Senator David Vitter (R-LA) has introduced legislation that would terminate minting the $1 presidential coin by repealing the Presidential Dollar Coin Act of 2005.
In 2005 Congress passed the Presidential Dollar Coin Act which requires the mint to create a dollar coin in honor of every U.S. President. Banks and credit unions have been increasingly returning the coins to the Federal Reserve due to lack of consumer demand.
There are currently 1.252 billion unwanted coins and the GAO says that will expand to 2 billion soon, forcing the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas to add more storage space for the coins at a cost of $650,000. Additionally, the Federal Reserve would have to spend $3 million to hire armored truck contractors for moving the coins and spend an additional $1.4 million for pallets and renovation in buildings to expand storage.
“Even though many in Congress, including myself, hoped that dollar coins would eventually save taxpayers money, it’s turned out to be one of those unnecessary and, quite frankly, wasteful programs that we should eliminate,” Vitter said.
