Richard L. Hanna: “I thank the chairman emeritus for yielding and for his strong support of the National Baseball Hall of Fame…”

“I thank the chairman emeritus for yielding and for his strong support of the National Baseball Hall of Fame commemorative coin bill. Mr. Speaker, the United States Mint is working hard to produce spectacular coins next year honoring the National Baseball Hall of Fame's 75th anniversary. As called for in the legislation I authored in last year's Congress, the coin will be unique in the history of the Mint. It will be domed, with the back of the coin depicting stitches that appear on a major league baseball. In doing the production work, the Mint discovered that the work to make the coin domed would make the finished coin slightly smaller than the standard finished commemorative coin. I am pleased the Mint has brought this to our attention and asked that we do a technical amendment to allow them to use standard coin blanks, instead of having to secure expensive custom ones. Since all production costs of commemorative coins are passed on to the consumer, this will keep the cost of these coins down for baseball fans around the world who want to commemorate 75 years of collecting, displaying, and honoring our national pastime. Mr. Speaker, this is a good bill that actually saves money and effort, and I urge its immediate passage.”