Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System

Background

Pursuant to section 104 of the Presidential $1 Coin Act of 2005 (Public Law 109-145), the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (Board) is required to submit an annual report to the Congress that includes an assessment of the remaining obstacles to the efficient and timely circulation of $1 coins; consultations with industry representatives, the vending industry, and other coin-accepting organizations to encourage the acceptance of $1 coins; and recommendations for legislative action that the Board may determine to be appropriate.

Recent Activities

The United States Mint has not produced Presidential $1 coins for circulation since December 2011 but continues to produce them for collectors.¹ As a result, the Federal Reserve Banks (Reserve Banks) meet depository institution demand with existing $1 coin inventories. Similar to their feedback in previous years, depository institutions continue to indicate that there are no operational challenges associated with distributing the $1 coin, and the Board has not received any questions or inquiries on this topic.²

$1 Coin Inventories

Reserve Bank inventories of $1 coins decreased by $50 million over the past year, to nearly $1.105 billion as of June 30, 2019 (see table 1 below). Inventories are about $1.04 billion more than the Reserve Banks held before the start of the Presidential $1 coin program. Assuming current levels of demand continue, Reserve Bank inventories will decrease slowly over time. We estimate that Reserve Banks hold sufficient $1 coin inventory to meet demand for nearly 22 years.³

Table 1. Quarterly Reserve Bank (RB) $1 coin inventories, Mint orders, receipts, and payments

Future Reporting and Recommendation for Legislative Action

To ensure compliance with the Presidential $1 Coin Act, the Federal Reserve will continue to fulfill depository institutions' demand for $1 coins with existing inventory, while the United States Mint will meet collector demand for new designs through direct sales.

In its 2012 submission of this annual report, as well as subsequent reports, the Board recommended the elimination of the annual reporting requirement of the Presidential $1 Coin Act, by striking section 5112(p)(3)(B) of title 31 of the United States Code. We continue to recommend this action. In 2012, then-Treasury Secretary Geithner suspended production of the Presidential $1 coins for circulation, and, in 2016, after production of collectors' coins depicting the last eligible president (Ronald Reagan), the program ended.

Quarterly information on Reserve Bank inventory levels, as well as information on Reserve Bank orders, receipts, and payments of $1 coins, is available on the Board's public website at https://www.federalreserve.gov/paymentsystems/coin_data.htm.

Footnotes