If it is as successful as I anticipate it will be, Congress may want to consider whether similar programs with other countries might be developed. As a model, this coin has many attributes, not the least of which is the first class artistry and craftsmanship of the design.
Commemorative coins imply value and are in part judged by their historical and artistic merit.
This one meets well the test of history and asceticism. In a sense, issuing this commemorative U.S. silver dollar and a silver 1000-Kronor Icelandic coin, both produced by the U.S. Mint and both celebrating the voyage of Leif Ericson is also a voyage of discovery. Interestingly, the Icelandic coin depicts Leif Ericson as he appears on a statue that stands today in Reykjavik. This year marks the 1000th anniversary of the voyage of discovery by Leif Ericson, son of Eric the Red, who in approximately 1000 A.D., left to explore lands to the West, beyond Greenland. Recent archeological research has confirmed evidence of contemporaneous European settlement on Newfoundland as a result of this voyage and its successors, and there are strong hints that eleventh-century Viking explorers visited coastal and interior areas considerably to the south of the Newfoundland site.