US Coins and Banknotes Catching Up With The Times

After years of being justly criticized for living in the dark ages numismatically, suddenly almost out of nowhere it now looks like our coins and bank notes might catch up with those of the rest of the world.

The US Mint is about to launch its first ringed bimetal coin and the Bureau of Engraving and Printing is actually considering yet another redesign of our bank notes following the redesign now being introduced. Not only that, but both the Mint and BEP are considering soliciting foreign countries to make their coins and bank notes for them.

Wow! You’d think we were the British Royal Mint, Royal Canadian Mint, Note Printing Australia or some other progressive organization, rather than the rather dull currency-producing entities of the United States controlled completely by a clueless Congress pretending to know what’s best for the public.

Could it be that somebody in our government has finally gotten the hint after all these many years? Philip Diehl may be gone as Mint director, but his innovative marketing techniques for selling collector coins are definitely here to stay. The United States is even making a bid to catch up with the rest of the world by launching its first ringed bimetal coin April 24, a non-circulating legal tender $10 honoring the Library of Congress. Maybe someday we’ll even get to commemorating something of real interest or importance to the American public.

This will be followed May 24 by the release of the final two bank notes in the newly designed Federal Reserve Bank series. These are the $5 and $10 denominations.

The BEP surprised everyone by letting it be known recently that yet another redesign of our paper notes might be ready by 2003. Most countries around the world routinely redesign their bank notes to stay one step ahead of counterfeiters, while taking the liberty to add the latest anti-counterfeiting technology at the same time.

Adding to the interest is pending legislation in Congress permitting the BEP to offer its security-printing capabilities to entities outside the federal government. Perhaps in the near future we might even hear something about allowing the BEP to operate as a private company with the profits going to the government. Most government-owned Mints and paper money printing facilities elsewhere in the world already have their freedom to make their own decisions through such arrangements.

All this comes in the wake of the circulating Statehood quarter dollar commemorative coins and the new Sacagawea dollar. Add the modern marketing techniques initiated by Diehl mentioned earlier and you have a competitor ready to take on any Mint or bank note printer elsewhere in the world.

This appears to come as a complete reversal from everything our coin- and Banknote-producing entities have stood for within the last century. Its almost like when the BRM woke up and began producing small change denomination coins after it realized that if it wouldn’t supply them to the British public, the local merchants would issue their own tokens to fill the void.

The biggest surprise appears to be the government’s backing for these innovations. Congress controls every aspect of our coins and bank notes, ruling with an iron hand. Nothing can be issued without their approval, regardless of if they understand what they are doing or not. This is the same political body which in the past gave us such failures as the Susan B. Anthony dollar.

The United States appears to be on a roll numismatically. For some strange Reason, the government appears to be backing change. Let’s keep the ball rolling.

Richard Giedroyc is a numismatic writer, researcher, auction cataloger and coin dealer. He has been in the hobby and business most of his life, now having more than three decades experience in this fascinating hobby field. During this time Giedroyc has been the owner of Paris Bergman Galleries, owner of Classical Coin Newsletter, international editor of Coin World and owner of Giedroyc-Anderson Interesting World Coins. He is currently a numismatic consultant. He has written more than 2,000 byline numismatic stories and contributed to several coin catalogs.

The Bureau of Engraving and Printing