The government is serious about change, but I’m not talking about presidential campaign rhetoric. I mean pocket change; the U.S. Mint’s new dollar coins.
The gold-colored dollar coins feature All the Presidents' Heads, in the order they served. Each coin features the Statue of Liberty, dramatic portraits, edges inscripted with the year of minting, "E Pluribus Unum," "In God We Trust" and the mint mark. Right now you can get Washington, Adams, Jefferson and Madison and next year four more coins will be available.
The gold color might make us feel like pirates hoarding gold doubloons.
Yeah, that’s right, Madison was our fourth president. C'mon, you knew he was a president, but before this coin we all would have been hard pressed to tell you much more than that. But for some Milwaukeeans, having presidential faces on coins is a great conversation starter.
Rick Gagliano of Milwaukee is crazy about the new presidential dollar coins. Canadians might says he's loony! The one-time White House intern and avid collector of political memorabilia thinks the new coin series is going to get people interested in these sometimes enigmatic and seemingly stuffy figures of history.
Gagliano, who works as director of student activities at Milwaukee School of Engineering (MSOE), is passing on his enthusiasm for history and politics to the next generation by offering to trade in MSOE students’ paper dollars for the $1 coins. Gagliano also placed stickers on campus vending machines that accept the new coins to increase awareness of their usability. Elsewhere in Milwaukee, the new LUKE multi-space parking meters also take the coins.
"I think the dollar coins are unique and historic," Gagliano said. “As a university, we always are looking for teachable moments and a department like ours doesn’t always have a chance to integrate with an academic subject ... in this case history.”
Besides being a conversation starter or a way to spark interest in U.S. history, the government estimates it would save us taxpayers up to $500 million if we replaced paper dollars with coins, because dollar bills have a lifespan that’s just a bit longer than butterflies.
To save that chunk of change, the Mint will need a full-throttle PR campaign to encourage folks to use these coins.
After all, Gagliano is only one man and previous dollar coin introductions didn’t exactly cause a run on banks.
In 2000 they sprung the gold colored $1 Sacagawea on an unsuspecting public and the Susan B. Anthony arrived years before that. But the few souls who attempted to use them quickly grew tired of receiving incorrect change from confused clerks and hostility from waitstaff who thought they were being stiffed with 75 cents instead of three bucks. Even now, you only get ‘stuck’ with them when you try to buy stamps out of the Post Office vending machines.
Maybe when they start minting coins featuring Packers Hall of Famers or Bo Black, Milwaukeeans will really sit up and take notice.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
