Littleton 'finishes' Presidential dollar set
Congratulations to Littleton Coin Company for completing the Presidential dollar coin set.
The firm offers six genuine Presidential dollars that have been cleverly colorized with portraits of the men who were not part of the original set.
These individuals were denied entry to the 2007-2016 U.S. Presidential series because they are not deceased.
This privately created addition to the Presidential set is not a surprise to me.
Someone was bound to do it.
The savvy professional marketers at Littleton know that collectors like complete sets.
Authorizing legislation for the Presidential series deliberately left it incomplete.
This legislation was passed in 2005.
There have been many new collectors who have become active in numismatics since then who were unaware of the restriction.
In the final years of Presidential dollars, I received emails from collectors who were surprised and disappointed when they learned the set they were assembling year by year would never be finished.
I wrote several columns to advocate new legislation to finish the set and add new Presidents as they are elected.
No dice.
That is not a surprise, but neither does it end the yearning among collectors for completeness.
This collector impulse is directly addressed by Littleton in its description of the offer, found here:
“This gives collectors a way to own coins of the ‘living U.S. presidents’ – with our ‘golden’ colorized dollars! With this set, they’ll enjoy all six ‘living presidents’ dollar designs honoring Donald Trump, Barack Obama, George W. Bush, William J. Clinton, George H.W. Bush and Jimmy Carter.”
The set is priced at $28.95. Face value is $6.
Remember, they are genuine dollars beneath the added golden colored portraits.
Let’s look at the sales results after 12 months.
There is almost no chance the Mint will ever strike Presidential dollars to honor these presidents.
However, as a matter of curiosity, I am interested to see how big an opportunity we as a nation have let slip through our fingers.
Littleton must think it is a significant one, or it would not have created these colorized coins.
Buzz blogger Dave Harper won the Numismatic Literary Guild Award for Best Blog for the third time in 2017 . He is editor of the weekly newspaper "Numismatic News."
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