Between April 2008 and May 2014, eight bills were introduced in Congress (four in the Senate, four in the House of Representatives) that called for Silver Dollars to commemorate "the centennial of the establishment of Mother's Day" - the Mother's Day Centennial Commemorative Coin Act.
The effort to celebrate the day was initiated by John D. Rockefeller IV (D-WV) in the Senate during the 110th Congress; he introduced his first coin bill in April 2009. A companion bill was introduced in the House of Representatives by Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) in May 2009.
The bills called for the striking of up to 400,000 Silver Dollars of standard US specifications (weight of 26.73 grams, diameter of 1.5 inches, composition of 90% silver and 10% copper). Each coin was to carry a surcharge of $10, with collected surcharges to be split 50/50 between the Susan G. Komen for the Cure organization and the National Osteoporosis Foundation - in both cases the funds were to be used for further research by the organization.
As was/is common in standalone commemorative coin bills, a "Findings" section was included:
"The Congress hereby finds as follows:
(1) Anna Jarvis, who is considered to be the founder of the modern Mother's Day, was born in Webster, West Virginia on May 1, 1864.
(2) A resident of Grafton, West Virginia, Anna Jarvis dedicated much of her adult life to honoring her mother, Anna Reeves Jarvis, who passed on May 9, 1905.
(3) In 1908, the Matthews Methodist Episcopal Church of Grafton, West Virginia, officially proclaimed the third anniversary of Anna Reeves Jarvis' death to be Mother's Day.
(4) In 1910, West Virginia Governor, William Glasscock, issued the first Mother's Day Proclamation encouraging all West Virginians to attend church and wear white carnations.
(5) On May 8, 1914, the Sixty-Third Congress approved H.J. Res. 263 designating the second Sunday in May to be observed as Mother's Day and encouraging all Americans to display the American flag at their homes as a public expression of the love and reverence for the mothers of our Nation.
(6) On May 9, 1914, President Woodrow Wilson issued a Presidential Proclamation directing government officials to display the American flag on all government buildings and inviting the American people to display the flag at their homes on the second Sunday of May as a public expression of the love and reverence for the mothers of our Nation."Each of the bills was referred to its designated Committee - the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs in the Senate and the Committee on Financial Services in the House; the Financial Services Committee further referred the bill to its Subcommittee on Domestic and International Monetary Policy, Trade, and Technology.
The journey of the Senate bill ended in its Committee, but the House version - with an amendment that prohibited its surcharges if it was not one of two annual commemorative coin allowed by law (i.e., a third or later program) - passed the House and was referred to the Senate for its consideration. Once again, the bill stalled in the Senate Committee.
Considering the number of co-sponsors each version of the bill had - 25 in the Senate, 297 in the House - it's a little surprising the bills stalled. Of course, the "stall" was in the Senate not the House - co-sponsors represented 25% of the Senate (a clear minority), but more than 68% of the House (a >2/3 majority).
Rockefeller and Capito tried again in the 111th Congress with the same results; the number of co-sponsors dropped to 14 in the Senate and 291 in the House.
In the 112th Congress, Rockefeller teamed up with David B. McKinley (R-WV) to introduce companion bills. Neither bill made it out of Committee. The number of-cosponsors dropped again, to just 6 in the Senate, and to just 21 in the House - support was definitely waning.
One last attempt was made in 2011, during the 113th Congress. Rockefeller and McKinley again were the sponsors; neither bill made it out of its referred Committee. The number of co-sponsors dropped in the Senate, down to just one, while the number rebounded slightly in the House to 51. The 2011 bills called for the coins to be issued in 2018 (vs. 2014) but otherwise continued the provisions of the earlier bills.
No further attempts to secure a Mother's Day coin were made. Honestly, it's probably a good thing that the measures failed. Had one been approved, the parade of coin proposals for similar holidays - Mother-in-Law's Day, Father's Day, Grandparents Day, etc.) would have inevitably followed. I can almost "see" the Aunt and Uncle Day supporters rallying their colleagues on the floors of Congress!
IMO, the mother-child bond is obviously a special one - it doesn't need a coin to be special. My mom has been gone for 30 years, but I still think of her.
For other of my posts about commemorative coins and medals, including other What If? stories from the classic and modern US commemorative eras, see:
Commems Collection.
Posted 10/19/2023 9:16 pm
