Will you buy John Adams dollars?

Tomorrow the John Adams dollar will be introduced. The U.S. Mint will begin selling bags and rolls of them on its Web site. Will you be a buyer?

Not too many people will be as far as I can tell. All the novelty, fanfare and hoopla was spent on the introduction of the George Washington dollar in February. What will be left for Adams?

The Washington coins even enjoyed the publicity of the discovery of a significant and very collectible error, the plain edge variety, where the date, mintmarks, “In God We Trust” and “E Pluribus Unum” are missing. It is a wonderful error because you don’t need industrial scale magnifiers to see it.

What will Adams offer? I wrote a “Class of ’63” column in the May 8 Numismatic News where I took a poke at Adams. I wasn’t exactly overwhelmed with responses. That is probably the biggest indicator of the level of collector interest in an Adams dollar.

Sure, Brad Karoleff told me at the St. Louis Central States convention that he liked Adams and I should read a biography of our second President that he recommended. I respect Brad and his opinions. I probably will end up reading the book. But, he is the only one so far to speak up in defense of Adams.

Not that the other side is well represented. I have received one or two e-mails and that’s it. That’s probably it for Adams, too. I could be wrong. When sales open for the Adams dollar tomorrow, we will see.