During the 108th and 109th Congresses, two of the most (if not THE most) exception-filled commemorative coin bills were introduced. The bills, one in each Congress, called for the striking of a three-coin program (gold, silver and copper-nickel (CuNi) clad) "in commemoration of the tragic loss of lives at the Pentagon on September 11, 2001, and to support construction of the Pentagon 9/11 Memorial in Arlington, Virginia."
Both of the bills were introduced in the House of Representatives by Tom Davis (R-VA), and each was referred to the House Committee on Financial Services with a further referral to its Subcommittee on Domestic and International Monetary Policy, Trade, and Technology.
Each of the bills included the following "Findings" section:
"The Congress finds as follows:
(1) Construction of the Pentagon was completed in the midst of World War II on January 15, 1943.
(2) September 11, 2001, marks a tragic day in the history of the United States and the Pentagon Building located in Arlington, Virginia.
(3) 184 individuals ages 3 to 71 lost their lives through the horrific event that unfolded at the Pentagon on September 11, 2001.
(4) An appropriate memorial reminding us of the brave men, women, and children who perished has been designed and is to be built on 1.93 acres located on the western side of the Pentagon Building.
(5) The target completion date for the construction of the Pentagon Memorial park is late fall 2006.
(6) Almost $30,000,000 will need to be raised from the private sector in order to begin construction of the memorial and to maintain it upon completion.
(7) The surcharge proceeds from the sale of a commemorative coin, which would have no net cost to the taxpayers, would raise valuable funding for the construction and maintenance of the Pentagon Memorial in remembrance of those who lost their lives at the Pentagon on September 11, 2001."[/i]
And now for a look at the bills' more unusual provisions:
1) The Gold coin was to be a one-ounce $50 coin (0.9167 fine) vs. the more typical Half Eagle ($5) with a weight of 8.359 grams (~0.269 troy ounces) and a fineness of 0.900.
2) The mintage of the Gold $50 coin was to be 10,000 plus an amount determined by "The Secretary, in consultation with the Attorney General of the United States, the Secretary of Defense, and the Governor of Virginia [who] shall determine the number of innocent individuals confirmed or presumed to have been killed as a result of the terrorist attack against the Pentagon that occurred on September 11, 2001, and shall identify such individuals."
Note: It is currently believed that 184 people died at the Pentagon on September 11, 2001.
3) The mintages for the Silver Dollar and Clad Half Dollar were open-ended, with each to be struck "to meet demand" as decided by the Secretary of the Treasury.
4) The legislation was intended to create a coin program that would raise funds for the Pentagon Memorial "as quickly as possible" and therefore the checks and balances incorporated in Section 5112 (m) of Title 31 of the United States Code were not to apply to the coin program. The referenced Section requires the US Mint to recover its design and production costs for a commemorative coin before distributing collected surcharges to the coin's sponsor/beneficiary. The language in the Pentagon Memorial coin bills removed this requirement and would have meant surcharges would have been paid from the program's outset and before the Mint recouped its costs.
5) The designs for the coins were to be "emblematic of the spirit and bravery of the civilians, servicemen and women that work at the Pentagon and were aboard Flight 77 on September 11, 2001." Such "emblematic" design statements are common place in coin legislation, but the bills further stipulated that each coin was to include "an inscription of the year "2001". No reference to the inclusion of the issue date (likely 2005 or 2006) was included. Thus, the coin bills appear to be specifying a backdating of the coins - not something often done by the US Mint.
6) The Gold $50 coin was only to be struck as a Proof coin; the other denominations were to be struck exclusively as Uncirculated. (I can only imagine the collector outcry over such requirements!)
7) One unusual but hard-to-argue provision of the bills was the stipulation that a Gold $50 coin would be presented "free of charge to the next of kin or personal representative of each" fallen individual described above. Such a provision appears to have been modeled after the presentation of Congressional Gold Medals which are presented to the recipient without charge. (In this case, the coins were to be presented posthumously.)
The issue price of the Gold $50 coin was to include a surcharge of $100 per coin. The issue price of the Silver Dollar and Clad Half Dollar coins were to include a surcharge of $10 and $5, respectively. Collected surcharges were to be paid to the Pentagon Memorial Fund "for the purposes of construction of a memorial at the Pentagon, Arlington, Virginia."
If all 10,000 Gold $50 coins were sold, they would have generated $1 million in surcharges. If the commemorative coin program was expected to generate 20% of the $30 million needed for the Memorial (i.e., $6 million), a large number of Silver Dollars and Clad Half Dollars would have needed to have been sold!
Note: The 20% figure is a guess on my part.
Neither of the bills was reported out of Committee, and so neither progressed in Congress.
Private funds for the Pentagon Memorial were successfully raised without the surcharges of the proposed coin program. You can learn more about the Memorial by visiting its web site at:
https://www.pentagonmemorial.org/ I've not visited the Memorial, but the images I've seen of it give me the impression that it is quite abstract/symbolic - maybe too much so. But such is in the eye of the beholder.
For other of my posts about commemorative coins and medals, including other What If? stories about modern- and classic-era US commemorative coin proposals, see:
Commems Collection.
Posted 10/26/2024 3:34 pm
