Bold gold: the new dollar

Let the collecting begin! This Thursday, the U.S. Mint unveils the new Washington dollar coin. I have to confess, and I may sound like a geek to some with this admission, but I'm pretty excited about it.

I've always been fascinated with currency, both ours and other countries'. I happen to think that we are about as antiquated as can be about our money. You need look no further than our northern neighbors to see what I feel is a very good system.

Canadians have a one dollar coin (the "loonie" because it has a loon on the back of it) and a two-dollar coin (no surprise there - the "toonie"). Why a dollar coin can't gain traction in the United States is a puzzle and a mystery. A recent AP-Ipsos poll found that three-fourths of Americans oppose replacing the dollar bill with a one dollar coin, and people are evenly split as to whether there should be both dollar bills and dollar coins.

This time, however, the government seems to have finally wised up. Finally, many vending machines are going to be programmed to take the dollar coin. And, what's more, the Mint is building on a past success - the 50 State Quarter Program.

The new gold dollars will feature a new president every three months, all the way up to Ronald Reagan in 2016, but that may change, depending on the longevity of the current former presidents. I wonder if the Reagan and George W. Bush coins will be worth about 50 cents to commemorate their disastrous economic policies? It would be fitting, since both men skyrocketed our national debt to gargantuan proportions. Ah, I digress.

I'm looking forward to collecting the new coins. With a little luck, some enterprising company will roll out some sort of collector board or map, much like the 50-state quarter maps. Sometimes, our government does get something right, and that's probably not spoken enough by Americans as a society, or by me. I love this new program, and collecting 'em all should be fun, and a cheap hobby - it's only gonna cost me 50 bucks!