Presidential Dollars Join the Annual U.S. Mint Proof Set

A 14-Coin Proof Set

At noon Eastern Time on Thursday, July 19, 2007, the United States Mint opened sales of the 2007 United States Mint Proof Set.

The price was $26.95.

What made the set historically distinctive was its size and composition.

Four new Presidential $1 Coins had been added to the annual lineup, bringing the total to 14 coins.

For collectors accustomed to annual Proof Sets as snapshots of the nation's regular coinage, the new dollars dramatically changed the presentation.

The Presidential dollars in the set honored the first four Presidents of the United States:

George Washington, who served from 1789 to 1797.

John Adams, who served from 1797 to 1801.

Thomas Jefferson, who served from 1801 to 1809.

James Madison, who served from 1809 to 1817.

Congress had designed the program to release four presidential designs each year in the order the Presidents served.

That pace meant every annual Proof Set during the active program could contain an unusually large number of dollar coins.

Not the First Presidential Dollar Proof Product

July 19 needs one important qualification.

The four Presidential dollars had already appeared together in a separate collector product.

The dedicated 2007 Presidential $1 Coin Proof Set went on sale June 21 for $14.95.

Therefore July 19 was not the first time collectors could buy Proof Presidential dollars.

It was the first time they were incorporated into the Mint's traditional annual Proof Set alongside the year's other regular denominations.

That is the specific milestone recorded by the master calendar.

The George Washington Presidential dollar entered circulation on February 15, 2007.

The Mint staged a high-profile launch at Grand Central Terminal in New York City, complete with armored cars delivering the new coins.

The program was modeled in part on the extraordinary public response to the 50 State Quarters.

Mint officials hoped regularly changing presidential portraits would encourage Americans to notice and use dollar coins.

By July, the program had already become one of the defining numismatic stories of 2007.

Presidential dollars were the same basic size and golden color as the Sacagawea dollar, but their design format was dramatically different.

The obverse carried a presidential portrait, the President's name, the number of his presidency, and years in office.

The reverse used a common Statue of Liberty design with UNITED STATES OF AMERICA and $1.

Several inscriptions normally found on a coin's faces were moved to the edge.

That decision became one of the program's most memorable features.

The 2007 Presidential dollars carried the date, mintmark, E PLURIBUS UNUM, and IN GOD WE TRUST on the edge.

Edge lettering created more open space on the obverse and reverse and evoked historical coinage traditions.

It also introduced new production complications.

Circulating Presidential dollars passed through a separate edge-lettering process after striking.

That led to one of the most famous modern U.S. coin errors almost immediately after the program began.

The “Godless Dollar” Sensation

Some 2007 George Washington dollars escaped the Mint without their edge inscriptions.

Because IN GOD WE TRUST was among the missing inscriptions, news reports quickly labeled them “Godless dollars.”

The nickname was sensational, but the underlying cause was mechanical: the coins had failed to receive their edge lettering.

The errors generated enormous publicity and reminded the public that even modern high-speed coin production can create collectible mistakes.

Proof coins, however, were manufactured through a more controlled process and were intended specifically for collectors.

A Proof coin is not simply an especially nice circulation strike.

It is made through a specialized manufacturing process.

The Mint used carefully prepared dies and planchets to produce highly detailed coins with polished fields and frosted design elements.

According to the Mint's 2007 announcement, each Proof coin was struck at least twice to bring up sharp detail and create the desired cameo effect.

All 14 coins in the annual set were struck at San Francisco and carried the S mintmark.

By 2007, the San Francisco Mint had become closely associated with Proof coinage.

The facility had a much longer history stretching back to the California Gold Rush, but its modern role emphasized numismatic production rather than ordinary circulating coin output.

For collectors, the S mintmark on a modern Proof coin signals that specialized purpose.

The 2007 set therefore brought four brand-new presidential designs into one of the Mint's longest-running collector traditions.

The Presidential dollars were not the only rotating designs in the box.

The 50 State Quarters Program was still underway.

The five 2007 quarters honored:

Montana, with a bison skull and landscape symbolism.

Washington, featuring Mount Rainier and a salmon.

Idaho, featuring a peregrine falcon and the state's outline.

Wyoming, showing a bucking horse and rider.

Utah, depicting the joining of the Union Pacific and Central Pacific railroads at Promontory.

That meant nine of the 14 coins in the set belonged to rotating-design programs.

Two Giant Coin Programs Cross Paths

This is what makes the 2007 Proof Set especially representative of its era.

The 50 State Quarters Program had transformed public interest in coins after beginning in 1999.

The Presidential $1 Coin Program attempted to build on that model with four changing designs each year.

For a short period, both programs operated at the same time.

The 2007 Proof Set captured that overlap in one package.

Instead of a mostly static annual lineup, collectors received nine changing historical designs.

The remaining coins gave the set continuity with familiar American denominations.

There was a Sacagawea Golden Dollar, a Kennedy half dollar, Roosevelt dime, Jefferson nickel, and Lincoln cent.

The Sacagawea dollar is particularly interesting because the new Presidential dollars had not replaced it.

Federal law required continued production of the Sacagawea design while Presidential dollars were issued.

Thus the 2007 set contained five different dollar coins: four Presidents plus Sacagawea.

Fourteen coins required more packaging than a traditional smaller Proof Set.

The Mint placed the Presidential dollars together in a one-lens box.

The other ten coins occupied a two-lens box.

Both boxes fit inside a custom sleeve to create the complete annual set.

The Mint even noted that packaging labels could vary: some sets used a label clarifying that the two-lens box contained 10 coins of the complete 14-coin set, while others printed the clarification directly on the box.

Both were official packaging variations.

The Mint priced the annual 14-coin Proof Set at $26.95.

There was no household order limit.

Collectors could order through the Mint's website, by telephone, or through its subscription program.

The separate Presidential Proof Set remained available for $14.95, while a five-coin 50 State Quarters Proof Set cost $13.95.

Collectors therefore had several ways to obtain subsets of the year's Proof coinage, but the July 19 annual set was the complete clad Proof snapshot.

Why Annual Proof Sets Matter

Proof Sets are often treated as routine Mint products because they appear every year.

Historically, however, they can function like sealed time capsules.

One package preserves the denomination structure, designs, minting technology, and collector marketing of a particular year.

Changes that seem ordinary at the time become obvious when sets from different decades are placed side by side.

The 2007 set immediately announces that something unusual was happening: there are simply far more coins than in many earlier annual sets.

The United States Mint produced special Proof coinage for collectors long before the modern packaged annual set existed.

Nineteenth-century Proofs were often made in small quantities and sold to collectors individually or in sets.

Regular modern Proof Set production evolved substantially during the twentieth century.

Packaging, finishes, denominations, and even the facilities responsible for production changed over time.

By 2007, the annual Proof Set had become a familiar gateway product for both beginning and experienced collectors.

The Presidential program had a broader goal than selling collector sets.

Congress and the Mint wanted Americans to use dollar coins in commerce.

The United States had repeatedly struggled to persuade the public to replace or supplement the one-dollar bill with coins.

The Susan B. Anthony dollar had failed to gain widespread acceptance.

The Sacagawea dollar initially attracted attention but also struggled in routine circulation.

Presidential portraits were intended to make the denomination more engaging.

The strategy had logic behind it.

The 50 State Quarters proved that changing designs could make millions of Americans inspect their pocket change.

Children collected quarters in maps and folders. Adults searched rolls. Casual collectors became aware of mints, dates, and designs.

If Presidents could create similar excitement around the dollar coin, perhaps the denomination could finally establish itself in everyday transactions.

The 2007 Proof Set physically demonstrated that strategy by placing both programs side by side.

The Program's Long-Term Circulation Problem

Collecting interest did not translate into enough everyday dollar-coin use.

Federal Reserve inventories accumulated as more Presidential dollars were produced than commerce demanded.

In late 2011, the Treasury suspended production of Presidential dollars for general circulation.

The series continued for collectors, but the original hope of transforming routine dollar transactions had not been achieved.

That later outcome makes the optimism of the 2007 launch year especially interesting.

The first four Presidents formed a historically coherent opening group.

Washington established precedents for the presidency itself.

Adams oversaw the first peaceful transfer of presidential power between individuals.

Jefferson's administration included the Louisiana Purchase.

Madison led the nation during the War of 1812.

Putting all four into the first annual Proof Set gave collectors a compact metallic sequence of the republic's earliest executive history.

American coinage had long featured historical figures, but the Presidential program made portrait rotation systematic.

Every few months brought another President.

The program eventually moved from the founding generation through the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

For collectors, this created a series that combined numismatics with presidential history.

For designers and sculptors, it required a steady stream of new portraits that had to remain recognizable at coin scale.

The original edge arrangement did not last unchanged.

Beginning in 2009, IN GOD WE TRUST was moved from the edge to the obverse.

The shift followed controversy and legislation surrounding the inscription's placement.

That makes the 2007 dollars distinctive as representatives of the program's original design concept.

Their edges carry a larger share of the statutory inscriptions than later issues.

Collectors wanting silver versions of certain denominations had to wait.

The 2007 Silver Proof Set went on sale August 23.

It also contained 14 coins and included the four Presidential dollars for the first time.

The five State Quarters, Kennedy half dollar, and Roosevelt dime were struck in the traditional 90 percent silver alloy used for that year's silver collector set.

The Presidential dollars themselves retained their standard composition.

July 19 therefore belongs specifically to the regular annual Proof Set, not the later Silver Proof Set.

The Uncirculated Set Expanded Too

The Presidential dollars also transformed the year's Uncirculated Coin Set.

Released October 9, the 2007 Mint Set contained 28 coins because it included examples from both Philadelphia and Denver.

It was likewise the first annual Uncirculated Set to contain Presidential dollars.

Thus the new program expanded multiple traditional Mint products during its debut year.

The July Proof Set was simply the first annual flagship set to show the change.

The 2007 Proof Set came from an era when the Mint was experimenting aggressively with changing designs and collector products.

The State Quarters phenomenon had demonstrated enormous public appetite for accessible coin collecting.

Presidential dollars were beginning.

First Spouse gold coins had also debuted in 2007.

Commemoratives, bullion coins, annual sets, and specialized presidential products created a crowded numismatic calendar.

The 14-coin Proof Set was almost a physical symbol of that abundance.

July 19 did not introduce the first Presidential dollar into circulation—that had happened in February.

It did not introduce the first Presidential dollar Proofs to collectors—the separate four-coin Proof Set had gone on sale in June.

Its significance is more specific and more useful to a precise coin-history calendar.

On July 19, Presidential dollars entered the traditional annual United States Mint Proof Set for the first time.

The result was a 14-coin package containing the first four Presidents, all five 2007 State Quarters, Sacagawea, Kennedy, Roosevelt, Jefferson, and Lincoln.

Nine of those 14 coins carried designs from two simultaneously running rotating programs.

Few annual Proof Sets capture their moment in U.S. coinage as clearly.

The 2007 set preserves the year when the Mint tried to take the design-changing excitement of the State Quarters and extend it to America's dollar coin—one President at a time.

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ALSO ON THIS DAY

2007 — 2007 U.S. Mint Proof Set — The 14-coin 2007 U.S. Mint Proof Set went on sale.

Related Coin History

• The George Washington Dollar Launches the Presidential $1 Coin Program
• The U.S. Mint Releases the Final Limited Edition Silver Proof Set
• The U.S. Mint Releases the 2006 Proof Set
• The U.S. Mint Acknowledges Washington Dollars Missing Their Edge Lettering