IT WOULD be an exaggeration to say that David Ganz's achievement reflects the power of one man to change history.

But it would not be overstated to say that Fair Lawn's mayor has brightened everyone's life a little -- not to mention the not inconsequential achievement of adding roughly $5 billion a year to the nation's Treasury.

Mr. Ganz, a 49-year-old lawyer and lifelong numismatist, was the engine behind all those fascinating new quarters we've been finding in our pockets over the last two years -- the ones celebrating the nation's 50 states. The commemorative coins have been issued at the rate of five a year since 1999, and the U.S. Mint will continue issuing new coins through 2008, when there will be one for each state.

The achievement has added a little adventure to the otherwise unremarkable task of handling change, and it has regenerated interest in coin collecting. By setting the Mint's presses into overtime in production of five times more quarters than usual to meet demand, the new coins have added $5 billion a year to the Treasury's coffers. Each quarter costs 3 cents to produce, leaving 22 cents as profit for the Mint.

Mr. Ganz's idea wasn't unusual. A lot of people have over the years recommended that the Mint spice up the nation's stodgy coin and currency by putting commemorative issues into general circulation. But the bureaucrats resisted, content to issue the occasional limited-production commemorative that only collectors would buy and save.

Mr. Ganz's prominence, energy, and perseverance as a member of former Treasury Secretary Lloyd Bentsen's Citizens Commemorative Coin Advisory Committee dismantled those bureaucratic hurdles. By doing so, the Fair Lawn mayor has added this sort of color to our lives: Trips to change makers at the laundromat now have possibilities of becoming serendipitous encounters with pieces of history instead of hurried chores to feed the dryer.

Bravo, Mr. Ganz.