A redesigned dollar coin featuring large, dramatic portraits of America's presidents may be the answer to igniting the public's interest in using a coin that many people say they have yet to see in circulation.

That's part of the reason Rep. Mike Castle, R-Del., will introduce legislation March 9 calling for circulating commemorative Presidential dollar coins and a corresponding First Spouses $10 gold bullion program.

Castle is hoping collector enthusiasm for the 50 State quarter dollars will propel support for the Presidential $1 Coin Act of 2004. Castle was the primary sponsor of the State quarter dollar legislation.

The obverses of the proposed dollar coins would feature portraits of all U.S. presidents who have completed their term of service. No sitting president would be featured.

The legislation is unclear on whether living ex-presidents could appear on the dollar coins, although given the ages of a majority of the former presidents and the time it will take to produce coins depicting all deceased presidents, that may not be a major issue.

The legislation does address the general theme: "The American tradition of not issuing a coin with the image of a living person has served the country well and deserves to be continued as a general practice."

The reverse of each Presidential dollar would bear a likeness of the Statue of Liberty.

The last two circulating dollar coins - depicting Susan B. Anthony and Sacagawea - have not circulated widely. The Mint struck both coins in huge quantities their inaugural years in anticipation of their widespread use in commerce. When consumers failed to embrace either coin, the Mint scaled back circulation production in each coin's second year and struck them for collectors only in their third year of production.

Castle told Coin World March 5: "The dollar coin has a place in our marketplace; unfortunately, due to a host of issues the Sacagawea golden dollar was not the answer. It [this legislation] will reinvigorate our circulating coin program in an affordable way for collectors and the public; it will be educational and fun; and it will be a winner financially for the government."

Castle said the Presidential dollar coin is "our way of addressing the issue of circulation [for the dollar coin]."

The legislation specifies rim-to-rim portraits, which would require certain inscriptions to be moved to the edge. Castle hopes that design technique would make the dollar coin more attractive.

Castle said the use of edge lettering is "somewhat novel here [in the United States]," though he noted it has been used on circulating coinage in a number of other countries. Edge lettering along with the proposed rim-to-rim portraits should "get people's attention," he said.

America's first official coin - the 1793 Liberty Cap, Left half cent - features edge lettering stating TWO HUNDRED FOR A DOLLAR. The 1794 to 1797 Liberty Cap, Right half cents possess edge lettering for some years, plain edges for others and both edge types in several years. Early cents, half dollars and dollars also feature edge lettering. The 1907 to 1933 Saint-Gaudens gold $20 double eagles were the last circulating U.S. coins to bear edge lettering - E PLURIBUS UNUM with stars dividing the words. No other U.S. coins struck for circulation since have featured edge lettering, but the 1992 XXV Olympic Games silver dollar features edge lettering - XXV OLYMPIAD with the phrase separated by a tilde.

In promoting the idea of a Presidential dollar program, Castle cites the State quarter dollar program as a success story. He said estimates at the start of the State quarter dollar program were that it would produce $2.6 billion to $5.1 billion in savings over the 10 years of the program. But after only five years, the program has generated more than $4 billion in savings to the government, he said.

The government derives profits from coinage production through seigniorage. Seigniorage is the difference between the face value of a coin and the coin's total cost of production.

Castle acknowledged that collecting the Presidential dollar coins might be harder than finding the State quarter coins in circulation - at first. He's hoping consumers will start asking for the redesigned dollar coins once they know about it, just as they are doing with the State quarter dollars.

Castle said: "Our circulating coins are overdue for a change. The success of the 50-State Circulating Commemorative Quarter Dollar Program shows that a rotating design on a United States circulating coin radically increases demand for the coin, rapidly pulling it through the economy. The State quarter dollar program also has been an educational tool, teaching both Americans and visitors something about each state for which a quarter has been issued."

The Presidential dollar coin legislation notes that the dollar "is both useful and desirable for keeping costs and prices down" in public transportation, parking meters, vending machines and low-dollar value transactions. However, "for a variety of reasons," according to the new measure, the Sacagawea dollar, introduced in 2000, "has not been widely sought-after by the public."

Castle cites a 2002 U.S. General Accounting Office report that states "that many Americans who do not seek, or who reject, the new $1 coin for use in commerce would actively seek the coin if an attractive, educational rotating design were to be struck on the coin."

That GAO report said that despite the U.S. Mint spending $67.1 million in two years on marketing and promotion of the Sacagawea dollar, the effort failed to generate widespread use of the coin in circulation. The GAO report recommended the Mint stop further spending to promote the coin.

The Sacagawea dollar did generate $1.1 billion in revenue and $968 billion in seigniorage.

One thing won't change from the Sacagawea dollar. Castle said the golden-colored alloy used for the Sacagawea dollar coin would be retained. The alloy is 77 percent copper, 12 percent zinc, 7 percent manganese and 4 percent nickel bonded to a core of pure copper.

The First Spouses .9999 gold $10 bullion coin program would feature each first lady (and any future male first spouses, if a woman is elected president) on the obverse and images emblematic of the life and work of the first spouse on the reverse. Those coins would also feature edge lettering.

Castle said he hopes these coins will appeal to women and teach Americans something about the contributions of the presidential wives. Thirty-nine of 43 U.S. presidents served in office with a living spouse (only one first lady, Dolley Madison, has been depicted on a U.S. coin).

Castle said he hopes to see the legislation move through Congress yet this year, but acknowledges "this is a short, tight year, so we'll see."

He's hoping the success of the State quarter dollar program will "mute any opposition."

Castle said: "These things are never as easy as you like. There always seems to be pockets of opposition or support you weren't expecting. We'll introduce the bill and follow it and see what happens."