I just saw that the US Mint will soon be releasing 5 new quarter designs for the America The Beautiful Quarters Program. This program started in 2010, and will issue 56 quarters featuring national parks and other sites.
Wait, more new designs?
And who is paying for all this? Oh yeah, the taxpayers.
The taxpayers of a nation in debt.
Shouldn’t we be paying off our debt?
And if we ARE spending anything, shouldn’t it be to hire a few new teachers? Or build a new classroom for a school that needs it?
Now I understand that currency cycles in and out and that it may be necessary to print new currency this year to replace the old worn-out currency. But does it really need to be a new design?
Obviously the new designs are not free:
It costs money to create the new design,
money for sculpting,
money for testing,
money to create the new molds and dies,
money to cover the administrative costs,
money to advertise the new designs,
money for legislation to approve the coins,
money for time in the House of Representatives, Senate, and President approval,
etc…
Cha-ching!
And think about the time it takes to do all of this. Time that could be spent towards something else. And the focus and attention that could be directed towards other things.
You know that thing people do in the spring when they go through things and get rid of things they don’t need, clean things up, and simplify? Usually its called spring cleaning. Someone needs to do a nice “spring cleaning” of the US budget.
When you don’t have money to spend – you need to make some changes in your spending habits.
You can watch a simple cartoon video on the birth of a coin to get an idea of some of the process (and costs) involved in a new coin design.
Or you can read an article about new coin designs called Overkill At the United States Mint with New Coin Designs