How to make Presidential dollars popular

As I drove home last night, I saw that the local gasoline stations had dropped their price during the day by 10 cents a gallon to $3.399. I felt good.

It is sort of amazing. At a time the world’s financial markets seem so disordered, a little thing can stand out.

The inflationary fever does seem to have broken. It is not just the price of oil that is dropping, but the prices of other things that we collectors pay attention to.

I checked the Coinflation Web site (www.coinflation.com)this morning and I see that the copper and nickel in the American five-cent coin has fallen in value to just under 4 cents. That’s a far cry from its nearly 10 cents peak in 2007. The price of nickel alone has fallen by almost three-quarters.

The copper-coated zinc cent has metallic value of right about four-tenths of one cent. The Mint might even be making a profit on them again.

Losses on cent and nickel production were offset by the profits on the other denominations, especially the Presidential dollars. Perhaps we should ask the Treasury to deliver its bank bailout funds in the form of Presidential dollars.

People who fear bankruptcy might not even complain about getting them.