The United States Mint on Saturday, Feb. 6, introduced designs for the Ronald Reagan Presidential $1 Coin and Nancy Reagan First Spouse Gold Coin. In doing so, two ten-year programs formally enter their swan song stages with each coming to a close.
The official unveiling was held at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California on what would have been President Reagan’s 105th birthday.
"The release of the Ronald Reagan Presidential $1 Coin and the Nancy Reagan First Spouse Coin will mark the end of the coin programs that have honored the contributions of our nation’s presidents and the indelible work of our nation’s first ladies," said Richard A. Peterson, United States Mint Deputy Director of Manufacturing and Quality.
Artist renderings of candidate designs for the Ronald Reagan dollar and proposed designs for the Nancy Reagan gold coin were revealed last year. The Treasury Secretary was tasked with selecting the winning designs displayed below.
Seen on the obverse (heads side) of the Reagan Presidential $1 Coin is a forward facing portrait of the 40th U.S. President as designed by Richard Masters and sculpted by Joseph Menna.
All Presidential $1 Coins offer the same reverse (tails side) design depicting the Statue of Liberty, created and sculpted by Don Everhart. They also have flat edges with inscriptions of E PLURIBUS UNUM, 2016 for the year of issue and a mintmark denoting where they are made.
Obverses of the Nancy Reagan First Spouse Gold Coins offer a portrait of the former first lady that was designed by Benjamin Sowards and sculpted by Joseph Menna.
Appearing on the reverse is a scene emblematic of Mrs. Reagan’s life with her arms around two children during her "Just Say No" campaign. The scene was designed by Joel Iskowitz and sculpted by Don Everhart.
Shortly after the official unveiling, U.S. Mint officials gave the public another opportunity to see the designs first hand at the February 2016 Long Beach Coin, Currency, Stamp & Sports Collectible Expo (www.longbeachexpo.com.)
"All of us are delighted the United States Mint gave everyone at the Long Beach Expo the opportunity to see the historic design selections as soon as possible after the official unveiling," commented Cassi East, President of the Long Beach Expo.
A display of the newly unveiled designs was setup by a U.S. Mint employee attending the Expo.
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Several products this year will feature the Ronald and Nancy Reagan coins and be available via the United States Mint online store at catalog.usmint.gov.
When released, they will mark an end to the series of Presidential $1 Coins and First Spouse Gold Coins. Both programs debuted in 2007 and have honored former Presidents and First Ladies of the United States in the order they served in office. The two series were authorized by Congress with the passage of the Presidential $1 Coin Act of 2005. Under the terms of the Act, only Presidents which have been deceased at least two years are eligible to be included in the series.
Later this week, we will offer an article showcasing photos of Reagan Presidential $1 Coins and the dies used to produce.
“Just say no,” reducing a very complex social problem to an advertising slogan. Typical of this couple.
Richard – LOL. You are as politically correct as Donald Trump! I guess you are going to “just say no” to purchasing any President Ronald Wilson Reagan $1 coins or the beautiful, historic First Lady Nancy Reagan $10 First Spouse gold coins (only the second living person to appear on any legal tender USA coin since Eunice Kennedy Shriver on the 1995 silver $1 coin & going back to some living men on the old commemorative silver half dollars). Although that Shriver coin portrait was a hideous, atrocious design (to borrow a description by President Theodore Roosevelt of the coins… Read more »
I just posted a video about this that I think sums up what everybody is thinking about this design.
I have no fear of weighing in on the Reagan coins. I bought into Reagan both times in the 80″s and I’m buying in one more time this year. Sure as hell beats Obama… That’s all I can(and will) say about that. ; )
Jp –
Well said PC comment I guess. Maybe some of the late President Reagan’s “trickle down economics” will trickle down upon us sometime soon. Preferably in a big “puddle” of his presidential dollar coins in my bank account!
-NumisDudeTX
NumisDudeTx
I keep ” Hope”(ing) …
For that ” Change”… Of Reagan dollars.
Ok, NOW that is enough said. I couldn’t help myself. You set me up for that one.
Jp – Too funny man! We should take our numismatic comedy shtick on the road Jp Lol. Politics & coins in the USA sure do make strange bedfellows to use an old term! LOL. At least the presidential $1 coin series is affordable on any budget for young collectors & beginning collectors since the 2007- 2011 coins were issued for circulation to banks & the 2012 coins through this last year (which were not made for circulation) can be purchased from the Mint in circulation quality in rolls, bags or boxes or from many coin dealers for like $1.75 or… Read more »
Jp – I forgot to mention this politically incorrect thing you may have seen on television ads by Ron Reagan Jr. where he is raising money for his atheist non-profit organisation and he says “Ron Reagan Jr. here, lifelong atheist & not afraid of burning in Hell !” I bet he isn’t buying any of his father’s Presidential $1 coins since they have the required motto “In God We Trust” on them (as all USA legal tender coins do since the 1864 two-cent coins were issued)! His father is turning over in his grave at his presidential library & museum… Read more »
I just saw the real design- you think that some Democrats are running the CACB & selecting such god awful rendering for Nixon & Ronnie? Maybe but the FDR design was also off alot, they used Edward HErmann as a model. I also notice on the Nixon dollar he has a little flop sweat over his upper lip, very real….
Darrin Lee Unser – I forgot to tell you in my last comments that there are two “errors” in your coin blog post on these two coins. The U.S. Mint introduced, in error, the Reagan $1 coin design actual Proof coin photo (not a mock-up drawing) on their website on January 20th in it’s plastic lens holder with the 2 other Presidential $1 Proof coins for Nixon & Ford. The 2016 3-coin Proof Presidential $1 coin set actual coin photos set there on the Mint’s website for all to see till Coin World newspaper readers alerted the CW staff that… Read more »
Does anyone know whether the children are based on anybody in particular?