Congress Keeps Sacagawea Coins Rolling for Collectors

Coin collectors can rest easy. President Bush on Friday signed into law a bill that will continue the minting of $1 Sacagawea coins in 2008, but only for numismatic purposes. No more will be produced for general circulation until next year.
The legislation whizzed through Congress this week, as lawmakers scrambled to correct an error in a law enacted last year that calls for circulating new Sacagawea coins starting in January 2009 that will feature a regularly changing reverse celebrating different Native American themes.
In drafting that law, the sponsors forgot to allow continued production of the existing coin in 2008, however. That meant that “many of the standard U.S. Mint products the coin-collecting public is expecting to order and receive this year, such as annual proof and uncirculated sets, will not include a 2008 Sacagawea dollar,” warned Rep. Gwen Moore , D-Wis., in explaining the need for the new bill.
The fix, she said, was important “for coin collectors nationwide and for the popularity of the Sacagawea dollar coin.”
Rep. Rob Bishop , R-Utah, joined in urging the bill’s enactment. “It does not cost the taxpayers a dime, or in this case, it doesn’t cost them a dollar,” he said.
Instead, he said, the new law will assure that collectors will have a chance to buy five million to 10 million U.S. Mint proof sets of the old Sacagawea coin design that otherwise would not be available.
“Next year new dollar coins will start circulating alongside the presidential dollars, still bearing the image of Sacagawea on the front but once a year having a different reverse design representing the contributions of Native Americans to our heritage,” Bishop said.