Rep. Brady's save-the-Olympia plan: Can it float?
Will the US Mint rescue Penn's Landing's aging cruiser?
Rep. Brady's save-the-Olympia plan: Can it float?
Joseph N. DiStefano
While the Independence Seaport Museum proceeds with plans to get the Spanish-American War flagship USS Olympia off its hands, reviewing applications from groups around the country that want the ship (yes, it needs work), US Rep. Bob Brady, D-Pa., has proposed a longshot plan to pay for its repair and maintenance in Philadelphia. Brady has introduced a bill to allow the US Mint, "at no cost to the taxpayer," to sell commemorative coins honoring the Olympia and giving proceeds to the Friends of the Cruiser Olympia, one of several groups seeking to drydock and repair the ship and preserve it as a museum.
Due to a long history of approving coins no one wants, Congress only lets the Mint stamp two commemorative coins a year, and they're often for national groups like the Boy Scouts or veterans' organizations. The soonest a coin could be minted, in case Brady gets this through, is 2016, his spokeswoman Karen Warrington told me. The coin would raise $5 million at $10 a coin. There are competing proposals, she added. And isn't 2016 kind of late if the musuem is already talking to bidders? "No," says Bruce Harris, the retired National Park Service ranger who heads the Friends. "The Olympia isn't moving from Philadelphia for the next five years at least. It will cost $9 million to drydock the ship," and millions more to move and re-place it, which means Brady's bill could help the effort, Harris told me.
Make sure they are gold and silver coins, then people will definitely hoard, I mean purchase these commemorative pieces.
