Redesigning U.S. Coins

Politics and press have teamed up lately to place trivial interpretations on issues that are not trivial. An example was your April 9 article “Cranston Gives No Quarter on Coin Redesign.”

I’ve worked in collaboration with conservative Republican Sen. Malcolm Wallop (R-Wyo.) for redesigning the tail side of our circulating coins for several good reasons:

1. The Treasury and the Office of Management and Budget acknowledge that redesign would bring in more than $250 million--a quarter of a billion dollars--in tax-free U.S. revenues that couldn’t be spent but would reduce the national debt by that amount. Coins have been redesigned 68 times in history. Each change has made a painless profit. The Post Office netted over $250 million profit last year by issuing 24 new stamp designs. The stodgy mint should follow the same practice. The U.S. is the only Western power not to redesign coins frequently.

2. Portraying themes from the Bill of Rights on the back of our coins, mandated by the bill, would call attention to that sacred document at the time of its bicentennial when our worldwide commitment to it is more meaningful than ever in the aftermath of the collapse of communism in the Soviet Union.

Redesign legislation would not have passed the Senate 13 times without any opposition, and wouldn’t have come within seven votes of passing the House recently, if it wasn’t sensible.

It was defeated in the House only because of false rumors and charges that 1) voting for it would be a vote against God because it would mean taking “In God We Trust” off coins. It wouldn’t. 2) Redesign would be costly. It wouldn’t. 3) Voting for it would be a vote against the American eagle because it would require taking the eagle off our coins. It wouldn’t.

Your story declared redesign was of little interest to Californians. Actually, it’s of great interest to 1 million California coin collectors. It would produce substantial revenues particularly in Los Angeles, home of one of the nation’s leading auction houses, which had numismatic sales of $30 million last year, and in Long Beach, host thrice a year to the nation’s second largest coin show. It would also bring revenue and jobs to San Francisco, home of one of four U.S. mints.

SEN. ALAN CRANSTON, D-Calif., Washington