In the past, there were silver one dollar coins, which were quite popular. In fact, they have a long history in America. They are minted and circulated from 1794 to 1935. Due to silver shortage, the production of silver coins was stopped. It is not easy to find these silver coins nowadays because most of them are already in the hands of collectors.

In 1971, the government tried to popularize one dollar coin again and the Eisenhower dollar was produced to achieve this purpose. Susan B. Anthony dollar replaced Eisenhower dollar in 1979, but this one dollar coin has minimum popularity. After two decades, in 2000 the government tried again to make one dollar coin popular by releasing Sacagawea dollar that portrays a famous Native American woman. This dollar coin again failed to gain popularity and its demand decreased significantly in the following year.

The latest effort from the government to push one dollar coin to public was releasing the presidential dollar coin in 2007. The coin portrays each U.S. president who has served in order. The first series in 2007 included four presidents: Washington, Adams, Jefferson, and Madison. Every year the government will release four types of presidential coins until all U.S. presidents have been depicted.

The height, weight, and color are the only similarities between presidential coins and Sacagawea coin. Elaborate artworks are used in presidential coins with side inscriptions that state the issued dates, E. Pluribus Unum, and In God We Trust. The designs are indeed very attractive as intended by the designers.

If you are interested to get these presidential dollar coins, you can contact banks, credit unions, and other financial institutions. You also can ask businesses to give you change in these presidential dollar coins when you buy something. A collector book is also available online and through U.S. Mint if you want to collect the coins. The book is designed specifically so you can place your coins in order of their release.

Basically the government wants to follow the concept of fifty state quarters by releasing these presidential dollar coins. These quarters are still in circulation today and can be considered quite popular. This is what the government wants that people can use the presidential dollar coins instead of the one dollar bills. It is interesting to see whether this effort will succeed or not because as mentioned previously one dollar bill is light and foldable.