Abolish Presidential dollar? Heck no.

Should the Presidential dollar program be abolished?

Some members of Congress are making headlines with this proposal.

I would rather ask should micromanaging of coin policy by Congress be abolished?

Like Claude Rains in Casablanca, these members of Congress are shocked, shocked that Americans will not use dollar coins.

Really.

The Federal Reserve knows this but feels the law compels it to order 75 million dollar coins of every design even if they are not needed in commerce. The backing up of a supply of over 1 billion coins is the result.

So government can be made fun of by National Public Radio.

Adding to the excess dollar coin supply is another mandate from Congress. Stipulated is that the Native American dollar with the Sacagawea obverse be minted in a quantity at least equal to 20 percent of the total dollar coins minted in a year.

Why?

That simply adds more unwanted dollar coins to the supply.

The previous congressional mandate was one-third.

I guess we could say we are going in the right direction with the lower mandate, but why is there a mandate at all?

The Congress should simply tell the Federal Reserve to do its job and order only the dollar coins that are needed in circulation.

Mintages would fall drastically. Perhaps there would be only enough of the later designs to supply collectors.

End of problem.

Congress simply can’t get over the old Western gun-slinger imperative:

“When I say dance, you dance.”

That’s no way to run our coinage system.