The man portraying the father of our country was late for yesterday morning's appearance at Woolslair Elementary School in Bloomfield. Apparently George Washington's crossing was delayed by traffic on the 40th Street Bridge.

He didn't seem to mind.

	VWH Campbell, Post-Gazette George Washington, played by living interpreter Carl Closs, of Philadelphia, visited Woolslair Elementary School in Bloomfield yesterday to talk to students about history and the new $1 coins that will depict presidents. He spent time with some students and taught Bennie Murphy, 10, a fourth-grader, some fencing basics. Click photo for larger image.

"They pick me up at the airport and they bring me in," said Carl Closs, of Philadelphia. "I don't pay much attention to where I am or how I get there. I just know I got across the river."

Mr. Closs was in Pittsburgh yesterday to give the third- and fourth-graders at Woolslair a first-person account of our first president's life and tell them why Washington will be the first person depicted on the U.S. Mint's new series of presidential $1 coins.

The Mint's latest money-making scheme is a 10-city road show introducing people to the golden coins that will be placed into circulation Feb. 15. The goal is to give the coins a more successful launch than the Sacagawea dollars experienced in 2000.

"We really want to raise public awareness through a grass-roots effort," said April Stafford, education coordinator for the U.S. Mint in Washington, D.C. "Coming out into public, showing people the coins, putting them in their hands, so they see that these are beautiful, unique and interesting. We want to make [the coins] something people will collect, but we also want to improve their use in commerce."

The new dollars are very much like the Sacagawea dollars, which the Mint will continue to produce. They're the same weight, size, color and composition of copper, zinc, manganese and nickel, so they'll be interchangeable in vending machines.

The look, however, is different. Following the success of the 50-state quarter series, the Mint is putting the faces of U.S. presidents on the new dollars. The series starts with Washington and a new president will be introduced every three months.

Once the Mint starts making John Adams dollars, there will be no other Washingtons produced.

"Our forecast is for 300 million George Washington coins, but that can be adjusted, depending on demand," Ms. Stafford said.

The series is scheduled to continue through 2016 or until a living ex-president is encountered.

Only people who are dead for two years can be depicted on American money.

Grover Cleveland, who was elected to two separate terms of office as the 22nd and 24th president, will have two separate coins in 2012, probably with two different looks, although Ms. Stafford stressed that the Mint is years away from that decision. So far, only the first four presidential dollars have been designed.

The back of the new dollars will remain consistent throughout the series, showing a view of the Statue of Liberty and the "$1" sign.

One of the differences in the coins is that the words "E Pluribus Unum" and "In God We Trust" -- as well as the date and the Mint mark -- have been moved to the edge. It's the first time since the 1930s that American coins have had inscriptions on the edge.

"It's different, but in order for people to use it in everyday transactions, they're going to have to get rid of the dollar bill," said coin collector Ray Pastorek, 60, of Tarentum, who traveled to the Galleria at Pittsburgh Mills to see the new coin.

But Ms. Stafford said there are no plans to eliminate the paper $1 bills.

"This is another choice for the consumer," she said. "There are times when it just makes more sense to use a dollar coin."

"I like the paper money better," Mr. Pastorek said. "It's a habit and convenience. One or two coins isn't a problem, but five or 10 dollar coins is going to fill up your pockets."

Still, Mr. Pastorek said he liked the coins. But the front, with just the president's name, face and years in office, is so plain as to make it resemble a token rather than a coin of the realm, he said.

"People will have to get used to it," he said.