By David Ganz

Establishment of a Ronald Reagan Centennial Commission with a $1 commemorative coin produced from February 2010 to February 2011 is one of the requests before Congress.

The bulk of the bill would establish a commission to honor the 2010 centennial of the birth of Ronald Reagan, the 40th president of the United States. The bill, H.R. 5235, was introduced Feb. 6 by U.S. Reps. Elton Gallegly, R-Calif. and Roy Blunt, R-Mo. In addition to the $1 coin, a stamp in his honor is also mentioned.

Ronald Wilson Reagan remains an American hero – the genuine article – a man so revered that a recent Gallup poll ranks him first of all the men to hold that office, a position over George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and even Franklin D. Roosevelt. Reagan is the rare person who has positively affected the lives of tens of millions of his fellow-countrymen, and in the process, changed the course of world history.

Several years ago, Grover Norquist, chairman of the Reagan Legacy Project, claimed to be “spoiling for a fight” in an effort to carve Reagan’s face onto Mount Rushmore. He also had a more serious plan, however: keeping alive the late Sen. Paul Coverdell’s bid to put the Gipper on the $10 bill.

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WASHINGTON – Collectors can begin purchasing shiny, new quarters honoring New Mexico directly from the United States Mint at noon (ET) on April 7, 2008. The New Mexico commemorative quarter-dollar is available for approximately 10 weeks, and options include a two-roll set priced at $32.95, and 100- and 1,000 coin bags priced at $32.95 and $309.95, respectively. There is no order limit on these options.

The New Mexico quarter-dollar is the 47th coin released in the United States Mint’s 50 State Quarters® Program and the second commemorative quarter issued in 2008. The coin’s obverse features a Zia sun symbol superimposed over a topographical outline of the State. Inscriptions on the coin are “Land of Enchantment,” “New Mexico” and “1912.”

Struck on the main production floors at the United States Mint facilities at Denver and Philadelphia, the coins in the New Mexico quarter-dollar bags and rolls were minted for use in general circulation. Each canvas bag carries a tag with the mint of origin and the monetary value of its contents ($25 or $250). The two-roll sets include one roll each of 40 coins wrapped in distinctive packaging bearing the 50 State Quarters logo and the “D” and “P” mint marks. The packaging also bears the official state abbreviation “NM” and the dollar value of the contents.
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Jeff Makkos of Ohio reports finding a double struck 2007-P James Madison dollar in a Mint-issue set. The type of double strike involved is what errorists refer to as an “In-Collar Double Strike with Rotation Between Strikes.”

The cause may be due to two different scenarios.

The first possibility is that the coin was struck normally and then reentered the coining area falling back over the collar where it was forced back into the collar by a second strike in a position rotated just a few degrees away from the original strike.

Another possibility suggested by CONECA president Mike Diamond, is that coin remained in the collar while the inner sleeve of the collar broke loose and rotated within resulting in the same effect.

Because a coin normally expands in diameter ever so slightly upon ejection it is difficult for it to completely reenter the collar unless forced. The forcing of the coin into the collar often results in it only being forced part way and and edge that looks to have two levels or what is known as a “Partial Collar.” Makkos’ coin does not show a partial collar, indicating that it was either forced all the way back into the collar during the second strike or could have been in a rotating collar.
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