I
105TH CONGRESS
1ST SESSION
H. R. 1174
To provide for the minting and circulation of $1 coins, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
MARCH 20, 1997
Mr. KOLBE (for himself, Mr. TORRES, Mr. PORTER, Mr. ROGERS, Mr. LIPIN-
SKI, Mr. KLUG, Mr. EVANS, Mr. FRANK of Massachusetts, Mr. WYNN,
Mr. LAFALCE, and Mr. METCALF) introduced the following bill; which
was referred to the Committee on Banking and Financial Services
A BILL
To provide for the minting and circulation of $1 coins, and
for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘United States Efficient
Currency Act of 1997’’.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
The Congress hereby finds the following:
(1) The Government’s inventory of $1 dollar
coins bearing the likeness of Susan B. Anthony has
declined to 164,100,000 (as of February 28, 1997)
from 868,000,000 $1 coins minted between 1979
and 1981. This inventory declined by 64,600,000
coins in 1996, at which rate the Government’s sup-
ply of Susan B. Anthony dollar coins will be ex-
hausted before September, 1999.
(2) The depletion of the supply of Susan B. An-
thony dollar coins demonstrates the need for a dollar
coin, particularly with mass transit authorities,
vending machine companies, and similar enterprises
and their customers.
(3) Because of the similar silver color and
reeded edge of the Susan B. Anthony dollar coin and
the quarter dollar, the Susan B. Anthony dollar coin
is not a well designed coin.
(4) Under current law, the Secretary of the
Treasury is required to mint Susan B. Anthony dol-
lar coins to meet the demands of commerce. In order
to meet this demand without interruption, the Unit-
ed States Mint will be required to order equipment
and materials in 1998 to begin making more Susan
B. Anthony dollar coins in early 1999.
(5) To deter the counterfeiting of United States
currency, the Secretary of the Treasury has begun
a program to redesign all United States currency.
New design $100 Federal reserve notes were issued
on March 27, 1996. New design $50 Federal reserve
notes will be issued in September 1997. New design
$20 Federal reserve notes will be issued in May,
1998. The remaining new design Federal reserve
notes will be issued at approximately 9-month inter-
vals.
(6) $1 Federal reserve notes are seldom coun-
terfeited.
(7) New design $1 Federal reserve notes will
cost in excess of 4 cents each to print, and will last,
on average, only 17 months. Newly designed $1
coins will cost about 8 cents each and will last at
least 30 years.
(8) Over the next 30 years, the American tax-
payer will save billions of dollars in materials and
manufacturing costs by replacing $1 Federal reserve
notes with well designed $1 coins.
(9) The $1 bill has the same purchasing power
as the quarter did in 1970.
SEC. 3. $1 COINS.
(a) COLOR AND CONTENT.—Section 5112(b) of title
31, United States Code, is amended—
(1) in the 1st sentence, by striking ‘‘dollar,’’;
and
(2) by inserting after the 4th sentence the fol-
lowing new sentence: ‘‘The dollar coin shall be gold-
en in color, have a distinctive edge, have tactile and
visual features that make the denomination of the
coin readily discernible, be minted and fabricated in
the United States, and have similar metallic,
anticounterfeiting properties as United States clad
coinage in circulation on the date of the enactment
of the United States Efficient Currency Act of
1997.’’.
(b) DESIGN.—Section 5112(d)(1) of title 31, United
States Code, is amended by striking out the 5th and 6th
sentences and inserting the following new sentence: ‘‘The
Secretary of the Treasury shall select appropriate designs
for the reverse and obverse sides of the dollar coin.’’.
(c) EFFECTIVE DATE.—
(1) IN
GENERAL.—Before the Government’s
current inventory of $1 coins bearing the likeness of
Susan B. Anthony is depleted, the Secretary of the
Treasury shall place into circulation $1 coins au-
thorized under subsection (a)(1) of section 5112 of
title 31, United States Code, which comply with the
requirements of subsections (b) and (d)(1) of such
section 5112 (as amended by subsections (a) and (b)
of this section).
(2) NUMISMATIC SETS.—The Secretary may in-
clude coins referred to in paragraph (1) in any nu-
mismatic set produced by the United States Mint
before the date the coins are placed in circulation.
(d) INCREASE CAPACITY.—The Secretary of the
Treasury shall increase capacity at United States Mint fa-
cilities to a level that would permit the replacement of $1
Federal reserve notes.
SEC. 4. CEASING ISSUANCE OF $1 NOTES.
(a) TRANSITION PERIOD.—Federal reserve banks
may continue to place into circulation $1 Federal reserve
notes until the earlier of—
(1) the date as of which the number of Susan
B. Anthony coins in circulation and the number of
coins in circulation which are minted in accordance
with the amendments made by section 3 total
1,000,000,000; or
(2) January 1, 2001.
(b) PROHIBITION ON ISSUANCE AFTER TRANSITION
PERIOD.—After the earlier of the dates referred to in
paragraphs (1) and (2) of subsection (a), a Federal re-
serve bank may not order or place into circulation any $1
Federal reserve note.
(c) EXCEPTION.—Notwithstanding subsection (b),
the Secretary of the Treasury shall produce only such Fed-