of theIndianapolis Coin ClubMay 2009 Issue 504

The next meeting will be Monday,
May 18th 2009
The Meetings of the Indianapolis Coin Club are held
the fourth Monday of each month at theNorthside Knights of Columbus
2100 E. 71st Street in Indianapolis, Indiana.
The Meetings consist of a business session, an intermission, educational program,and a numismatic auction. Doors open at 6:00pm, meeting will begin at 7:00pm.

PLEASE NOTE THE
MEETING HAS BEEN
MOVED TO MAY 18TH
This Months Discussion Topic
Flying Eagle Cents
2009 Meeting Dates:
June 22nd
July 27th
Aug. 24thSept. 28th
Oct. 26th
Nov. 23rd
December is our banquet there is no meeting.

$$$$ “ALWAYS BUYING” $$$$

VINTON G. DOVE

PAYING TOP PRICES FOR ALL U.S.
COINS

Certified Public Accountant
Collecting U.S. Coins Since 1952

DON’T SELL WITHOUT GETTING OUR OFFER!!!

LARRY HYLTONBROWNSBURG, IN

ANA, ISNA-LM, CSNS-LM 443 Wellington Road(317) 852-8458

Indianapolis, IN 46260(317) 257-1906
Fax( 317) 257-2220

Jim Fuson
Retired Teacher & Coach
ADVERTISE IN THE ICC NEWSLETTER!
Collector of old U.S. Coins
And old Sports Cards
Also have some coins and cards for sale

$35 a year!

5795 E. Co. Rd. 350 S., Plainfield, IN 46168
ICC & ANA
(317) 839-5178

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The Monthly Planchet is the official publication of the Indianapolis
Coin Club. It is published monthly in Indianapolis, Indiana. All
inquiries should be sent to ICC, P.O. Box 2897, Indianapolis, Indiana, 46206.

Table Of Contents
The 2009 Indianapolis Coin Club
Officers and Board Members
Letter From the President

President
Vice-President
Secretary
Treasurer
EditorPast President
Sgt-at-Arms
Board Member 2009-2010
Board Member 2009-2010
Board Member 2009-2010
Board Member 2008-2009
Board Member 2008-2009
Board Member 2008-2009

Matt Dinger
Advertisers
Jim Roehrdanz Article
Treasurer's Report
Vinton Dove
Secretarys Report
Don King
Matt Dinger
Mark Eberhardt
Jim Warden
Dave Reid
Bob Bettcher
Don WrayJim Fuson
Charles Alber
Michael White

Page 1Page 2
Page 5
Page 4
Page 3

PRESIDENT DOLLARS 2007 - ?
byMichael Schmidt
By 2005 the small size dollar was now in its sixth year of its second attempt to succeed as a circulationcoin. And it was failing miserably. The government had thought after their first failure with the Susan B Anthony
dollar that they had solved the problem by changing the color of the alloy. With this new golden color there
couldn’t be complaints that the coin could be mistaken for a quarter. But fail it did, big time. By 2002 the newdollar was already scrapped from circulation production and was being made strictly for collector purchase.
Three years later new ideas were being tossed around as to how to get the coin to circulate. The new solution was
to take clue from the state quarters. If you change the design on a frequent basis it will keep interest stimulated in
the coin, the public would then want to get it and use it. The problem was they neglected to consider that changing the design on a coin people never used would mean that they never saw the changes. And if they never saw
the changes interest in the coin couldn’t be stimulated. They had put the cart before the horse. The coin had to be
circulating before their design changes could stimulate its circulation. Still in December 2005 the legislation wassigned to produce beginning in 2007, four new coins each year bearing each of the Presidents in order in which
they served in office.
As a further novelty the legislation provided that several of the inscriptions normally found on the faces of thecoins should be moved to the edge. This would allow for larger, bolder, more impressive designs. So In God We
Trust, E Pluribus Unum, the date, and the mintmark were all moved to the edge of the coin. Turned out to be agood thing, because the extra inscriptions of the Presidents name and his order of office were added. The newcoin has a three quarters view of the President with his name above the bust, his numerical termof office, and the years he was in office below him. On the reverse is a view of the Statue of Liberty, the inscription United States of America and the denomination $1. This was the first time the denomination had been expressed on a dollar coin as a number rather than written out. The composition remained the same as that used forthe Sacagawea dollar. (Complaints from the Native American community resulted in the mandating of the continuation of the Sac dollar.) The release of the first President dollar, George Washington, in February of 2007 camewith great fanfare. There was decent interest, and a fair number of coins were distributed by the banks. And thenthe rush on the banks really began when large quantities of error coins were reported. Seemingly
thousands of Washington dollars managed to miss the edge lettering that was supposed to be applied after
the coins were struck. (The mint has had a lot of trouble with the lettering on the edge of these coins.
After the very large number that were created for the Washington coins, the mint changed procedures sothat the coins went automatically from the coining press to the edging machine, and there have still been plain
edged coins for every President plus other edge errors.) In the aftermarket these plain edged coins jumped to hundreds of dollars (They quickly dropped down to less than $50), and seemingly every bank in the country was descended upon\ by collectors buying up boxes of the new dollars. And then the dollars came right back after therolls were searched. Then when the later dollars in the series came out fewer and fewer banks were willing tostock boxes of the new coins because they still had large quantities of the previous issues. Production levels fell
precipitously. Before the second year of production a slight change was made to the edge inscription. The firstyear they had problems with the coins slipping in the edge dies resulting in variable spacing between the mintmark and the beginning of the motto E Pluribus Unum. To correct this, the 2008 edge dies have an extra dot
placed halfway between the mintmark and the motto.
Another change was legislated in 2007 as well. Congress again bowed to pressure and voted to restore the motto
In God We Trust to the obv. Taking its place on the edge would be 13 stars The 2008 coins continued to be released at an ever decreasing trickle with the final issue of the year only about a sixth of the number of the originalWashington issue, and no real prospects for an increase in 2009. In an attempt to try and get more of the coins
into circulation the mint began a new program, the Direct Ship Program. The US mint would now allow anyone
to order $250 face value in dollar coins (Later raised to $500), pay just the face value, and the Mint would pickup the shipping cost! Many people took advantage of this deal using their credit cards
that had cash back options and effectively were able to buy the dollars for less than face value.
While this got the coins out of the Mint vaults, it still had little effect on getting the coins to circulate and may
have even been counterproductive. Collectors were ordering the boxes, searching them for high grade coins oredge errors, and then depositing the coins back in the banks so they could pay the credit card bill when it
came in. The banks were now swimming in dollar coins they did not want or need, so they were shipping themback to the Federal Reserve. And with their vaults filling up with dollar coins, the Fed now had no reason to ordermore from the Mint. The final result? Decreased orders from the Fed, pretty much the elimination of orders ofbags of dollars at a premium that had been a source of profit to the mint, a big shipping expense to mail out theDirect Ship boxes, and declining mintages. All with no real increase in circulation of the coins.

May Auction Highlights!
1849 Large Cent XF
1867 Indian Head Cent F
1868 Indian Head Cent VF
45 Different Buffalo Nickels
1921 S Buffalo Nickel G1931 S Buffao Nickel XF
1936 Buffalo Nickel UNC
1950 D Jefferson Nickel Unc
1924 P Standing Liberty Quarter XF
1927 S Standing Liberty Quarter G
1826 Bust Half Dollar VF
1952 Proof set in original box
1954 Proof set in original box
1956 proof set

If you would like to have your items included please make sure to EMail Matt at least a weekprior to the meeting at matt@ldrcoins.com

Lost Dutchman Rare Coins
4983 N Franklin Rd. Indianapolis, IN(317) 545-7650
Your Local Full Service Coin Shop Since 1985

Specializing in Rare U.S. & World Coins.
Thinking of selling? WE PAY MORE!

Buying & Selling

US & World Coins, US Paper Money
Key Date Coins, Graded Coins, Complete Sets
Gold and Silver In All Forms
Military Collectibles

Because of the short notice on the newsletter,
the secretaries report will be read and acceptedat the meeting and included in next months
newsletter.

It is possible the Direct Ship program has run its course now. The first President Dollars of 2009,
Benjamin Harrison, were not made available for Direct Ship orders. Still the President series can be
judged at least slightly more successful so far then the previous two small dollar series. The
mintage has been slightly greater and it has managed to make it into its third year without being relegated to being minted for collectors only. How much longer it can hold that off is tobe seen. A final question for this series is how and when it will end. The legislation states that it willend when the last eligible President has been honored. Since no living President may be depicted,
to be eligible the President must have died at least two years before his coin comes up. But it alsosays that the presidents are to be honored in the order in which they served. This leaves the problem about what to do about Reagan. Currently the series can run through Ford. But does the series
then end because to skip Carter would honor the Presidents out of order, or can you skip him because he isn’t eligible? The law is unclear. Current opinion seems to be that it is OK to skip, but thelist of when the coins for the Presidents would come out that the Mint published in 2007 ended atNixon. (Ford was still alive at the time.) Now it ends with Ford. Of course since both Carter andGeorge Bush are over 80 years old now, the whole question may become moot. The next questionis whether or not Congress will ever let the series end. Since the dollar is to honor the Presidents,
how can you let it honor some but not all of them? I can see special bills in the future to allow another coin each time another President becomes “eligible”. Since by then the coin will probably befor collectors only, this series could go on forever.