Board member Don McKee moved that the club donate $150 to the Schweinhaut Senior Citizens Center to help with the repair and maintenance of the Center's video equipment. The motion was approved, and members added individual donations which brought the total $212 by the end of the meeting.
Joe Howard reported that he had talked to a class of middle school students in Manassas, Virginia, on numismatics --- a connection made via the Internet and the Club's Web Pages. Joe read from the thank-you note that the teacher and her students had sent him, and he also thanked the MCCC members who contributed coins for him to donate to the students. As part of the MCCC's continuing efforts to reach out to YNs, Mae Clark has donated an "Official Coin Collecting Starter Kit" to be given as a door prize to a YN at the March meeting.
Rick Morano, a senior minority staffer of the House Banking Committee, spoke at the February MCCC meeting. Mr. Morano gave his perspectives on what the Congress is likely to do this year on three key issues: commemorative coins; circulating coins; and Congressional medals.
Mr. Morano described commemoratives as "too much of a good thing" --- with the current glut an evolutionary result of the great success of the 1984 Olympic coin sales. Marketing firms and groups hoping to make money for worthy causes have persuaded Members of Congress to introduce far too many bills, which resulted in a glut of issues. The Mint estimates that from a base of perhaps million dedicated commemorative collectors, currently only about 100,000 people try to buy most commemoratives --- leading to the recent failures of the Special Olympics and the Smithsonian coins. In 1997, with sales of those two coin series continuing plus four more new commemoratives coming, the Mint is not likely t o break even on covering its expenses for producing and marketing the coins. (The 1997 new issues include coins in honor of the 200th Anniversary of the Botanic Garden, the Franklin Delano Roosevelt memorial , the Law Enforcement Memorial, and the 50th Anniversary of Ja ckie Robinson becoming the first African-American to play major league baseball.)
"Help is on the way", however, Mr. Morano reported. Congress has recognized the problems associated with the commemorative program and has put into law a limit of two coins per year --- though of course, although it has tried in the past, Congress cannot successfully handcuff itself, and in spite of rules forbidding it, there are already too many issues scheduled for the next few years. The current Congress, in fact, already seen the introduction of a bill proposing coins to honor Thomas Edison, as well as one establishing a permanent Olympic coin commemorative to be issued every two years. But opposition to these may succeed in stopping them.
On the circulating coin front, the previous Congress almost succeeded in passing a bill to issue five quarters annually honoring each of the 50 states (in the order of their joining the Union); the bill passed the House, based on strong arguments that it would be good for America's children to be exposed to history on their coins, as well as good for numismatics in general. Unfortunately, in the rush as the 1996 Congress ended, the Senate did not pass the bill, and it died. The Mint liked the concept and supported it, but the Treasury Department was lukewarm --- so a Treasury study was ordered to determine, by June 1, 1997, whether there is popular support for the concept. Likely the answer will be "yes", Mr. Maurano believes, and so with some support from the Treasury the Congress will approve a bill by the end of 1997.
Mr. Maurano concluded by revealing that a Congressional medal may be in the works for Frank Sinatra. In response to questions from the MCCC audience, Mr. Maurano said that he sees a one dollar coin as "an idea whose time has not come", and foresees no Congressional action on one in the near future. No Congressman would feel comfortable taking the $1 bill out of circulation, and the "botched Susan B. program" has made it hard for proponents of a $1 coin to do much for many years to come. Similarly, elimination of the cent is being talked about, but members of Congress are uncomfortable with sponsoring such a "dramatic" act which could be unpopular --- so Mr. Maurano does not believe it will happen soon either. Concerning how commemorative quarters would be handled by the Mint in issuing Proof Sets, Mr. Moreno said that the issue had not been decided yet, with Treasury hesitant to "push the envelope" --- just as there was hesitation about changing the design of US paper money (viz. the new $100 bill). In general, Members of Congress "seem to have a nost algic view" about collections and history, so numismatics has for the most part more positives than negatives associated with it in the current legislative environment.