WASHINGTON – Fourth time’s a charm? On Thursday, the dollar coin will make its latest bid to capture American’s interest. These coins will feature U.S. presidents from George Washington to Richard Nixon.

According to the Associated Press, and reported in the January 2007 issue of NACS Magazine, the U.S. Mint will issue four new coins per year, from now until 2016. This year, Presidents Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison will be put into circulation.

“Silver dollar” coins had been minted from the late 1700s through the 1930s, and over the last three decades, the U.S. Treasury has tried several times to ignite American’s interest in a dollar coin. The Eisenhower dollar, minted between 1971 and 1978, failed to garner enough notice. A year after its demise, the Susan B. Anthony coin hit the street, but the smaller version brought too much confusion with the similarly sized quarter. After three consecutive years of minting that coin, the Susan B. Anthony coin was retired (although it experienced a brief revival in 1999).

In 2000, the treasury department tried again with the Sacagawea “gold” dollar coin. However, the coins rarely see the light of day beyond vending machines and casinos, although the coins have caught on in Ecuador, which adopted the dollar as its currency six year ago. Roughly half of the billion Sacagawea dollar coins in circulation have been shipped to that country, according to the newswire.

The Presidential $1 Coin Act of 2005, which is aimed at getting more circulation of the dollar coin, initiated the inauguration of the new presidential coins. The U.S. Mint is trying a grassroots approach to introduce the coins, talking to the Federal Reserve, banks and vending machine operators to stir interest.

The success of the 50-state quarter program introduced millions of people to coin collecting and the U.S. Mint hopes the presidential dollar coins garner the same support. There are no plans to stop printing the dollar bill.