New coinage

The US Mint is to launch a series of new $1 coins honouring US Presidents. The say, of course, that this is not an attempt to wean Americans off of low value paper money (e.g. the $1 and $5 notes) which cost the mint a fortune to keep replacing. I don't believe them. After all for those few Americans who actually go to other economically advanced countries must find it silly how little the largest American coin in common circulation (the quarter) is worth compared to the largest common coins abroad. A short comparison:

US - highest value coin $0.25
US - lowest value bank note $1.00

UK - highest value coin £2.00 (3.91 USD)
UK - lowest value bank note £5.00 (9.79 USD)

Euroland - highest value coin €2.00 (2.63 USD)
Euroland - lowest value bank note €5.00 (6.58 USD)

The authorities are hoping that the new coins will prove as popular as the fifty state quarters series that was recently completed and, if so, will inevitably lead to the elimination of at least the one dollar bill.

I think that they haven't been creative enough. The value of the coins should be based on the relative importance and positive impact of the president on the money. For instance:

A George Washington or Abraham Lincoln coin might be worth $5.00
A Thomas Jefferson or Franklin Roosevelt might be worth £3.50
A Teddy Roosevelt could be worth $1.00
A Richard Nixon could be worth $0.69
A Bush 41 could be valued at $0.41
A Millard Filmore be denominated at $0.22 etc

But they would have to do something extra special for the Decider (TM) wouldn't they? My proposal would be that the Bush 43 coin would in fact denote negative wealth in an attempt to mirror his impact on goodwill towards his country around the globe. Possession of a GWBush coin would represent a debt owed to the country of say $122,820.00 (roughly the equivalent of what the Iraq war was costing, per minute, in 2004).