A *small* step in the right direction

This just in - from my June 30th Coin World.  The first article on the front page tells us of the US Mint's new program whereby banks, businesses and even ordinary people can order either $250 or $500 of single president dollar coins directly from the US Mint and there is no shipping fee.  Though it would be a large outlay for some this is a nice way to really streamline access to the dollar coins.  My personal experience has been that the only bank in my neighborhood that had been ordering them subsequently stopped.  I spoke with their coinage officer who told me that he tried to order Monroe dollars at the beginning of the year and was still being shipped those with Washington.  While I might not need $250 worth of the coins, it would be easy enough to order them, keep out what I want and then deposit the rest back into my checking/savings account.  The program should facilitate coin shops, small businesses and small banks (for whom the $1000 minimum order from the Fed would be too much) in acquiring the coins.  I make no predications though on if this will help push the coins into circulation.

For the record, I will keep my comments about dollar coins generically to myself for the sake of this post because a soon forthcoming post will have plenty to say.