James K. Polk Presidential Dollar Rolls

The James K. Polk Presidential Dollar Rolls will go on sale at the US Mint on Thursday, August 20, 2009 at 12:00 Noon ET. This will be the third Presidential Dollar coin release of the year.

James K. Polk was the 11th President of the United States and served from 1845 to 1849. The portrait for the obverse of the dollar coin was designed by Susan Gamble and sculpted by Charles Vickers. The reverse of the coin features a rendition of the Statue of Liberty by Don Everhart.

The US Mint will offer 25-coin rolls from either the Philadelphia Mint or Denver Mint. The rolls will be packaged in the custom designed US Mint wrappers that indicate the coin design, mint, and face value. The rolls are priced at $35.95 each.

The prior two Presidential Dollar Roll offerings from this year sold out after sales of 30,000 rolls from each mint. This may or may not be an indication of the total number of rolls to be offered for the Polk Dollars, as the US Mint has kept collectors guessing this year with different production runs for similar products.

In a shift from prior releases, the James K. Polk Dollars are also expected to be available under the US Mint's Direct Ship Program. This program allows customers to purchase $250 boxes of coins at face value with no charge for shipping. The Direct Ship Program is intended to be a method for individuals and small business to obtain dollar coins for circulation, but it has also been a source of BU dollar rolls for coin collectors.

As opposed to the premium priced individual rolls offered by US Mint, the rolls contained in the Direct Ship boxes are in generic coin wrappers. Also, coins cannot be ordered from a specific mint and there is no guarantee that the coins have never been circulated.

The James K. Polk Dollar Direct Ship rolls are expected to be available on the US Mint's website on the same release date as the collector rolls.

Update: James K. Polk Dollars have not been added to the Direct Ship section. I am trying to find out if and when they will be made available through the program.