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?
The South Postpones Rising Again For Yet Another Year -- The Onion
By Maj. Innes Randolph P.A.C.S.
Oh, I'm a good old rebel, Now thats just what I am, And for this yankee nation, I do no give a damn. I'm glad I fought a ganner, I only wish we won. I aint asked any pardon for anything I've done. I hates the yankee nation and eveything they do. I hates the declaration of independence, too. I hates the glorious union, just dripping with our blood. I hates the striped banner, and fitted all I could I road with Robert E. Lee, For three years, thereabout. Got wounded in four places, And I starved at point lookout. I caught the Romatism Campin' in the snow. But I killed a chance of Yankees And I'd like to kill some more. 3 hundred thousand Yankees Is stiff in southern dust. We got 3 hundred thousand Before they conquered us They died of Southern Fever And southern steel and shot I wish there were 3 million Instead of what we got. I can't pick up my musket And fight 'um down no more But I ain't gonna love 'um Now that is certain sure And I don't want no pardon For what I was and am I won't be reconstruted And I do not give a damn Oh, I'm a good old rebel, Now thats just what I am, And for this yankee nation, I do no give a damn. I'm glad I fought a ganner, I only wish we won. I aint asked any pardon for anything I've done. I aint asked any pardon for anything I've done.
A.:A seven course meal.
I was trying to defend their honor here, the Irish Brigade was brave if not stupidly officered...
I have helped immigrants from West Africa, new citizens, vote for the first time. Fortunately they told me they were going to vote for Bush, but who knows who they voted for? I went with them to the polls.
Ah, because it is not true.
Clearly you don’t understand, the South is to stupid to rule itself. In few years we would have Jim Crow laws re-instated and prayer in the (segregated) schools. < /sarc >
Notice, Mike, that central_va hates the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, and anything and everything to do with this country. Just like his boy, Innes.
You forgot the </sarcasm> tag.
And if they voted for Kerry no doubt their rebel welcome mat would have been quickly yanked out.
Oh please. I've watched you boneheads thump your chests and brag about your restored Dixie for years now. And all along it's been made abundantly clear that people who deviated from what you considered True Southerner would have a dim future in your beloved country and would be forced out one way or another. But why shouldn't your restored confederacy also have its restored police state?
you numbnuts need to quit projecting. I have no “uncle Billy”....
The courtesy of extending this as your opinion is duly noted and appreciated:)
Since it was trashed so long a ago and nobody follows it anymore there is no point hating it, it is irrelevant.
A Constitution not followed is worse than having no Constitution at all, for this situation breeds contempt in the intelligent and a false sense of security in the uninitiated sentimentalist. The false protections in the Constitution now offers only an illusion and acts as a fig leaf for the statist and their minion to ply their craft. It has destroyed states rights and the Supreme Joke is our biggest folly, they were supposed to be the gate keepers.
Congratulations to you and your bride, rb! I wish you both many more years of health and happiness:)
about as relevant as the rest of the crap you’ve posted.
I have no idea who they voted for or care.
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