Until the end of 2011, the U.S. Mint has been automatically producing large numbers of one dollar coins bearing images of American presidents. All presidential visages portrayed on the face of the coin were those of deceased United States leaders.
By U.S. Treasury estimates, nearly one and one half billion dollars worth of these coins resided in Federal Reserve vaults last year. Before December 2011, even more were scheduled for mintage in the next five years. A 2005 congressional act initially created the surplus, calling for between seventy and eighty million coins to be produced for each dead president. The coins were not popular.
The current administration overturned the act at the end of last year. Limiting production of the coins to fulfill only collector demand will save the U.S. government an estimated fifty million dollars per year. A premium has been put in place for all U.S. minted collectible coins, to cover production costs.
http://www.mineweb.com/mineweb/view/mineweb/en/page504?oid=141615&sn=Detail&pid=32
