Have you heard the news that the U.S. Mint is planning a series of one-dollar coins depicting each and every one of our deceased presidents?

The mint hopes the presidents will succeed where Susan B. Anthony and then Sacagawea failed. Each year starting in 2007, it will release four presidential coins, beginning next year with George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. The mint intends that the first coin should be available by next President’s Day.

I dabble a little at coin collecting — like a good trend-follower, I jumped on that state quarter bandwagon a few years back — and I personally like the idea of replacing the one-dollar bill with more durable coins. However, if the suits running the Mint really think this idea is going to be the one “to wean Americans off the dollar bill and onto dollar coins,” I’ve got a whole jar full of Sacagaweas they can have as a gift. People are set in their ways. The only way we’re ever going to get folks to make the switch to coins is if the government just stops issuing the bills. I read somewhere that the one-dollar bill has lifespan of only about eighteen months, so within two years, more or less, of a hypothetical discontinuation of dollar bills, all that will be available will be the coins. Voila, we’re weaned.

Of course, there is the problem of every vending machine in the country needing to be reconfigured. And then there’s the matter of a whole lot of presidents not really deserving their own coin. While I’m sure the Reagan fans will be thrilled that their boy finally gets his due, does anyone really want a Richard Nixon dollar? Or a Woodrow Wilson or Ulysses S. Grant, neither of whom is exactly held in high esteem by history? No, I think this particular scheme could’ve used some more work…