Roosevelt to replace Washington on Quarters?

President Theodore Roosevelt and John MuirConsider replacing George Washington’s portrait on U.S. quarters with an image of Theodore Roosevelt, members of the Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee (CCAC) unanimously recommended in their Jan. 27 meeting, according to Numismatic News.

Information about the National Park Quarters has been minimal, as should be expected for much of 2009 given the United States Mint will not begin issuing the quarters until 2010.

However, the first five quarter designs will be completed this year in preparation for their release next year. And the CCAC, which advises the Secretary of the Treasury on designs for coinage, has already made their first recommendation for the series.

The America’s Beautiful National Parks Quarter Dollar Coin Act (H.R.6184), which authorizes five quarters per year for at least the next eleven years, states each quarter design is to be “emblematic of a national park or other national site in each State, the District of Columbia, and each territory of the United States.”

With that, most collectors would probably expect the quarter’s reverse to take on a park theme and the obverse (heads side) to be the same as the 50 State quarters and the 2009 D.C. and U.S. Territories quarters. The CCAC recommendation has merit. Strong merit.

Theodore Roosevelt had a passion and crusaded for conservation and national sites. Roosevelt set a aside a massive amount of land, adding 42 million acres of national forests and over 50 national wildlife refuges — more than all of his predecessors combined.

Roosevelt’s image on commemorative park quarters makes more sense than any other president. Yet, replacing Washington who has been on quarters since 1932 is not an easy decision to make either.

The final decision will be made in the coming months.

H.R. 6184 passed in the U.S. House of Representatives July 9, 2008 and unpredictably gained approval in the lame duck session of the Senate on December 10, 2008. President Bush signed the act into law on December 23, 2008.

For the Numismatic News article, read CCAC picks favorites.

[Editor’s update: Roosevelt’s image will not be placed on the obverse of the new quarters. For an interesting perspective on the top, read: America the Beautiful Quarters, CCAC Dropped the Ball.]

 

20 thoughts on “Roosevelt to replace Washington on Quarters?”

  1. Considering that he is the father of the National Park system this is a great idea! I think it honors Teddy Roosevelt and changes the obverse of the quarter.

    Don’t get me wrong – I have nothing but respect for President Washington but we should dump the Sacagawea dollar design and the current Presidential design and go to a Washington dollar with the mottos returned to the face of the coin and the word Liberty across the obverse.

  2. Yeah that’s a good idea President Roosevelt on quarters, since he put aside of millions of acres in park. And for President Washington can go to Dollar coins, since he’s in the 1 Dollar bills why not put it on 1 Dollar coins. What you think?

  3. i’m getting tired of all these series coins. all they do is stimulate the hoarding of current circulating coins as soon as there’s a rumor of change. i say we should put washington on the dollar coin and keep him there, slap roosevelts profile on the quarter and have this be the last series of coins for a while. it’s just too overwhelming, trying to keep up with every new coin that comes out. i’m glad they’re using a permanent design on the lincoln cent after 2009. i’m only one person, though.

  4. I’m one that thinks T. Roosevelt needs to be on some form of money as he represents an American generation not currently represented, a great American president, and a symbol of preserving America’s places of geographic beauty. Though, if he goes on the quarter, we have to put Washington somewhere. He is after all our first test of independent democracy. If they one day get rid of the $1 bill, Washington should then be put on a new $500 bill. I’m sure we’ll probably be printing those eventually since inflation is guaranteed.

  5. I too like the idea of putting TR on the quarter and moving Washington to the dollar coin. But if the mint wants us to use coins more, then they should get rid of the one dollar bill, increase production of the $1 coin, and make a $2 coin like they have in Canada and Europe. It’s just a thought.

  6. Yes… Roosevelt on the quarter, Washington to the dollar coin (to stay) and then dump the dollar note which is what the treasury has been trying to do for years. They should try something clever or innovative with his portrait, like imitating the dollar bill “engraved” image. It will save taxpayer money and keep a “familiar” George on the buck.

  7. I think this is a good idea but, I also support the idea of lessening the amount of new coin series. It would save money.

  8. If for no other reason, I think it would be a win win situation for both the U.S. Mint and coin collectors because of the increased value of past coins. Also, I think it would spark a further interest with the general public in coin collecting. Canada, Great Brittian, and Austrailia are much ahead of the U.S. in numiamatic issue.

  9. I for one am not as quick to jump on the band wagon removing Washington from the quarter. It is probably the most used coin in existence and deserving of our most notable American President. Washington lost his birthday to President’s Day which no longer celebrates anything except sales and discounts and if this trend continues more and more children will soon forget his unique position in our Country’s founding. This attempt to homogenize our Country is akin to destroying what makes us great.

  10. I agree with the ideas of getting rid of our paper dollars, putting Washington permanently on a dollar coin, putting T. Roosevelt on the quarter, and sticking with something static for a while… I think they’re over-saturating us with new series.

  11. Here is a real radical idea try something new in coin history. Place Washington and Roosevelt on the Quarter. Use the forward face design that is currently on the Jefferson Nickel. With this coin you will have two Great Americans Represented in our Quarter. Washington for his leadership that established this country and Roosevelt for his foresight in preserving it.

  12. I’m all for a Roosevelt quarter, and any other change that can be made in our coinage!! What I’d like to see is for the U.S. Mint come out with five completely different prrof sets for collectors each year commemorating all of the 39 presidents that have passed away thus far! Just like the presidential dollars, have the portraits of each president put on each coin for a particular year, and as I mentioned make maybe four/five different proof sets like this each year until the entire series has run it’s course!! All these different coins wouldn’t neccisarily need to enter circulation, but the Mint would certainly make a profit selling these proof sets to collectors!! And wouldn’t it be nice to see a government agency making a profit???!!!

    Mike Henderson

  13. Teddy Roosevelt is my favorite president and while I would hate to take Washington off the quarter, Roosevelt belongs on the National Parks Quarters. What if Roosevelt were only on the coins for the parks which he was directly involved with.

    Put Washington on the dollar coin and stop printing the paper dollar.

  14. There has been a lot of changes in coins lately, spawning a new generation of collectors.

    I was surprised to see them make 4 lincoln cents for 2009. We have made a penny change very 50 years, this breaks the chain but I can see why they did it and am glad they’re going back to one cent design.

    As for the quarter program i’m not sure how well this will play out. Coin collectors have been blamed for economic problems in the past, especially around 1964 if i’m not mistaken and with all these new young collectors coming into the old hobby more hoarding of new quarters and dollars is more then likely to happen.

    As a collector I try to get each variant of a coin if possible but do to there being so many of us taking them out of circulation perhas we should go back to one design. I expected us to switch back to the eagle after the state program.

    One idea is that children will learn from these new coins, national parks, states, and presidents. Sad to say most children don’t pay attention to history anyway, know who a single presidents name is before Clinton, and even most adults don’t pay attenton to who is on the obverse of a coin or note. So I doubt that very many kids will learn anything from these new designs.

    As for the sacagawea dollar or native american dollar, it wasn’t very popular outside of th collecting community as only the 2000 and 2001 were in circlation and 2002 – 2008 were minted for collectors.

    There are many ideas floating around about changing presidents, coins, adding notes, and getting rid of currency.

    The cent, people want to get rid of it. I doub it will happen but groups of people say do away with it.

    Aswell as the $1 note, perhaps that’s not a bad idea. The government has been passing around the idea of bringing back larger denominations of coins aswell as the $500 and $1000 bills that we got rif of in the 1930’s and maybe adding a $200 or $250 bill.

    Another idea was to put Reagan on the dime and make alf our dimes FDR and the other half Reagan.

    Our countries direction on currency is not a clear one and only time will tell.

  15. Yes! The more I read about TR the more I realize he was one of our greatest presidents. What a tragedy for the 20th century that he wasn’t re-elected in 1912. At this point though the Mint has stayed same-old, same-old with the front of the quarter. So yeah, I like the idea of putting Washington on the $1 coin, getting rid of the $1 bill like every other civilized country has already done, and issuing a $2 coin or expanding use of the $2 bill to make up the difference.

    I’m not sure where to go with larger-denomination bills. A $200 and even a $500 would make sense given that a $100 is worth less than a $20 was back in 1969 when high-denomination bills were suspended. OTOH most big purchases are electronic now, plus there’s justifiable concern about laundering drugs and weapons purchases. E.g. the EU has already seen problems with its €200 and €500 bills.

    In any case IMO the next size up should be $200 instead of $250. We have a decimal system, so denominations should be in multiples of 2 and 5, the same as the UK, EU, Australia, etc. etc. After all, the only reason we have a quarter instead of 20¢ pieces is for making change from Spanish milled dollars(!!) Seen any of them lately?

  16. Actually we used to have a 20¢ piece in the mid 1800’s, aswell as a 2¢ & 3¢ piece.

    They just fell out of favor with the public so they stopped making them.

    Just like the 1943 steel cent, the Susan B. Anthony Dollar Coin (1979-1981,1999)

    And just like current dollar coins, people say they confuse them with quarters (even though they are colored gold and have smooth edges and are slightly bigger) an say they are too heavy. I’ve had countless customers pay me in quarters dozens of them at a time and since they dollar coins are only slightly bigger and slightly heavier then a quarter I don’t see them problem.

    When is someone going to cary around 20+ dollar coins anyway? So the publics arguemnts against dollr coins are idiotic but still a widely beleived public opinion that dollar coins are too heavy and look like quarters.

    I’ve heard rumors that the government is considering issuing larger denominations of coins. For example a $10 coin or $20 coin. As I understand it, it costs the government quite a bit fo money to keep remaking bills that only last a few years in circulation for the most part. However coins last 30 years at least.

    Peope may find that they will be forced to use this new system if they so choose. Vending machines and some schools hand dollar coins back as change now because they want people to use them because they are stuck making them until 2016.

  17. The system of 1¢ 5¢ 10¢ 25¢ and 50¢ works fine, I don’t think we need a change to our monetary system on what we use as change.

    Though we could make less one cents(pennies), we have billions of them floating around out there. In fact i’ve seen people toss dozens of them on the ground just because they were single cents and not “silver” (meaning the color not the silver coins made 1964 and earlier).

    Some say we should get rid of the cent all together and make all totals end in 5 or 0. The question then is what to do with all the single cents out there? Banks still have thousands upon thousands of them, buisnesses aswell, then there are people like me saves pennies for a year or two then rolls them and cashes them in. How do you make such a switch from usage of the 1¢ piece to not at all?

    Making new denominations or replacing one with another isn’t as difficult. For example with the $1 Federal Reserve Note (Bill) this note replaced the Silver Certificate (Blue Seal Notes) and United States Note (Red Seal Notes) over time. If we were to stop makin $1 Notes and just circulate $1 coins eventually they would fade out, not comepletely of course and infact they may even become a collectible item.

    The Silver Certificate, Gold Certificate, and United States Note (Blue, Yellow, & Red Seal Notes) are still legal tender as is all United States Currency dating back to the Revolution excluding Confederate Currency which is valuable to certain parties anyway.

    So making that switch wouldn’t be so difficult since we have so many $1 Federal Reserve Notes around anyway and it would take perhaps 20 – 50 years before we stopped seeing them in circulation very often.

    If we stopped making as many $1 notes or any at all, we could switch to the $2 note which is made every several years the last $2 note was printed in 2003 if i’m not mistaken.

    We don’t neccesarily need a bunch of $1 coins flooding banks and buisness and tell people too bad that’s what we’ve got otherwise you don’t get your change. Funny thing though people will take quarters over dollar coins it seems, well a majority of the people I see at any rate. Kids still love dollar coins and 50¢ pieces because they don’t see them often.

    But if we made a regular amount of $1 coins and $2 notes, an introduced them over time like the next decade perhaps. The problem occurs when the customer “who is always right” (whoever came up with statement needs to be shot, most customers are always idiots is more accurate) doesn’t want dollar coins and wants notes instead. I’ve sat with a roll of dollar coins in my register for 4 days before getting rid of a few. People want to spend them but they don’t want to receive them back in their change.

    If we can get around this problem them transitioning from $1 notes to $1 coins wont be such a problem.

    I’m not sure if this would help in anyway but perhaps re-introduce te 50¢ piece. They stopped minting them for circulation in 2004 and just for collectors, due to a lack of use because of the popularity of the quarter. Or perhaps no change at all.

    Though I think we have all gone way off topic, the original topic was about Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt (good president)being on the quarter instead of Washington for the National Parks Quarter Program or the official title “America the Beautiful Commemorative Quarters Program” (bit of a long title).

    Washington is already minted on the 2010 version of the coins and the program goes until 2021 so there is a chance but I doubt they will remove George Washington from the quarter.

  18. As for Washington being only on a dollar coin, the only instance of a President being on a dollar coin in President Eisenhower on the large size dollar coin made from 1971 – 1978, in 1979-1981,1999 the dollar coins had Susan B. Anthony.

    In 2000 and 2001 (2002-2008 were pulled from circulation due to a lack of popularity and minted for collectors) was the Sacagawea dollar coin.

    Then in 2007 started the Presidential dolar coin series which will last until 2016.

    In 2009 the Native American Dollar Coin program was started.

    So the only recent issues of presidential dollar coins is in 1971-1978 & 2007-2016.

    All other dollar coins have had Lady Liberty, Native Americans, a model (Morgan Silver Dollars), or someone influential in history (Susan B. Anthony & Sacagawea)

    So switching to one President doesn’t seem likely but with all of the recent changes in coins it is possible.

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