MIKE CASTLE, COINAGE CONGRESSMAN

Castle was Delaware's at-large representative in the House from 1993 to 2011, after serving two terms as governor. While in Congress, Castle wrote and/or sponsored the bills that created the 50 State Quarters® program, the Sacagawea Dollar, the Presidential Dollar Series, the American Platinum Eagle, the America the Beautiful Quarters® program and a number of modern commemoratives — becoming known as The Coinage Congressman.

It is estimated that 150 million Americans — half of the country's population at the time — became casual coin collectors because of 50 State Quarters program, which raised nearly $7 billion in profit for the federal government. Many would become more serious modern coin collectors, which had a transformative effect on the hobby and propelled modern coin collecting into the juggernaut that it is today.

The State Quarters series started in 1999 with Delaware, the first state admitted into the Union and Castle's home state. By the time the Delaware Quarter was released, however, Castle had already begun to leave his mark on US coinage.

The first numismatic legislation that Castle sponsored was the Commemorative Coin Authorization and Reform Act of 1995, which created the American Platinum Eagle bullion coin.

A year later, Castle drafted the legislation that limited the number of new commemorative coin subjects to two per year. This limit, designed to focus the series and build collector interest, continues to shape the modern US commemorative coin series. He also drafted and sponsored the legislation for several new commemoratives, including the 2006 silver dollars that honored Benjamin Franklin, an ancestor of Castle's.

In his last piece of numismatic legislation, Castle created the America the Beautiful Quarters program to begin after the conclusion of the State Quarters program. Significantly, this act called for the creation of a five-ounce silver bullion coin, the largest silver coin ever created by the US Mint.

To read the complete article, see:
NGC Honors 'Coinage Congressman' Mike Castle with New Congressional Series Label (https://www.ngccoin.com/news/article/10097/)

For more information, see:
Mike Castle (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Castle)
Legislation Sponsored or Cosponsored by Michael N. Castle (https://www.congress.gov/member/michael-castle/C000243)

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