THE 50-STATE QUARTER

series, started in 1999, has been considered a great success for the U.S. Mint. The 10-year program

has galloping horses and

depicts a loon swimming in one of its 10,000 lakes has nearly tripled demand for quarters.

Hoping to build on that success, the Mint on Nov. 20 unveiled its new presidential dollar coin series. The golden coins will honor four deceased heads of state each year, with a new one appearing every three months, in the order they served. Will they succeed? Numismatic and economic experts are ahem putting their two cents in on the coins' chances.

Christopher Cipoletti, executive director of the Colorado Springs, Colo.-based American Numismatic Association, is naturally excited about the series. But he acknowledges the challenge the new dollar coins will face. Sure, for collectors and vending-machine users, they'll probably be a hit. But many people think of change as an annoyance and balk at the idea of yet more metal weighing down their pockets.

The familiar George Washington greenback is one of the country's best-known symbols and one Americans are attached to. Cipoletti concedes that the only way the new coins are sure to win a spot in consumers' purses is through the elimination of the one-dollar bill. That seems unlikely, though perhaps the appearance of James K. Polk's mug on a dollar coin, due out in 2009, will sway public opinion.

In its past efforts, the Mint's dollar coins have met resistance from the money-spending public. "Prior to these one-dollar coins, we had the Susan B. Anthony coins that was not anybody who grabbed huge national interest. Sacagawea didn't grab good national attention. U.S. presidents are going to be much more recognizable right upfront," Cipoletti says.

SmartMoney.com spoke with Cipoletti about why he thinks coins with presidents' faces will succeed, and how the U.S. Mint might profit from issuing more coins.

SmartMoney.com: Why does the Numismatic Association favor the new presidential coins?

Christopher Cipoletti: When money changes design it gives people something new to collect, and a new interest in understanding money's significance in our history, culture, science and our art. That's one of the reasons we love to see changes in our money, whether in paper or coins. I think the presidential dollar series has the ability for Americans to get excited about a changed design and helps them understand how money fits into our heritage.

SM: Coins are more expensive for the government to produce than paper money, but they last longer and would ultimately save the Mint money. Is that the reason behind issuing new coins?

CC: They do make money if they are purchased by collectors and by others. They do make money off them. But ultimately the coins are made by the U.S. Mint. Our paper money is made by the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, a separate department within the Treasury. They've got separate facilities and separate administrations. What you have with the dollar coin and the dollar bill and a lot of what keeps the dollar coin from being widely accepted you've got two competing forms of money. Dollar coins are heavier than bills. The difference is having five dollar coins weighing down your pocket and five bills, which takes up less space. So you've got that issue.

The other thing you have is the dollar bill has just become generally accepted as our dollar currency. So people are just used to it. In some ways it's like a Microsoft product. Microsoft has become the standard for many software applications in the computer industry. If Microsoft comes out with new product, everyone accepts it. If Corel comes out with a much better product, it won't be as popular. If the paper dollar went away, the dollar coin would probably be widely used and accepted. If you look at the European model, with the introduction of the euro, there are no one- or two-euro bills. They start their paper money at a five-euro bill. They use coins for one and two euros. That would happen here if the paper dollar disappeared. Getting it widely accepted is challenging.

SM: Do you think dead presidents will do the trick?

CC: People in the U.S. are interested in our presidents, especially historical presidents.... I think it will intrigue people a lot. Prior to these one-dollar coins, we had the Susan B. Anthony coins that was not anybody who grabbed huge national interest. Sacagawea didn't grab good national attention. U.S. presidents are going to be much more recognizable right upfront. The other thing I think will help with circulating these dollar coins are that the images are going to be changing. With Susan B. Anthony, it was her and that was it. They didn't change the images, just the year on the coins. With the presidential dollar series, you're going to see images changing. That will help. People will be looking for the next one in the series. We've seen that with the 50-state quarters program. The quarter is widely used and accepted in our commerce. But I think the changing images on the quarters got collectors taking a lot out of circulation.

SM: Isn't it economically inefficient for so much money in change to sit around in jars in people's houses and not circulating and being spent?

CC: It's actually a good thing to have all that change collected. It's a good thing for the government. It costs less to make the coin than what it's worth.... When people take it out of circulation, the Mint has to put more in and they profit.

SM: How is the success of the presidential dollar coin series gauged in this situation if people use them or collect them?

CC: I think that ultimately depends who you're talking to. For coin collectors and the Numismatic Association, having more people collecting is a positive thing. That's what we'd love to see happen. I think the Mint would also like to see that happen. They make money off the numismatic products. They make coins for collecting that are different from coins for usage. They're packaged in different ways. There are commemorative coins they market and package in different ways.... The Mint is making money off sales of these coins, which then allows us to put more money back into the Treasury.... So from a collecting standpoint, the more people collecting the series, the better. From a circulating standpoint, you don't necessarily want to have them pulled out of circulation, but using them more; you don't want people to put them in a sock drawer or view them as a novelty.

One of the things you need to make them successful is you have to get the marketplace to accept them. You have to get retail store clerks to give them out as change. You have to have space in the cash drawer for them.... But it's getting people accustomed to having that weight in their pockets. We become creatures of habit, and getting beyond that can be tough.

SM: How much does the U.S. Mint's profit from new coins have to do with the price of commodities?

CC: It depends on what it is you're making. Some say it costs more to make a penny than one cent. Ultimately, it drives the profit the Mint can make to return to the Treasury. It doesn't tend to drive the demand or the need for the money. But it does drive what the Mint can ultimately make off of it.