US coin program could add CNMI

Efforts to mint U.S. coins featuring the CNMI and all four other insular territories, as well as the District of Columbia, could soon take off after three U.S. senators agreed to be co-sponsors of a bill now pending with the U.S. Senate.

The three senators—Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.), Robert F. Bennett (R-Utah) and Sam Brownback (R-Kan.)—have also promised to enlist 64 of their colleagues in the upper house, according to Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) Friday. The three are members of the Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee.

The bill seeks to add Washington D.C. and the territories—American Samoa, the District of Columbia, Guam, Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands—to the 50-state commemorative quarter program this year.

The program, approved in 1998, omitted the District and U.S. territories. Legislation to add them passed the House in March, but the Senate has for two years cited a requirement that commemorative coins get the support of two-thirds of the Senate.

The bill was originally introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives by Rep. Peter T King of New York on Sept. 3, 2003. It was passed on March 25, 2004. Four days later, the bill was transmitted to the U.S. Senate, where it was referred to the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs.

If passed, it provides that quarter dollar coin issued in 2009 will include the District of Columbia and each of the territories on the reverse side, with the designs to be selected emblematic of these areas.

Rep. Eli Faleomavaega of the American Samoa said the legislation “will afford us the opportunity to come together and recognize the contributions that insular areas have made to the history of our nation. Simply put, this legislation will continue to inspire a sense of unity and patriotism in a time of national crisis and willwould amend the popular 50 States Commemorative Coin Program Act by extending the program to include the insular jurisdictions.

“In other words, insular areas, like the 50 states, would be able to choose a design for the reverse side of the quarter coin to commemorate our history,” he added.

Faleomavaega said that when he and other territorial delegates introduced the legislation in the 106th Congress, it was passed overwhelmingly by a vote of 377-6. “However, the session ended before the Senate could address our concerns,” he said.

The design on the reverse side of each quarter dollar issued during 2009 shall be emblematic of one of the District of Columbia and the territories.

Each of the six designs shall be selected by the Secretary of Commerce after consultation with the chief executive of the District of Columbia or the territory being honored; the Commission of Fine Arts; and reviewed by the Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee.

The Secretary may include participation by District or territorial officials, artists from the District of Columbia or the territory, engravers of the United States Mint, and members of the general public.

“Because it is important that the nation’s coinage and currency bear dignified designs of which the citizens of the United States can be proud, the Secretary shall not select any frivolous or inappropriate design for any quarter dollar minted,” part of the proposed bill reads.

In addition, no head and shoulders portrait or bust of any person, living or dead, and no portrait of a living person may be included in the design. (Jayvee Vallejera)