FAITH UNDER FIRE
New U.S. dollar coins hide 'In God We Trust'
On gold-colored presidential pieces, national motto relegated to thin edge
Posted: November 27, 2006
1:52 a.m. Eastern
New dollar coins place 'In God We Trust' along thin edge instead of front or back
WASHINGTON – "In God We Trust," the official national motto since 1956 and a familiar sight on U.S. coins and currency, will be hard to find on the new presidential dollar coins scheduled for release to the public Feb. 15, 2007.
The new gold-colored dollar pieces, featuring images of U.S. presidents, will move the inscription from the face of the coin to the thin edge, along with the year and the previous national motto, "E Pluribus Unum," Latin for "Out of Many, One."
The official reason for the design change? To allow space for larger portraits of the presidents on the face and the Statue of Liberty on the reverse, according to the Mint.
The new coins will be the same size as the 1979 Susan B. Anthony and the 2000-2002 Sacajawea.
For the first time the coin will also say "$1" instead of "One Dollar."
Images of George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison are scheduled to appear on the coins in 2007, with a different president appearing every three months.
The series will honor four different presidents per year, in the order they served in office. Each president will appear on only one coin, except for Grover Cleveland, who will be on two because he was the only president to serve non-consecutive terms. To be depicted on a coin, a president must have been dead for at least two years.
"In God We Trust" became the national motto by an act of Congress in 1956 and officially superseded "E Pluribus Unum."
The most common place where the motto is observed in daily life is on U.S. currency and coinage. The first United States coin to bear this national motto was the 1864 two-cent piece. It wasn't until 1957 that the motto was permanently adopted for use on U.S. money.
Clearly, a cut and dry case of the Secular Scourge.™ Or should this be lumped in with The Gay Agenda?™
Of course, it's just manufactured panic. Personally, I like the aesthetics of this new look and it's not like the motto will ever wear off if they deeply indent it into the side.
Oh, boy-- announced just in time for the annual War on Christmas (TM). Everybody remember to duck and cover!
Something about Libertarianism always bothered me. Then one day, I realized what it was:
Libertarian philosophy can be boiled down to the phrase, "Work Will Make You Free."
In Libertarianism, there is no Government, so the Bosses are free to exploit the Workers.
In Communism, there is no Government, so the Workers are free to exploit the Bosses.
So in Libertarianism, man exploits man, but in Communism, its the other way around! If all you want to do is have some harmless, mindless fun, go H3RE INST3ADZ0RZ!! Grrr! Fight my Brute, you pansy!
I like it. Now if we could just get the same done to the rest of the currency. Though I am amused at the title "faith under fire". It's just slightly pathetic.
"It's you Americans. There's something about nipples you hate. If this were Germany, we'd be romping around naked on the stage here."
The new coins will be the same size as the 1979 Susan B. Anthony and the 2000-2002 Sacajawea.
In other words, too close to the size of a quarter for most people to be comfortable with.
Hell, the only time I ever see dollar coins is when I put $20 in the stamp vending machine at the post office for a book of stamps and get back a bunch of Susan B's and Sacajaweas back as change.
"You say that it is your custom to burn widows. Very well. We also have a custom: when men burn a woman alive, we tie a rope around their necks and we hang them. Build your funeral pyre; beside it, my carpenters will build a gallows. You may follow your custom. And then we will follow ours."- General Sir Charles Napier
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The new coins will be the same size as the 1979 Susan B. Anthony and the 2000-2002 Sacajawea.
In other words, too close to the size of a quarter for most people to be comfortable with.
Hell, the only time I ever see dollar coins is when I put $20 in the stamp vending machine at the post office for a book of stamps and get back a bunch of Susan B's and Sacajaweas back as change.
I wonder if these new gold-colored coins will tarnish as soon as you touch them, like ol' Sacajawea?
Oh, and I'd like to see "E Pluribus Unum" back on all the coins and paper money replacing the God thing. Off! Get it off!
Feh. Watch it die. Quickly. Painfully There is a set design architecture wrt US currency. And this rapes it.
"If scientists and inventors who develop disease cures and useful technologies don't get lifetime royalties, I'd like to know what fucking rationale you have for some guy getting lifetime royalties for writing an episode of Full House." - Mike Wong
"The present air situation in the Pacific is entirely the result of fighting a fifth rate air power." - U.S. Navy Memo - 24 July 1944
Ain't going to die quickly, I think. They'll go through the entire set of dead presidents. I'm pretty sure they'll be using the same alloy for the coins as the Sacajawea coin
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Having gone through carrying a couple pounds of 1 pound (pun intended...) and 1 euro coins in my bulging wallet back in the Old World, and looking at my beautifully slim and light wallet here in the US of A, I'm not sure if I'm too keen on having the $1 coin come into common circulation.
I guess it makes life easier with vending machines, but still...
Articles, opinions and rants from an astrophysicist: Cosmic Journeys
American vending machines only give change in coins, so you can't have anything larger than a dollar bill or a five at most. Since people usually use paper money in bigger transactions, the only currency they have left for vending machines is that extra twenty or a pocket full of change.
"If one needed proof that a guitar was more than wood and string, that a song was more than notes and words, and that a man could be more than a name and a few faded pictures, then Robert Johnson’s recordings were all one could ask for."
I don't have the figures from the U.S. Mint, but my feeling is that having dollar coins replace dollar bills saves millions of dollars per year. That's the reason why we did it in Canada.
Unfortunately, I think that this design is another wrong step. It's too small, too similar to a quarter.
73% of all statistics are made up, including this one.
SCRawl wrote:I don't have the figures from the U.S. Mint, but my feeling is that having dollar coins replace dollar bills saves millions of dollars per year. That's the reason why we did it in Canada.
Unfortunately, I think that this design is another wrong step. It's too small, too similar to a quarter.
loonies are the same size as quarters too, arent they? The Toonies are bigger though. And who the fuck is in charge of naming your currency? Richard Simmonds?
"This business will get out of control. It will get out of control and we’ll be lucky to live through it.” -Tom Clancy
SCRawl wrote:I don't have the figures from the U.S. Mint, but my feeling is that having dollar coins replace dollar bills saves millions of dollars per year.
"And the new coins might also entice people to use change instead of dollar bills. Dollar coins would save the government approximately $500 million a year because they last longer than paper dollars, according to a 2002 report from the Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress."
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SCRawl wrote:I don't have the figures from the U.S. Mint, but my feeling is that having dollar coins replace dollar bills saves millions of dollars per year. That's the reason why we did it in Canada.
Unfortunately, I think that this design is another wrong step. It's too small, too similar to a quarter.
loonies are the same size as quarters too, arent they? The Toonies are bigger though. And who the fuck is in charge of naming your currency? Richard Simmonds?
Loonies are not only larger (by about 1/8" in diameter, plus they're a little thicker), but they have eleven sides instead of the circular quarter. Add in the difference in colour, and it's pretty difficult to mistake one for the other.
As for the naming convention, the Loonie was, I believe, a popular invention as opposed to an official declaration. There's an engraving of a loon on one side (the one without the queen), so we ended up calling it the Loonie. The Toonie was so called because, I assume, the Loonie came along a few years earlier, and seemed natural. I personally preferred calling it the Doubloonie, but I was shouted down at the meeting.
73% of all statistics are made up, including this one.
Stark wrote:How do Americans use vending machines, and how is a stack of quarters better space-wise than a few dollar coins?
We have advanced vending machine technology which allows the use of paper money in our vending machines.
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Question: What was wrong with E Pluribus Unum (Out of many, one)? You know, the motto the bloody Founding Fathers put in the currency. Why was it replaced with "in God We Trust"? Is this another retarded Cold War "let's waste time giving the finger to the godless commies even though they don't give a fuck" thing?
Adrian Laguna wrote:Question: What was wrong with E Pluribus Unum (Out of many, one)? You know, the motto the bloody Founding Fathers put in the currency. Why was it replaced with "in God We Trust"? Is this another retarded Cold War "let's waste time giving the finger to the godless commies even though they don't give a fuck" thing?
Not really. It's been turning up on currency since the Civil War, as there was an upswing in religious sentiment in the nation during that period of time. In short, read this link.
Stark wrote:How do Americans use vending machines, and how is a stack of quarters better space-wise than a few dollar coins?
We have advanced vending machine technology which allows the use of paper money in our vending machines.
But aren't all American notes the same size? I imagine that you just have some kind of scanner in there that reads the markings on it, but I'll be damned if it doesn't sound like a stupid concept.
And how Americans can complain that $1 coins are too bulky when you still use 1 cent coins is beyond me.
ROAR!!!!! says GOJIRA!!!!!
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