New presidential dollar debuts in Houston this week

So here's a numismatic question: Does anyone ever use Sacagawea dollars, the golden $1 coins the U.S. Mint started churning out in 2000? More than a billion of them are in circulation, but Houstonist never gets one in change. It makes us wonder just how well the Mint's latest foray into dollar coins, the presidential dollar, is going to work out. But we'll know pretty soon: The first presidential dollar, featuring the mug of George Washington, makes its national debut in Houston and Chicago this week, with circulation set to begin Feb. 15.

The presidential dollar series will feature the faces of all U.S. presidents in order of their service — so Washington comes first, naturally, followed by John Adams, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison later this year. The sequence is loosely based on the 50 State Quarters Program, under which quarters are being issued every 10 weeks honoring the 50 state in order of their admission to the Union (and yeah, we're getting close to the end of that one, in case you wondered). It's part of the Mint's ongoing effort not only to provide money, but to educate Americans about things they should already know — for example, that the Old Man of the Mountain is (or was) a really big deal in New Hampshire, or what Millard Fillmore actually looked like (though we'll have to wait until 2010 for his dollar). The coins will be minted in a manganese-brass alloy and will be the same size and color as the Sacagawea dollars. The featured president's face will be on the front of the coin, with the Statue of Liberty on the back and the mint mark, year of issuance, "E Pluribus Unum" and "In God We Trust" engraved around the edge — the first time since 1933 that a U.S. coin has had edge lettering.

On Wednesday, George Washington re-enactor Carl Closs will debut the Washington dollar at Poe Elementary in the morning and at the Galleria from 1 to 4 p.m. The question remains, though, how the public will take to the new coins: The Mint has tried twice in the last 30 years to introduce Americans to dollar coins (remember the Susan B. Anthony dollars?), but we just don't seem to take to them. According to James C. Benfield, executive director of the Coin Coalition, Americans won't embrace dollar coins until paper dollars disappear: "The chief stumbling-block to the success of the 'golden dollar' is the continued presence of the $1 bill," he said. "The lesson ... learned by all countries that have introduced a high-denomination coin since 1979 is that the equivalent note must be removed from circulation. The only country not to learn that lesson is the United States." But hey, at least we'll know our states and presidents!