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THE UNIVERSITY BARRY KANSAS
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 2006
CURRENCY
ASSOCIATED PRESS
U. S. Mint Director Edmund C. Moy, right, and Louise Roseman, a representative of the Federal Reserve, left, unveil the designs for a new series of Presidential dollar coins Monday during a ceremony at the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery in Washington. The coins will enter circulation in 2007.
U.S. Mint releases new coin design
BY MARTIN CRUTSINGER
BY MARTIN CRUTSINGER
ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Can George Washington and Thomas Jefferson succeed where Susan B. Anthony and Sacajawa failed? The U.S. Mint is hoping America's presidents will win acceptance, finally, for the maligned dollar coin.
The public will get the chance to decide starting in February when the first of the new coins, bearing the image of the first president, is introduced.
Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison are scheduled to grace the coin in 2007, with a different president appearing every three months.
The series will honor four different presidents per year, in the order they served in office. Each president will appear on only one coin, except for Grover Cleveland, who will be on two because he was the only president to serve nonconsecutive terms. To be depicted on a coin, a president must have been dead for at least two years.
The idea of rotating designs borrows from the highly successful 50-state quarter program. Since its launch in 1999, this program has featured five state designs each year in the order the state joined the union.
The quarter program has been widely successful, introducing millions of people to coin collecting for the first time. The Mint hopes the presidential program will enjoy similar success, in part because of the bold designs on the new coins.
Those designs were being made public during a ceremony Monday at the Smithsonian Institution's National Portrait Gallery, home of some of the famous paintings that served as models for the coins.
Copies of the designs were made available to The Associated Press in advance.
"These designs are beautiful and so eye-catching that a lot of Americans are going to do a double
take when they get them in their change the first time, $ ^{a} $Edmund C. Moy, the director of the Mint, said in an AP interview.
The coins will be the same size as the Sacagawea dollar — a little larger than a quarter — and the same golden color as the Sacagawea. The image of the president will be on one side and the Statue of Liberty on the other.
The images will be slightly larger than those on a quarter because space was freed up by moving some of the traditional wording such as "In God We Trust" to the edge of the coin. Edge lettering has not been tried on an American coin since 1933.
POLITICS
Brownback eyes presidential nod, shrugs off odds
Senator equates himself with Reagan
BY SAM HANANEL ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Sen.
Sam Brownback, who is considering a White House bid in 2008,
said Monday the Republican field has room for a "full-scale Ronald Reagan conservative" and pledged to make a final decision next month.
The Kansas senator said he was not discouraged from running by
the Democrats' strong gains in this month's midterm elections, including assuming majority control of the House and Senate.
Brownback has made several trips to Iowa, New Hampshire, Michigan and other states that hold early presidential nominating contests. While national polls show McCain and Giuliani running strong, similar polls have shown Brownback in the low single digits.
"It does not make it less likely," he said in an interview.
He also has taken a prominent role in the fight against genocide in Sudan's Darfur region.
He dismisses the early surveys.
"I really believe that the basic conservative ideas and ideals were not repudiated. Our execution was."
SEN. SAM BROWNBACK Republican from Kansas
"I really believe that the basic conservative ideas and ideals were not repudiated. Our execution was."
Name recognition poses a more daunting challenge for Brownback. Arizona Sen. John McCain and former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani have set up presidential exploratory committees. Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., also are weighing bids.
Brownback, who was elected in 1996, is a forceful foe of abortion and embryonic stem-cell research.
"I think there's room for a full-scale Ronald Reagan conservative in the field," Brownback said. "I fully agree that other people have much higher name identification than I do. No question about that. But I think what you have to look at is the policy positions they get out once you have an effective campaign."
"Where are my positions and others versus the base of the party?" he asked. "I think that is really the keything tolook at, particularly at this point in time where you haven't even had a campaign
and all of that polling is based on name ID"
Brownback downplayed the challenge of gaining national recognition while representing a small population state like Kansas.
Ken Ciboski, a professor of political science at Wichita State University, said Brownback hasn't yet attained the kind of stature he needs to gain a nationwide following.
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"He could do well in certain pockets or Iowa and some other states, but I don't see him having this wide recognition as a Republican senator," Ciboski said. "I think it would be a major uphill climb for him to try to get the nomination."
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