Mint Director a Crusader for Change

By JEANNINE AVERSA
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - Henrietta Holsman Fore is a champion of change.

Fore, director of the U.S. Mint, oversees the production of billions of the nation's coins each year. Adding to her credentials as a crusader of change, she is advocating a new look for coins - a position that has made her immensely popular with coin collectors but drawn heat from those who like the coins as they are.

"Coins represent the values and the history of your nation," said Fore, sworn in as the nation's 37th Mint director in August 2001. "It is a new century. It is a new sense of patriotism in America. It is a great time to look at coin redesign."

One of Fore's initiatives in her less than two years at the Mint is a program, which she created to energize creativity, that brings artists from foreign mints to visit the U.S. agency. Fore also cut by nearly two-thirds the time required for the Mint to make a coin.

"She isn't a figurehead," said Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, which oversees the Mint. "She is on top of things."

Fore also has spent countless hours traveling around the country meeting with all sorts of people involved with coins - collectors, dealers, artists, suppliers, bankers - to solicit their ideas.

Coins are "a very tangible piece of history - a piece of history in your pocket," said Fore, who as a child collected coins, a hobby nurtured by her parents and something she still enjoys as an adult.

On the redesign effort, the Mint worked with Congress to get a new look for the nickel. The image on the back side of the coin will be changed over the next three years to commemorate the bicentennial of the 1803 Louisiana Purchase and the 1804-06 Lewis and Clark Expedition.

Thomas Jefferson's Virginia plantation, Monticello, is now on the back side of the nickel and the legislation ensures it will go back on the coin in 2006. The bill keeps Jefferson on the front of the commemorative nickel.

Last year, Virginia lawmakers became upset about the Mint's plans to redesign the nickel, fearing that Monticello would be removed from the coin permanently. That prompted lawmakers on Capitol Hill to move forward on the legislation that eventually was passed.

Fore "is certainly savvy to the ways of Washington, but the Virginia reaction might have caught her off guard a bit," said Beth Deisher, editor of the weekly Coin World. "But it seems she has bounced back and is working to get momentum back."

The Mint has talked about the possibility of design changes to other denominations, something that would have to be worked out with Congress.

"On a practical basis, you would not wish to take that decision alone," Fore said. "Congress ... is like our board of directors. So we should consult. It is the people's coinage."

The current coin designs are old. Abraham Lincoln's image was put on the front of the penny in 1909 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of his birth. But the back of the penny was changed in 1959, when the Lincoln Memorial replaced stalks of wheat. The nickel was designed in 1938; and the dime, showing a portrait of President Franklin D. Roosevelt on the front, was designed in 1946. The half dollar carrying President Kennedy's profile was designed in 1964.

Fore also recently refined the selection process for the 50-state quarter program, providing more time and allowing U.S. artists outside the Mint to make mock-ups of proposed designs. The old program ran into some turbulence involving the Missouri state quarter, where a local artist believed his design wasn't honored by the Mint.

With the recent unveiling of the Alabama quarter - the first circulating U.S. coin to feature Braille - a total of 22 state quarters have been made so far.

While the state quarters have been a hit, the 3-year-old Sacagawea dollar coins have been a dud. The Mint stopped making new Sacagaweas for general circulation last year and won't make any circulating ones this year, either, Fore said. However, the coins are still being minted for collectors.

Fore said around 200 million of the coins are sitting in storage.

Before joining the Mint, Fore held a number of jobs within the U.S. Agency for International Development during the first Bush administration. She later worked on George W. Bush's gubernatorial races in Texas and raised money for him.

She says her manufacturing background - she was chairman of Stockton Products, a Las Vegas company that makes and distributes steel products, concrete additives and wire building materials - has been useful at the Mint.

Breaking down the manufacturing process into its component parts helps pinpoint bottlenecks and unjam them, she said.

The "cycle time" to produce a finished coin has been reduced to 108 days, from 300 days, she said.

Coin people say Fore's credentials in manufacturing, her appreciation of art and history and her accessibility will help her.

"I think the biggest challenge she faces overall is a redesign of our coinage," said Stephen Bobbitt, spokesman for the American Numismatic Association. "This can be a political minefield."