Finding currency in history

…or vice versa.

Most folks can correctly name George Washington as the nation’s first president. After that, things get tricky.

The U.S. Mint is hoping its new dollar coin series will help refresh some hazy memories of Adams, Jefferson and all the rest.

That could be a tall order, however, given the results of a poll the Mint commissioned to find out just how much knowledge Americans have about their presidents.

According to the telephone poll, conducted by the Gallup Organization last month, nearly all those questioned knew that Washington was the first president. However, only 30 percent could name Thomas Jefferson as the nation’s third president, and memories of the other presidents and where they fit in was even more limited.

Mint Director Edmund Moy believes the new dollar coin series will be an antidote for that.

Just like the Mint rolled out quarters featuring individual states in succession, in the order in which they achieved statehood, they’re going to do that now with the presidents.

The Jefferson dollar follows the Washington coin, which was introduced in February, and the John Adams coin, introduced in May. The coin honoring James Madison will go into circulation in November, and four more of the nation’s presidents will be honored every year in the order they served in the White House.

I like this idea. Easy to use in vending machines, good for helping Americans learn about their presidents.

To bolster the educational part of the coin program, the Mint has developed special lesson plans on its Web site for use by parents and teachers.

My son Kristofer was a presidential historian when he was young. By the time he was in fourth grade, he had acquired a full presidential memorabilia collection that was quite impressive. He was like an encyclopedia of knowledge about them, and every time we visited Washington he learned – and got – more stuff. Like the fun little trivia book that caught his eye called “Yo, Millard Fillmore!” It was great fun for me to learn things about our presidents I never knew, history from the odd to the fascinating.

By the way, do you know who Millard Fillmore was? Kristofer will always know more than I ever will about him, and all the others.

I hope this time, the dollar coin series makes it. Maybe if we learn more about the presidents, we can elevate public respect for the office of the presidency. And elevate public discourse about it, in a presidential election year. But that gets into political currency…