My Ode to Sportscenter

Posted on November 3, 2014 by brent

CLICK TO WATCH MY LATEST “SOCIAL CIRCLE WITH BRENT RESER” SEGMENT

I have watched Sportscenter my whole life. It is by far my favorite television show, a program that I have watched thousands of times. I have always looked up to the lucky men and women who have had the privilege of anchoring the world’s most popular sports program. Recently I gave a little nod to the show I love and the people who sit behind the desk.

I now have the great opportunity to write my own scripts for my social media segment on our University news program, “Coastal Now.” For the first two shows, legendary Myrtle Beach anchor and current CCU Director of News and Public Affairs Martha Hunn helped me compose my scripts. However, after I showed a tiny bit of promise in drafting those early scripts, Martha has given me the green light to write them entirely by myself. With this new freedom, I knew exactly what I wanted to do for the third installment of the Social Circle with Brent Reser.

My third segment came out today for “Coastal Now.”

The best part of Sportscenter is the Top Ten Plays. Not only are the athletic feats you see incredible, but the way the ESPN anchors deliver it provides so much entertainment and enthusiasm. When you watch some of those guys go through the countdown you can just tell they are having a lot of fun. I wanted to try to create some of that fun for myself by writing my own top ten countdown for my segment.

I wanted to do a countdown revolving around our Instagram account.

Last Monday I went to our studio and shot shows three and four. For show three of my segment, I counted down the top ten @CCUchanticleers Instagram images. The countdown was formed using the top performing Instagram posts based on the total amount of likes the images received. With my script inserted into the teleprompter I let loose, doing my best Neil Everett imitation. Well, actually I didn’t try to do Neil Everett at all but while I was running down the top images I did feel like a Sportscenter anchor delivering the top plays. Perhaps the suits in Bristol would see me and offer a contract.

Chauncey holding Maddox was #3 on our countdown.

Of course I am totally kidding about ESPN liking anything done by an awkward social media coordinator. I saw my segment for the first time today and it became plainly obvious that I failed to capture even a quarter of the energy that Sportscenter anchors utilize during the show’s trademark two minutes. I made no sound effects, used no catch phrases, and most damning, I forgot to bring the passion.

So while I didn’t grade out too well in this particular installment of the Social Circle with Brent Reser I am going to learn a great deal from it. Next filming session I am going to bring it. I am going to take Martha’s advice and really “love the camera” while really packing the energy. Although not too pleased with how I delivered the content, I do think the script flowed well so at least I know I can write okay for news.

Even if I think I sounded like an idiot at least I had fun doing it. I can cross off “presenting a top ten list” from my bucket list. Stay tuned to see what I did with my fourth segment. Don’t Blink.

Recap, Flashback, Update

Posted on October 30, 2014 by brent

Happy Halloween Eve my friends! I hope you have all had great weeks so far and that you are looking forward to the big day tomorrow. You know the drill, it is Thursday so I will quickly run through five topics. Trick-or-Treat!

#CCU Yik Yak Takeover Recap: Today we held our Yik Yak Takeover at Coastal Carolina University. We experienced some good results but I wouldn’t say it was a complete success. When it came to the positives, our table that we staffed for four hours was always very busy. Students came to our table to send out positive yaks in our presence in exchange for a gift. According to how many yaks they composed and sent out in front of us corresponded to the prize they received (i.e. chapstick was just one yak, a pair of sunglasses was two yaks, and a t-shirt was five yaks). These yaks really started to build up and positivity definitely beat out negativity.

However, we battled angry and sarcastic yaks all day long. Although they were outnumbered, I would have liked to see fewer of them. Also, some yaks got really personal and mean to some individuals on campus. I hated to see that as a result of something that I created. So even though we successfully took over our Yik Yak feed today I don’t know if I would ever do this again.

Our Yik Yak table was busy most of the day and packed at times.

World Series: I loved the fact that the World Series went seven games. I enjoyed watching quality baseball and witnessing the incredible pitching of Madison Bumgarner. But my favorite part was the television production. The replays, angles, and technology of this Fall Classic blew my mind. I only wish I would have watched the games on a large high definition set. Fox did an excellent job this year and I enjoyed listening to Harold Reynolds. While I usually pull for the American League, I am not too upset that the Royals pulled it off. However, I do hope that next year whoever wins it will do it on their own home field.

Update on Car: On Tuesday night I told the bizarre tale of how a mechanic I visited told me to put Everclear in my gas tank to turn the engine light off in my car. I took his advice but as of Tuesday night my light was still on. Here we are on Thursday night and I am disappointed to report that it has still not shut off. Although frustrated with the problem not getting resolved, I am very thankful for the help I received from friends, co-workers, and social media contacts. I am going to let my current tank of gas expire before I put new chemicals into my car but now I have a lot more product options and mechanic options than ever before.

Weekly Mikayla Update: My niece is now eight weeks old. On Saturday she wore the Chanticleer outfit I sent to my sister right before she was born. She looked so cute in it as she sent good luck to the Chant football team as they improved to 8-0. The next day I shared her photo on the CCU Facebook page and our audience loved it! I am now only 26 days away from seeing Mikayla for the first time.

Mikayla at the eight-week mark.

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I want to wish my readers a very Happy Halloween. Be safe and have some fun. I am stoked for my first Halloween in South Carolina. I have definitely never enjoyed 70 degree temperatures for it before but I can definitely live with it. Photos of me in my costume to come soon. Don’t Blink.

Pumpkins and Etiquette Lesson

Posted on October 23, 2014 by brent

I have a confession to make: This might be the most lame Thursday Rundown ever. I don’t have any significant developments to write about but if you know me, you know I am good for carrying on about the most uninteresting and pointless topics. As per Thursday usual, I got five of them for you tonight! So how about we get this disaster of a blog post started?

Today’s Dining Experience – It took me all of six months to do so, but I finally ate in Coastal Carolina University’s main dining hall today. This following bit of information will puzzle all of you even more on why I hadn’t dined at Hicks Dining Hall sooner…for staff members, the admission price is just $5 for the delicious all-you-care-to-eat spread. Today was the Mongolian grill lunch and even though I stood in line for 25 minutes, it was great to get a bowl of the stuff. Interestingly, Mongolian grills aren’t big in the south so I made sure to get it while I could. I also had a slice of pizza and a brownie.

Pumpkins – I talk a lot about how I love Halloween. However, if there is one part of the holiday that I don’t care too much for it is pumpkins. I don’t really like carving them, I hate cleaning them out, and I don’t care for eating the seeds. Nothing is worse than when pumpkins start to rot. However, there are two aspects I do like about pumpkins. I love pumpkin pie and I also enjoy taking a couple seeds from a carving session and then depositing them in the ground. The seeds sprout really quickly and even if you have no intention of letting/watching them grow, it is funny to plant seeds in random spots and see them poke through the earth in just a couple days.

#CCUfamily Update – A quick update on the #CCUfamily campaign I launched at the beginning of the semester: As of the end of today I have featured 48 students. That is 48 interviews, 48 write ups, 48 videos, and 48 web editing jobs. It has all been so worth it. In just the past couple months I have had the opportunity to connect with almost 50 students here on the CCU campus and develop small relationships. The “hellos” I get from them on campus and the e-mail notes of gratitude I receive have made me become that much more invested in Coastal Carolina. To check out the #CCUfamily website, click here.

Coastal Carolina University Student Body President Eliana Padron was today’s #CCUfamily featured student.

Etiquette Lesson – I feel this issue should be reserved for a Dear Abby column but I do want to briefly address it. If someone gives you an item for you to personally use such as tickets or a pass, use it for yourself or kindly give it back. I have recently seen people I am close to get burned by this. They will make a very nice gesture and give someone something and that person will in turn just hand it off to someone else to use. If you are the recipient of someone’s nice act, let them perform the nice act again (give back the item) if you don’t plan to use it for yourself.

Mikayla At Lucky #7 – Put another tally mark next to the amount of weeks that my niece has been on this planet. Can you believe she is seven weeks already? That is 49 days! I am now at the point where I am getting antsy to see her in the Coastal Carolina little dress I got her when she was born. She is almost to the age where she should be big enough to wear it.

Here is this week’s montage of Mikayla photos.

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Last Friday was the busiest day of the month for Don’t Blink by a significant margin. Thank you readers for all your support! I enjoy writing for you. Don’t Blink.

Shortest Thursday Blog Post Ever

Posted on October 16, 2014 by brent

It has been a long day and it is late so how about I speed through my run down Thursday blog post in record time? Five random topics are coming at you right now!

Subway Flatizza Review – I never thought I would break down and get something at Subway other than a sandwich but yesterday it happened. I forgot my peanut butter sandwich at home so I went to our campus Subway to get lunch. The menu seemed to grab me by the throat and force me to order the buffalo chicken Flatizza. I obeyed and paid the consequences. Although it looks delicious in the picture below, I would have been much happier with a cold cut combo.

I won’t be eating a flatizza again.

Sweet Plantains – Today at Coastal it was our Hispanic Celebration Day. The various student clubs of Hispanic origin came out to Prince Lawn, our center of campus, to showcase their heritage. Available for all to taste were appropriate delicacies. One of these tasty food items was a treat called sweet plantains. To describe it simply, think fried bananas covered in cinnamon and sugar. It was my new food item for the day and I have to give it two thumbs up.

Me with a sweet plantain today and then on the right is the pan filled with the tasty treat.

No Plan Weekend – After several weekends of traveling and action-packed adventures, I have no plans this weekend. Check that, I have one plan: Watch football. I am psyched for the Notre Dame vs. Florida State unbeaten clash and you can bet I will be cheering on the Fighting Irish. I am so sick and tired of hearing about Jameis Wilson that I hope he has a terrible game and Florida State is handed an overwhelming defeat.

Boss’s Day – Today it was Boss’s Day. My office celebrated by taking our boss, Vice President of University Communication Bill Plate, out to lunch. Tomorrow I will write about the doozy of a restaurant we went to but for now I just want to wish Bill a Happy Boss’s Day. He is a great person to work for and I am very thankful to him for hiring me.

For Boss’s Day, our graphics guys gave Bill a “Bill Plate”…..get it?!

Another One of Those Niece Updates – Mikayla is now six weeks old. The one development I should note is that she is starting to lose her hair! I don’t know the exact reason why but my girlfriend pointed it out to me (by looking at photos) and my mom confirmed it. However, she is still as precious as can be. Without ever even meeting her I miss that little peanut.

My niece, Mikayla, at six weeks old (my parents with her on the bottom left photo).

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Did I make good on my promise or what?! I told you this would be a short blog post. Have a great night everyone and close out your work weeks on high notes tomorrow. Don’t Blink.

Opportunities at Work

Posted on October 15, 2014 by brent

Today at work was one of those days where I got to do what I like most: Interact with students. Two specific instances provided me with this joy.

At noon today I had the opportunity to speak to a room full of business students about mobile media and how Coastal Carolina University utilizes it. Our business school is called the Wall College of Business so each year they host an appropriately named event called “Wall Connections.” No classes are held on this day to allow the students the chance to attend the festivities that include speakers, presentations, and panels. As this year’s theme was mobile media I hosted my own breakout session titled “Coastal Carolina Social Media + Mobile Media.”

I am not the best presenter so it was not like I was chomping at the bit to get up in front of the students and talk for 50 minutes straight. But I took a lot of time to prepare and the moment I knew my technology was working I didn’t have as many butterflies as usual. Once I started talking everything went smoothly. Throughout the presentation I tried to keep it as interactive as possible so I received a lot of feedback from the students. It was asking them questions and hearing their input that I enjoyed the most. A faculty member came up to me after my breakout session and told me he would like to have me back in the future so at least I knew I didn’t totally bomb it.

Presenting today gave me the excuse to dress up in a suit.

Later that afternoon I got to meet a student who I will have the chance to mentor for the duration of this academic year. I accepted an opportunity to join a new program at Coastal Carolina University called CINO Legacy. This endeavor matches a staff member with a student. From now until May twice per month, the staff member is to meet with the student on a variety of subjects ranging from resume building to job searching to interviewing. Matches were made based on questionnaires that both the mentor and mentee filled out.

I am matched with a senior from Philadelphia named Lauren. A communication major, she has a strong interest in social media and marketing in general. Today we just got to know each other as we talked about our backgrounds and interests. She likes social media AND sports (she loves the Philly pro teams) so we will get along just fine. I look forward to updating all my readers on how this rewarding opportunity for me progresses.

It seems like each day at Coastal I am afforded the chance to engage in experiences that will make me a better professional. Who knows what tomorrow will hold. Don’t Blink.

A Birthday Tradition at Work

Posted on October 8, 2014 by brent

The Office of University Communication at Coastal Carolina University is a great place to work. One of the many reasons why I enjoy it so much is because of our fun traditions. We hold premiere parties for new shows/videos we release, we go out to lunch each month to celebrate birthdays, and quite often people bring in yummy breakfast items on Fridays. However, there is one tradition that I like the best of all.

Whenever someone in our office has a birthday, our graphics department takes it upon themselves to create a card for that person. I am not talking about a basic piece of paper folded together with some text on it. Rather, I am talking about an elaborate, creative, funny masterpiece.

This was the card made for our Media Coordinator, Mona. As you can tell, it is a play on her name.

Rob, Regis, J.D., and Ron go out of their way to make cards that look awesome and that will make you laugh out loud. Their creations always speak to the birthday celebrant’s personality. If you are lucky enough to work in University Communication, on your birthday you will receive the best card of your life.

This was the card that our Vice President of University Communication (my boss) received. It is a Twitter timeline with tweets from people in the office. There are two other parts to this card with more tweet birthday wishes.

Once printed out, the card is secretly shuffled through our various offices in a red proofing folder for everyone to sign. When everyone has signed it and the time is right, the whole communication team will go to the birthday boy’s/girl’s desk and present the card. The crowd will huddle around the person’s desk and stare. The VIP of the day will then inspect the card, usually busting out in laughter.

Some of my bosses and co-workers waiting for me to open my card.

Today my 28th birthday was made even brighter when I was presented with my card from the “Social Misfits” (aka the graphics department…their words not mine). With the whole office watching my every move it took me two lines of the card before I hollered out in hysteria. Rob and his team came up with a parody of Darius Rucker’s “Homegrown Honey” that was all about me. Piggybacking off of my brief cameo in Rucker’s music video, the card was very timely and appropriate. Please take a minute to read the front.

Here is the front of my card. So funny and creative.

I then opened the card and filling up the whole left fold was a jar of “Homegrown” honey with my face plastered on it. To the right was space where my co-workers and bosses had signed. Even though I knew a card of some sort would be coming my way, I was so ecstatic and honored with what they had come up with.

The inside of my card.

Things like this make Coastal Carolina University such a great place to work at. The effort, creativity, and time that goes into something like this makes you feel special. I will keep this card for as long as it doesn’t get destroyed in a fire. Thank you so much to the graphics team for such a neat gift. Don’t Blink.

My Own Segment: The Social Circle with Brent Reser

Posted on October 6, 2014 by brent

To see my segment in Coastal Now, click here and go to the 26:22 mark

Today marked an important day at the Office of University Communication at Coastal Carolina as we released our brand new show titled Coastal Now. This program was the result of countless hours of brainstorming, debating, and collaborating. Intending to appeal more to our student population, we wanted to introduce a modernized version of our former show, Coastal Today. By modifying the show’s format, introducing hipper segments, and rolling out fresh graphics, we achieved our objective.

Here is the funny part: As part of the show’s revamp and the mission to grab the attention of our digitally obsessed students, it was decided that I would receive my own segment.

I was given my own segment. Let me introduce to you the Social Circle with Brent Reser.

Say what?! Like, seriously…I was going to be trusted with developing my own social media segment?…For the University’s news program?…And then actually present it on camera? Talk about an intimidating and humbling proposition! Although a little timid to come up with a package and then nervous to tape it on set, I went ahead and accepted the opportunity because of the amazing team I have around me.

The week before filming, I sat down with Martha Hunn, our Director of News and Public Affairs. A former hot-shot news anchor in the Myrtle Beach/Conway area, I knew I was in good hands as we started to plan my segments. Using an idea-sharing approach we talked out the beginning and end of my first two show packages. After our discussion, half my script was written in Martha’s iPad. She then gave me the freedom to write the meat of my segments myself. With the great start she gave me, I filled in the middle portions and my first two scripts for Coastal Now were complete.

The next week at the studio I felt a little nervous as I waited in the greenroom area. I watched our host of Coastal Now, Robin Russell, film her pieces and interview a couple guests. It was then time for me. I walked into the filming area and stood in front of the green screen. Our media services crew cued me and I hit it. I stumbled a couple times resulting in new takes. However, the whole time throughout the shoot I had Martha and Robin rooting me on and assuring me that I was doing a decent job. To have two veterans of the news business in your corner makes things so much easier. You know what else makes things easier? A teleprompter! It was so nice to read a script with no fear of your brain turning off and your voice disappearing.

Me on set of Coastal Now.

All the times in the past when I had gotten in front of a camera I always dreaded the end product. However, after filming my first segments for Coastal Now I actually felt good about what the outcome would be. To make it even better, I had a great time during the filming. This past Friday our office had a premiere party in the studio. We sat around a TV and munched on snacks while watching the historic first show of Coastal Now. The finished product was amazing. Our media services team did such a great job shooting and piecing the show together. Segments were fresh and fun. The 30 minute show seemed to fly by. They even managed to make me look somewhat respectable. It was cool to see a group work so hard on something and have their efforts pay off.

If you care to watch me, the Social Circle with Brent Reser starts at 26:22. I want to thank Martha Hunn, Robin Russell, David Russell, Bryan Stalvey, and Josh Chesson for the help with creating/filming/producing my segment and for all the encouragement. This so far has been a great experience and I can’t wait to help out with more shows. Don’t Blink.

Feel the Teal: Surprised and Recognized at CCU

Posted on September 18, 2014 by brent

I am blessed to say that all of my days at Coastal Carolina University are good days. But I would be remiss if I didn’t say that some days are even better than the good days. Today was one of those.

After I left work yesterday I received a call from our awesome and valuable administrative assistant, Kim. She told me that a 9 a.m. meeting had been scheduled for today. I thought something semi-urgent must have come up that our communication team needed to talk about. This morning at about 8:30 a.m. Kim came to my desk and told me that the meeting would just be with me and our Vice President for University Communication (Bill Plate – My Boss). She also added that the meeting would start in his office at 8:55 a.m. My head started to turn. What was up? Did I do something wrong?

I went into Bill’s office and he just asked me to help him establish some goals for an accreditation program. Right away at ease, I brainstormed some ideas with him. After discussing a couple more topics our meeting concluded. I walked out of his office and strolled down the hall to my desk. Once I passed through the hallway and made it to our office’s lobby area I was greeted with a special surprise.

Across from me stood all of my University Communication co-workers and superiors. Our university photographer was present and he had his camera fixated right at me. Right in front of the whole group holding a bunch of teal balloons was Eileen Soisson, the Director of Service Excellence at Coastal. Everyone was starring at me and everyone was smiling.

Eileen Soisson addresses me this morning. I swear that there were more people watching than just our crazy Director of Creative Services Rob Wyeth (Thank you to our University photographer, Bill Edmonds for the photo. Thank you to Mona Prufer for passing the photo C.D. onto me).

Eileen, the woman who is in charge of the innovative and popular “Feel the Teal” program, addressed me. She said that she was in our office today to honor me for the simple act I did last weekend. If you didn’t read my post from Monday night, I had the opportunity through a social media promotion to give my football tickets away to a student and her overseas dad who just happened to be in town for Family Weekend. It was a no-brainer on my part but the university still wanted to give me some recognition.

Eileen hands me the balloons. The Feel the Teal program is outstanding and innovative. (Thanks to Bill Edmonds for the photos).

After saying some really nice words about me, Eileen handed me the balloons while my office clapped. It was the nicest, most genuine thing that has ever been done for me in a professional setting before. I was able to hold it together but it did touch me. This is why I am at Coastal, I thought to myself.

Me with Eileen Soisson. It is easy to love a university and want to do your best when they treat you like this.

Needless to say, it turned a good day into a great day. Bill, the same great boss who recognized me at the Board of Trustees meeting, orchestrated the whole thing. This morning was one of those times where a snap shot was instantly cemented into my brain. I will always have that image of all the people I work with on a daily basis looking right at me while Eileen stood in the center with balloons. I can’t thank Coastal enough for letting me implement my vision for its social media program and then honoring me simply for following through with it. I am at the right place. Don’t Blink.

#CCUSocialMedia and WMBF Helping Out

Posted on September 15, 2014 by brent

To view the news story that this post is based on, click here.

As a proud Chanticleer football season ticket holder, there was no way I was going to let my two tickets go to waste. It was 1 p.m. on Saturday and I had no one to give my tickets to. With the game sold out and demand high from people who didn’t get tickets, I offered up my seats on #CCUSocialMedia.

I simply sent out a Tweet on our official twitter account asking our audience to retweet it. At 2 p.m. a user who retweeted the message would win the two tickets I had to giveaway. Twenty-five people responded with a retweet but one Coastal student added a little more.

This was the tweet that was sent out asking our social media audience to retweet it for a chance to win football tickets.

After retweeting the @CCUChanticleers tweet, Marissa Reusch replied with a tweet of her own. She stated that she didn’t have tickets but she did have a dad who was only in town for the weekend before he would fly back out to Kuwait. If at all possible, she would like to take her dad to the game that night.

Besides retweeting the tweet, Marisa sent this.

Well it was a no-brainer from there. I selected her as our winner of the promotion and hand delivered them the tickets when they arrived on campus. I managed to snap a photo of father and daughter with the tickets in hand.

This was the tweet announcing Marisa as the winner.

Okay, this isn’t the main point of the blog post. Of course anyone would have done what I did given the situation. Who would deny a man serving our country and a daughter begging for a special experience with her dad a couple of football tickets? No one. But it is what came next that really touched me.

Marisa and her dad, Darryl, with the game tickets they won on Saturday afternoon.

Journalism these days centers on social media. Forget about press releases and websites…reporters discover their stories through social media. WMBF, a local news station in the Myrtle Beach/Conway area, noticed the Twitter promotion. The station also noticed the subsequent Facebook post that identified the winners and their special story. Brooke Holden, a reporter for WMBF, tweeted at Marisa with a story request. The next day a news crew was at the airport to speak with Darryl and Marisa Reusch.

This was the story produced by WMBF. It chronicled the social media events of Saturday afternoon perfectly. But what it did even better was show the love between Marisa and her dad along with the heartache of saying goodbye. Watching them hug with tears in their eyes made my own eyes water up. The uneasiness of having a loved one serving overseas in a war country is unfathomable to many of us.

I want to thank WMBF for putting together such a heartfelt story and to Marisa and Darryl for doing it. As I got misty-eyed at my desk this morning I couldn’t help but once again realize that I love social media and I love my job. Don’t Blink.

Where Did These Dollar Coins Come From?

Posted on September 9, 2014 by brent

Lunchtime rolled around today and I decided to leave the office to eat with the lunch crew (our graphic designers and our editor-in-chief). As we walked out the door I stopped at the vending machine to purchase a bag of Chex Mix. This particular machine is a new model and it accepts $5 bills. Hating to break such a bill in a vending machine but not having any singles, I slipped an Abraham Lincoln note through the slot and made my selection. What came out of the change slot was something I had never seen nor heard about before.

This vending machine was introduced a couple months ago. Each time I used it I always noticed the label announcing that it accepted $5 bills. The question of how change was returned always went through my head. Did it shoot back crisp dollar bills into the change slot? Did it go Vegas style and dump down 16 quarters? These are the stupid things that keep me up at night. Turns out I was wrong on both fronts.

This is the vending machine that I visit on a regular basis and that gave me a surprise today.

When I selected my Chex Mix a clinking sound filled the slot. Okay, part of the mystery is solved, it returns coins. But the sound didn’t signify a whole bunch of quarters. Before opening the door of the slot I thought I either had Sacajawea dollars waiting for me or I had been ripped off. Once again, wrong on both fronts.

What I picked up was something I had never seen before. In my hand were four goldish-looking coins with different cartoonish-looking portraits of the U.S. Presidents on each of them. On the back was a depiction of the Statue of Liberty with the signification that it was worth $1. Since I was a kid I have always loved different types of coins and bills so I was immediately fascinated and also a little confused. How had I never seen these before?

Me holding the four coins I was given from the vending machine.

I caught up with my four lunch partners who had already started walking to the building where we eat at and I showed them my change. Not one of them had ever seen these types of coins. Each one had a different portrait of a President…George Washington, William Harrison, Martin Van Buren, and Abraham Lincoln. My co-workers shared my astonishment as we discussed whether anyone would even accept them if I tried to make a purchase. When I returned from lunch I showed the coins to more people in my office. No one had ever seen them before! It spun my curiosity the whole afternoon.

An up close look at the four Presidential dollar coins I received.

I waited until I got home to do an internet search. I expected to learn that this was a new dollar coin initiative that just started up. So wrong again! I was amazed to find out that the Presidential $1 Coin Program started in 2007!! In a model that resembles the U.S. State Quarters Plan, select coins are introduced annually. Specifically, four Presidents each year come out on the $1 coins. The issuing goes according to chronological order. In 2014, Warren Harding, Calvin Coolidge, Herbert Hoover, and FDR have all been released. Presidents must be dead at least two years before having their image minted so most likely the program will end in 2016 with Ronald Reagan.

For someone who loves the United States Presidents and currency as much as me, I still can’t believe I have been completely ignorant to this program for seven years. However, maybe I should say just four years. You see, in 2011, the government decided to stop minting the coins for circulation, opting to just release smaller amounts for collectors. Although I am a fan of currency, I don’t collect it. My full intention is to spend these coins but the question remains…will retailers look at me with confused faces when I present them as payment?

A look at the front and back of a Presidential dollar coin.

What a cool little lunch discovery today. If you have any experiences with these coins, please let me know. It is crazy how little publicity this program garnered. I will let you know how my transactions with this type of money goes. But, if you want a piece of history and are willing to pay me double for them, I will definitely take your offer. Don’t Blink.

Don't Blink

By Brent Reser

Tag Archives: Coastal Carolina University