In addition to all the other events this year, U.S. coins also have made the news in a big way. A rare 1971 President Dwight D. Eisenhower prototype silver dollar fetched $264,000 at auction Jan. 14.

Q: My late wife and I kept Eisenhower dollar coins as a way of saving money, and I have about 50 of them. I went to my bank to cash them in, but they wouldn’t take them. They said that the Federal ...

But selling the American public on the idea of using, not just collecting dollar coins, hasn't been easy. The U.S. Mint has released three other dollar coins since 1971: the President Dwight ...