Among the numerous provisions in the omnibus spending bill H.R. 2764 also called the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2008 [CAA2008] passed by Congress this week, is SEC. 622 requiring the United States Mint to produce six new designs for the quarter after the popular 50 State Quarters program ends next year.The measure was added to the bill by Representative José E. Serrano, a Democrat who represents the South Bronx and is chairman of the House Appropriations subcommittee that deals with financial matters.Under the proposed legislation, congress has mandated that six new “state quarters” be added to the 50 State Quarter Program in 2009 . Actually the “states” are not states at all, but comprise 5 US territories and the District of Columbia.The House had passed legislation to extend the 50-state quarter program to 56 designs four previous times. However in each instance, an anonymous “hold” in the Senate precluded the Senate Banking Committee from holding hearings or the majority leader from bringing it to a recorded vote. This year, with congress tring to get the omnibus spending bill passed before Christmas, and with over 9000 other “earmarks” included in the legislation, no “hold” was placed and the additional new quarters appear to have made it into the program.The following New quarters will be produced:

* The District of Columbia* The Commonwealth of Puerto Rico* Guam* American Samoa* The United States Virgin Islands* The Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands

Timing for the release of the coins was stipulated as follows

“…Coins minted under this subsection honoring the District of Columbia and each of the territories shall be issued in equal sequential intervals during 2009 in the following order: the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, the United States Virgin Islands, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.”

Should this legislation be enacted into law, and there is no reason at this time to expect that President Bush will not sign it, Album publishers and the myrmid of companies offering State Quarter Maps and collecting boards will have to come up with supplements to the products or re-introduce new pages or holders to accommodate the additional six New quarters.A spokeswoman for the Mint said Thursday that procedures for selecting subjects for the new quarters, and their design, would be posted online once President Bush signed the bill.In addition to the New State Quarters, CAA2008 SEC. 623(a) amends the law authorizing the Presidential Dollar Coin Program, and calls for the motto “In God We Trust” to be moved on the from the Rim to either the Obverse or Reverse of this series design.

SEC. 623. (a) In General- Section 5112(n)(2) of title 31, United States Code, is amended:….`(E) INSCRIPTION OF `IN GOD WE TRUST’- The design on the obverse or the reverse shall bear the inscription `In God We Trust’.’. Effective Date- The change required by the amendments made by subsections (a) and (b) shall be put into effect by the Secretary of the Treasury as soon as is practicable after the date of enactment of this Act

This change in the Presidential Dollar program came about in no small measure due to the numerous errors created during the manufacture of the first four Presidential Dollars and the continuing difficulty the US Mint has encountered in adding the proper Edge Letter and Motto to the rim of the coin.In many instance the “In God We Trust” logo was impressed multiple times and/or missing entirely resulting in Plain Edge error coins.In addition many people including congress were not happy with the original design elements of moving the Motto from the obverse and/or reverse of our coinage to the rim. many considered this an attempt to diminish the important of the slogan on US coinage, while other speculated that moving the motto to the less prominent rim portion of the coin design was nothing less than the first step in eventually attempting to remove “In Gos God We Trust” from our coinage in general.Whatever your position or predilection, should this legislation pass, the motto will resume its position on all subsequent presidential dollars, making the previous 4 issues ( Washington, Adams, Jefferson and Madison) into their own “Dollar Type”