Jay Johnson, director of the Mint in 2000 and 2001, passed away in mid-October of 2009. He was a fine friend, always willing to help with research or anything else. As a tribute to his memory we share some of his comments contributed to The Official Red Book of Washington Quarters, by Q. David Bowers, Whitman Publishing LLC, 2007.
Promoting the state quarters:
One of my favorite lines I gave in speeches about the state quarters was that they were both collectible coins and circulating coins. I used to refer folks (if the audience was old enough to remember) to that old commercial for a breath mint (get it? Mint Director talking about mints!) which said, “Is it a breath mint or a candy mint? It’s both. It’s two, it’s two, it’s two mints in one!”That’s what I used to say of the quarters—as I held a coin in each hand and clicked them together: “Is it a circulating coin, or a commemorative coin? It’s both, it’s two, it’s two coins in one!”
Anyone who remembered the Certs commercial got the connection, and it was an easy way of explaining “circulating” and “commemorative” coins to the non-numismatist.
Non-numismatic audiences also got a smile out of a line I used to use in speeches after talking about the popularity of the 50 state quarters and the numbers of people collecting them. I would add, “Why, these days, practically everybody is calling himself a numismatist!” To many people who couldn’t think of even pronouncing numismatist, it got a nice smile. Hopefully, it even helped people think about joining the American Numismatic Association.
The numbers of people collecting these quarters just kept growing, in many cases fueled by TV ads we ran, featuring Kermit the Frog. Mint surveys showed some 130 million people were collecting the state quarters in various ways—in rolls, from change, from banks and scrambling to find them as soon as they came out.
Another item, one you might not know, is that I was a member of Congress in 1997 when the actual bill passed which created both the 50-State Quarter Program and the golden dollar [Sacagawea dollar]. I say I voted for it, though if you do research in the Congressional Record you will see that what started out as a sometimes controversial bill actually passed on a voice vote, with no recorded vote, so it passed unanimously. I always thought it remarkable that three years later, I was out of Congress and now becoming Mint director and would help promote the very coins whose legislation I had authorized when I was part of that unanimous vote in Congress! [1]
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