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?
Unilateral secession as practiced by the rebel states is not.
Ever wonder why?
No. Why adopt an amendment forbidding something that wasn't permitted to begin with?
Bravo! Bravo!
Yankee spin, myth and revisionism at it's finest all rolled up in one tidy little package.
The truth is hatred and intolerant only to those who can't accept it.
Truth hurts, does it?
And the best fun of all is tweaking the True Believers.
I'll stop when you guys stop.
Why would I want you to stop?
Thanks for the invite Babushka but I can’t imagine anything you being involved with being worth a shiite.
Oh, give it up. You spin, lie and revise your way every Confederate thread that's ever been posted on FR.
Why don't you take up new hobby like speech writing for oblowme or biteme?
Thanks, cupcake!
ROTFLMAO!!!! Yet another pot-meet-kettle moment from FRs biggest BS artist.
Why don't you take up new hobby like speech writing for oblowme or biteme?
How's that career of your's going? Is your village happy with your performance so far?
Oh oh! Pokie’s been out sniffin bicycle seats and now he’s feeling his oats ;-)
Now you've got me laughing too:)
It is not good to burst out laughing while shopping by yourself at the grocery store.
Sure it's good for something.....nobody is gonna mug ya!
I agree.
I know of a nice story of a Confederate colonel (no doubt a Southern gentlemen) attempting to choke an elderly citizen of McDonald, Tennessee to death over a horse.
Many of these types of stories in every state I would suspect. Check out some Arkansas history from the period. The AR/MO Ozarks didn't come by the name, "No Man's Land" without good reason. I have long consisered myself fortunate that my ancestors survived it..... so that I get to be here:)
The responsibility of loosing this mayhem on the nation rests with the geniuses who thought it a great idea to tear the nation apart so they could take their human property into the territories.
This is where I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree. Human property is vile however, the states had every right to secede.
Oh no! I'm gonna have to take the seminar again....I didn't know I was supposed to be taking notes
Let's all admit the truth. We do this because it's fun.
A bit shocking at first, but fun. Of course, I'd have never survived w/o my southern compatriots:) Now, will you please stop running off all the newcomers?!?!
It's so fun being called a Klansman by the Coven, that is hilarious. /sarc
I have often wondered if you are a professional educator. I know you do a fine job of educating on this forum.
I’d try to keep my opinions out of the course and expose the students to both sides. Let them make up their own minds.
I know you mean this and I know you would instruct w/o bias. Please let me know if you ever decide to teach a course. I'll take one of your classes any day!
I'm fer it! Let's get going:)
Re: Teaching History. If you have any type students that are like the Coven here you will be called a Klansman and forced to resign. Anyone deviating from the orthodoxy of Yankee indoctrination is racist hayseed unworthy of teaching.
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