In 2006, President George W. Bush signed into law a bill mandating the striking of dollar coins carrying the portrait of United States presidents, beginning with George Washington. They were made at the rate of four presidents per year beginning in 2007, but living ex-presidents were not to be honored in the series. The series ended in 2016, that for Ronald Reagan being the last.
At first, the dollar coins circulated a little, but by 2009 it was obvious that the dollar coins being struck by the mints would simply wind up in storage and were not needed for circulation. After that, the coins were struck only for collectors.
In some ways, the dollar coins mirrored the well-known Presidential medals that had been struck by the Philadelphia Mint for many years.
What we now call Presidential medals were mostly known as Indian Peace medals in the 19th century. Under President Washington, Indian Peace medals were in fact presented to important tribal leaders but were hand-engraved on thin sheets of silver. Struck medals were imported from England in the late 1790s but did not carry a portrait.
There was no special medal issued for President John Adams, in office from 1797 to 1801, because the medals struck in England mentioned Washington as president, and quite a few of them were still on hand for presentation into the early 1800s. An Adams Indian Peace medal does exist, however, but the dies
