Posted 12/04/2013 6:08 pm
The Presidential $1 Coin Act of 2005 can be viewed here.
The question is how to interpret the "Order of issuance" requirement that the Presidential dollar coins "shall be issued in order..."
This can be read two ways.
One interpretation is that no president can be skipped, even if they are alive. That is, a Regan dollar cannot be issued before Carter is eligible and his coin issued. Therefore, Ford would end the series.
The other interpretation implies that they could not issue those eligible (by death) out of sequence. That is, no Jefferson before Adams, or Reagan before Ford. This interpretation would allow for Carter to be skipped to issue a Reagan dollar.
I feel that this ambiguity should prompt Congress discuss the issue if we neared the deadline with a still living Carter. Even in this extremely polarized environment, I feel they could easily pass an amendment to explicitly allow a Reagan dollar, since the program commemorates all presidents equally. A good compromise, to encourage passage, might include verbiage to expedite and allow a Carter dollar soon after he becomes deceased (getting around the "dead two years" and "issued in order" requirements).
For what it is worth, the Wikipedia article implies that a Reagan dollar will be issued and will be the 39th or 40th in the series...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presidential_Dollar
The question is how to interpret the "Order of issuance" requirement that the Presidential dollar coins "shall be issued in order..."
Quote:
Order of issuance.--The coins issued under this subsection commemorating Presidents of the United States shall be issued in the order of the period of service of each President, beginning with President George Washington.
Order of issuance.--The coins issued under this subsection commemorating Presidents of the United States shall be issued in the order of the period of service of each President, beginning with President George Washington.
This can be read two ways.
One interpretation is that no president can be skipped, even if they are alive. That is, a Regan dollar cannot be issued before Carter is eligible and his coin issued. Therefore, Ford would end the series.
The other interpretation implies that they could not issue those eligible (by death) out of sequence. That is, no Jefferson before Adams, or Reagan before Ford. This interpretation would allow for Carter to be skipped to issue a Reagan dollar.
I feel that this ambiguity should prompt Congress discuss the issue if we neared the deadline with a still living Carter. Even in this extremely polarized environment, I feel they could easily pass an amendment to explicitly allow a Reagan dollar, since the program commemorates all presidents equally. A good compromise, to encourage passage, might include verbiage to expedite and allow a Carter dollar soon after he becomes deceased (getting around the "dead two years" and "issued in order" requirements).
For what it is worth, the Wikipedia article implies that a Reagan dollar will be issued and will be the 39th or 40th in the series...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presidential_Dollar
