WASHINGTON — The United States Mint released a presidential one-dollar coin honoring Andrew Jackson, the seventh president of the United States, yesterday. This is the seventh coin issued in the U.S. Mint’s Presidential $1 Coin Program.Jackson, aka “Old Hickory,” was already depicted on the $20 bill, and over the years he's also been featured on the $5, $10, $50 and $10,000 bill, and even the Confederate $1,000 bill. But this is the first time Jackson has ever been on a coin.The obverse of the Jackson coin was designed by U.S. Mint Artistic Infusion Program Master Artist Joel Iskowitz and executed by U.S. Mint Sculptor-Engraver Jim Licaretz. The reverse design by Don Everhart features an interpretation of the Statue of Liberty, which is portrayed on all presidential one-dollar coins. On the coin’s edge are the inscriptions “2008,” “E Pluribus Unum,” “In God We Trust” and the mint of origin.The Andrew Jackson coin is the latest in a series of collectable one-dollar coins that will be stamped with the face of every president from George Washington to Gerald Ford. While the presidential dollars have been a hit with coin collectors, the U.S. Mint really intends for the dollar coin to enter regular circulation for use in everyday financial transactions.U.S. Mint Deputy Director Andrew Brunhart joined local officials in Nashville, Tenn., on the grounds of The Hermitage, the president’s former home, to introduce the coin.“We’re very excited,” Brunhart told The Tennessean. So far, he said, the presidential coin program is “going very well.”Brunhart and other officials gave away hundreds of the Jackson coins to visiting schoolchildren and offered more to members of the public who wanted to exchange George Washington bills for the new coin.So far, the Mint has issued more than one billion presidential dollar coins in the order the presidents served, starting with George Washington in February 2007.The coins are available in bags of 250 offered at $319.95 and in rolls of 25 offered at $35.95.
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