I Like New Coins And I Cannot Lie...

The Bubblehead family has had a good time collecting the 50 State Quarters (although we're having a hard time getting the ones from the Philadelphia mint out here in Idaho), so I was excited to hear about the new "Presidential $1 Coins" that were coming out this month. According to this article in USA Today, the official launch date of the first coin in the series, with George Washington on the "heads" side, is going to be February 15th.

That's why I was surprised when my youngest son showed me a coin he had gotten in change at his school cafeteria today. Here are the two coins he got:

That's the new Washington dollar on the left. As advertised, it's about the same size as the Sacagawea on the right, but it seems a little more "silvery" -- although that might be just because it's not tarnished at all. One unique thing about it is that it has the year and mint mark, "E Pluribus Unum" and "In God We Trust" printed on the edge of the coin.

At first I was wondering a bit how it got out of the Federal Reserve 6 days early; I thought, "Maybe I should sell it on E-Bay." Then I actually looked on E-Bay... I guess the "launch date" is more of a PR thing. Still, it's a nice coin, and hopefully it'll get the American public to accept the concept of the dollar coin.