Because your wannabe secessionist buddies are SO thoughtful and respectful...
I wish FR had avatars, this one would fit you to a T
Posted on 08/21/2010 7:17:45 AM PDT by Colonel Kangaroo
Today, the U.S. Treasury released a $1 coin commemorating former President James Buchanan. And people aren't happy about it.
To understand why, some background is helpful. In 2007, thanks to a bill promoted by then-Senator John Sununu of New Hampshire, the Treasury began minting $1 coins with the likenesses of former Presidents, starting with George Washington.
The coins -- which have been appearing ever since, featuring a new President every three months -- are meant to improve use and circulation of America's dollar coins, which are often seen as an awkward misfit among currency, neither fish nor fowl.
Sununu's initiative drew inspiration from the 50 State Quarters Program, which launched in 1999. The runaway success of that effort, according to his legislation, "shows that a design on a U.S. circulating coin that is regularly changed... radically increases demand for the coin, rapidly pulling it through the economy."
The bill also suggested that a program wherein Presidents are featured on a succession of $1 coins, and First Spouses commemorated on gold $10 coins, could help correct a state of affairs where "many people cannot name all of the Presidents, and fewer can name the spouses, nor can many people accurately place each President in the proper time period of American history."
So the bill passed, and the Washington dollar coin appeared not long after. It was followed by Adams, Jefferson, et al., with the First Spouse coins minted alongside.
Now we're up to Buchanan, the fifteenth President, who took office in 1857 and turned things over to Abraham Lincoln in 1861, and whose coin (produced at the Philadelphia and Denver Mints and purchasable through the U.S. Mint website) has occasioned the aforementioned grousing. Here's where some feel the coin program is falling short:
1. The coins aren't circulating.
Many Americans have never gotten into the habit of using $1 coins, and as a result, over a billion commemorative Presidential coins are sitting around in a stockpile at the Federal Reserve. As BBC News reports, if these coins were stacked up and laid on their side, they'd stretch for 1,367 miles, or the distance from Chicago to New Mexico.
2. They don't seem to be educating people, either.
In February 2008, a year after the first presidential coins were minted, The New York Times reported that a survey had found large numbers of American teens to be woefully ignorant of their country's history. It was far from the first time Americans had gotten a dismal grade in history, suggesting that Sununu's commemorative-coin campaign isn't having much of an effect in that arena, either.
3. James Buchanan was kind of a crappy president.
In fairness, this is a grievance with a specific president, not the presidential coins program as a whole. Still, it seems to come up in all the coverage of the new coin: Buchanan wasn't very good at his job.
That's the consensus of historians, anyway, who have traditionally censured Buchanan for his failure to prevent the Civil War. Last year, a C-SPAN survey of historians granted Buchanan the dubious distinction of worst president ever.
Still, all of this isn't reason enough to declare the commemorative-coins program a total failure. If more coin collectors start avidly pursuing the presidential coins, it could have the effect of pushing down the national debt, thanks to the way the value of the coins fluctuates with their availability. And if the dollar coins were to catch on and replace paper $1 bills entirely, it could save the country between $500 and $700 million each year in printing costs.
Plus, if things stay on track, 2012 will see the release of the Chester A. Arthur dollar coin -- marking the first time that long non-commemorated president's face has ever appeared on any nation's currency. And who are we to deprive him of that?
My vast experience with yankees has confirmed that they are a loud, rude, obnoxious race with few, if any, redeming qualities.
Your only mistake (an honest one) on this thread is that you have tried to engage in open, honest debate with dishonorable scoundrels.
I can understand not wanting to continue responding to the hateful and vitriolic attacks from the coven. The ironic thing is, those people have the audacity to question our desire to be separate from them?! Take care.
Funny, we've all concluded the same about all y'all. Except for the 'few redeeming qualities' part. We've yet to find any redeeming qualities at all.
Do you use racial stereotypes, too?
Those were stereotypes? Who knew?
I didn't know you're a yankee. That description fits you to a "T". And like NS said, what "redeming" qualities?!
Trick? No, the United States Government committed an act of war when they violated the Armistice agreements.
There was no Armistice Agreement. There was no agreement of any kind. Just constant confederate confrontation and escalation that finally got them the war they wanted.
I may be only one man, but I will do every thing in my power to be Free from you, and permanently.. Good day, a**Hole
Anyway listed below are my quotes from yesterday clearly establishing the Mississippi River Road in the greater New Orleans areas. It is just obvious the coven stay in attack mode before any honest effort is made to understand. It is a waste of time, as you say, to bother with them.
"I suggest a telephone call to Houma House Plantation, near Burnside, La. on the Mississippi River Road, outside of New Orleans. Make some inquiries concerning their research of the race of area antebellum plantation owners. They have found there were more free men of color plantation owners, enslaving their own race, than whiteys. The owner along with some great African American ladies employed as tour guides, were researching the true history of the area’s slavery, at the time of our last visit in 2008."
"I believe we were discussing the greater New Orleans area, right?"
"The NOLA/Baton Rouge Mississippi River Road areas are an interesting study."
"I did not say the actual city of New Orleans, I said the greater New Orleans area located on the Mississippi River Road."
"You don't know anything about the river road, do you. You have no idea what parishes the area includes"
One more time, do you use racial stereotypes, too?
The buffoons have a historical disrespect for boundaries.
As you can see, punkrr, ns and cowardfromohio didn't waste any time attacking you.
Deo vindice! Free Dixie!
Heel boo-boo
Of course not. That would be racist.
Your response about glorifying the insane is self-serving: “Dixie is alive and well!”
well that didn’t take long
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