Thomas who? New dollar coin might help

WASHINGTON -- 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 John Adams, Thomas 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% 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.

Only 7% could name the first four presidents — Washington, Adams, Jefferson and James Madison — in the correct order. While 94% knew that Washington was first, only 8% knew that Madison was fourth.

And when it came to the next four presidents — James Monroe, John Quincy Adams, Andrew Jackson and Martin Van Buren — only 16% of those surveyed could name any president in that group and only 2% could name them all.

Mint Director Edmund Moy believes the new dollar coin series will be an antidote for that. And he can cite a good precedent. The Mint's 50-state quarter program, the most popular coin series in history, has gotten 150 million Americans involved in collecting the quarters that are honoring the states in the order they were admitted to the Union.

"My nieces and nephews know a lot more about geography than I did at their age and the state quarters are playing an instrumental role in that," Moy said in an interview with The Associated Press.

Moy released the survey results at the Jefferson Memorial on Wednesday at an event staged to publicize the release of the new $1 Jefferson coin. That coin will go into circulation nationwide on Thursday, the day that people will be able to visit their banks to purchase it. It will also go on sale on the Mint's website at noon ET.