Tyler, Polk, and Taylor Added to Direct Ship Program

Today, the United States Mint added some new options to the Direct Ship Program. Three out of the four releases for the 2009 Presidential Dollars featuring John Tyler, James K. Polk, and Zachary Taylor are now available.

The Direct Ship Program allows individuals or businesses to order $1 coins in quantities of $250 at face value with no charges for shipping and handling. The purpose of the program is to facilitate the introduction of the coins into circulation. Some coin collectors have ordered boxes of $1 coins through the program to search the coins for errors or high grade examples and then spend the rest into circulation.

The last time the US Mint added new options to the Direct Ship Program was in early January, when 2010 Native American Dollars and 2001 Sacagawea Dollars were added. Both of these options still remain available along with Presidential Dollars for George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and Andrew Jackson. With today's addition of John Tyler, James K. Polk, and Zachary Taylor, there are now ten different design options available through the program.

On a related note, I wrote an article about $1 coins that was published today in the Washington Post. Many others have written about the lack of public adoption and the growing stockpile at the Federal Reserve Banks. In my article, I explore exactly why the Federal Reserve Banks are forced to order the coins, which in turn compels the US Mint to produce them in such unnecessarily high numbers, and also the odd fact that production of $1 coins accounted for more than 60% of the US Mint's profit last year.

Here's the article: Why does the Mint keep pumping out $1 coins when few are buying in?