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?
So says the guy who wants to flee big government by creating his own intrusive government.
We see your intentions clearly now, Idabumpkin.
So, be my guest... Go protest, say your pledge ( that was written by a socialist, go figure ). I'll work on my State Representatives, for nullification, and if need be, Secession...
And what would education be like in your new Dixie, pray tell?
Would that be in the public schools, the concept of which you just condemned in your reply 731?
I'm sure you'd rather have condoms given away. One problem with that, Non-Sequitur. The condom couldn't hit the hundred yard bullseye on their Sherman targets at recess..
Instead of breaking the flow between math class and Southron fantasy class why not schedule target shooting as the first class after the morning Two Minute Hate against all things Yankee?
Put down the crack pipe already.
So now you’re working on your state reps and if that doesn’t work, then secession. That’s a far cry from outright secession. Methinks you’re retreating already.
Well thanks, yank! That's mighty white of ya!
It’s a part of history after all.
It's part of the present, too.
My understanding of Southern Culture, such as it was in the time of the rebellion, is based on my readings on the period. My understanding of Southern Culture, such as one currently exists, is based on my discussions with your compatriots like Idabilly and Cowboyway and central_va. Neither one gives me warm fuzzies as to what life in your new confederacy would be like.
Did you mean to include Temecula, CA?
I would include that, yes.
Again, Those who wish to assimilate into Southern society are welcomed. Those who seek not to assimilate, but instead seek to change Her culture, will meet firm resistance.
It's that 'firm resistance' that I find disquieting, especially as described by your compatriots.
Do you honestly believe only Protestant churches are to be found in Dixie? Being predominantly Protestant does not mean other religions are eliminated in the South. My King James Bible belonged to my grandmother and I am a Southern Baptist. However, I have attended Roman Catholic, varied Protestant denominational, non demoninational, and interdenominational services, as well as a Synagogue and a Buddhist temple. My personal preference for the version of The Ten Commandments is from Exodus 20:2-17 or Deuteronomy 5:6-21, but would not quibble over the Catholic or Jewish versions being displayed.
Tap dance all you want, but the 10 Commandments that have been displayed in Southern states so far have all been the Protestant version, which would seem to establish that as the state religion. I wonder how long it would be before Madison's caution comes to pass in your new Southland.
Returning to my original question: Can you please explain how we sound, what we believe, and how we think, act, and worship?
Returning to my original reply, intolerantly. And I base that on positions publicly taken by your compatriots in this thread and other discussions.
Precisely why you two would be cozy together.
And why you and she are as alike as two peas in a very large pod.
You POS liberal yankees have no respect for anything, do you.
You loath the Constitution, especially the 2nd and 10th amendments. You loath independence and self-reliance.
And you're disrespectful to the ladies. I'll bet you smack your wife around.
It's hilarious that you had to educate the new spokesman for the coven about one of HIS states most infamous characters!
Laughing at you, mikefromohio!
Free Dixie!
Not to de-rail this thread, but when i keep seeing “Worst President” I keep waiting to see obama’s name come up.
But that’s me.
Carry on.
Not only does he not understand Dixie, he depises it with a passion.
Put the two together and you have the recipe for a typical member of an ignorant hate group of which I strongly feel that the coven is.
Free Dixie!
Do you take a stupid pill every morning, mike?
Think about this (if you're able): which section of the country votes consistently and solidly repub/conservative? Hmmmmm?
It ain't Ohio and the rest of the yankee states, numbnuts!
Now, which section of the country votes consistently and solidly dem/socialist/marxist?
That's right! Ohio and the rest of the POS yankee states!
If it wasn't for the South, you stupid yankees would already be living in a socialist/marxist police state. Why don't you pucker up and kiss both sides of my unreconstructed Rebel ass, punk, and publicly thank all of us Southrons that you are still living in a resonably free country.
Try to lay off the stupid pills for a while, sonny.
Free Dixie!
Why would or should I care what some shut-in wannabes call Sherman?
Do you have time for posting? Don’t you have a big research project under way?
This statement isn’t very accurate. Hope your shooting is better bumpkin.
you probably like having men kissing parts of you, don’t ya boy?
keep defending idabumpkin and his police state - your intentions are now known.
I understand your confusion but oblowme is just the latest incarnation in a long list of power hungry, central government dictator wannabe's beginning with disHonest Abe.
Hence, the thread has taken on another epic Blue/Gray battle.
Free Dixie!
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