It’s worth a nickel

For years, my dad and I have been collecting coins. By that, I mean that my dad buys them, gives them to me as gifts, and I catalog them in books.

I enjoy this. It’s cool to see all the new coins coming out, and it’s a nice link between my dad and me … it gives us something to talk about.

We’ve had a lot of success with the state quarter series, and so when the Presidential $1 coin series launched in 2007, my dad didn’t skip a beat.

For Christmas, I got a book, and six dollars: the Philadelphia and Denver minting of Presidents Washington, Adams and Jefferson.

So what does this have to do with Jimmy Carter?

As I read up on this, I learned (unsurprisingly), that in order to be honored, each President must predecease his minting date by at least two years.

This doesn’t really represent a problem for the first 38 presidents; #38 is President Gerald Ford, whose coin will be minted in 2016, at which time he’ll have been dead nearly ten years.

President Carter (#39), however, is also due to have his coin debut in 2016, which means he’ll have to die by 2014. Okay, yes, he is 83 years old today, which would mean that in 2014 he turns 90. But I’m just saying, it’s not very nice to plan for the guy’s death just so he can have a dollar coin with his face stamped onto it.

I mean, either way he’s screwed … if he doesn’t die, it’ll take an Act of Congress to get his coin made. If he does die, well … he’s dead.