Posted on 11/17/2007 3:03:53 PM PST by Wiz
And it still does.
Are we unrepublican for using coins with former Presidents’ face?
Maybe becasue ‘we the people’ no longer have any real power in this REpublic?
Traditionally, people turned to voluntary associations for solutions to problems, as documented by Tocqueville in 1836 in Democracy in America. Progressives wanted people to turn to government for solutions, and the Constitution was a stumbling block in that goal. This was why the Bellamy brothers came up with the Pledge of Allegiance in 1892. They wanted to de-emphasize the Constitution as America's uniting icon and replace it with the flag.
The first Progressive president, Theodore Roosevelt, was a key force in getting people to look to the president for solutions to their problems, a fact which led to the imperial presidency as exemplified by Wilson, FDR and LBJ.
Note that I am not saying that the practice of putting dead presidents on coins is some kind of plot to foist liberalism on the people. What I'm trying to show is that the practice of putting dead presidents on coins was a logical outgrowth of the Progressive Movement, which emphasized government in general and the American presidency in particular. Putting dead presidents on coins was a symptom of liberalism, not a cause.
I've been fighting for years to go back to the pre-1909 practice of putting female and/or Indian depictions of Liberty on our coins. Whatever uselessness the $1 coin has, the depiction of a female Indian Liberty -- no one has a clue as to what Sacajawea really looked like -- was a glorious return to the past.
Unless conservatives have morphed into Progressives and now believe in salvation through government, we should be looking to return to the past in our coins instead of making political statements by putting dead presidents on them.
One could argue that that was only one of many of the vestiges of the old republic whose death was associated with Lincoln.
And the buyer didn’t have to go on ebay.
My dad used to ask kids: “Young man, would you like to have a picture of the great American destroyer?”, whereupon he’d produce a Roosevelt dime. Too bad they never made a coin with both Hoover and Roosevelt on the obverse; they deserve equal credit.
Presidential Dollar Coin Release Schedule
Year | President | Years Served | Release Date | |
---|---|---|---|---|
2007 | 1 | George Washington | 1789-1797 | February 15 |
2 | John Adams | 1797-1801 | May 17 | |
3 | Thomas Jefferson | 1801-1809 | August 16 | |
4 | James Madison | 1809-1817 | November 15 | |
2008 | 5 | James Monroe | 1817-1825 | |
6 | John Quincy Adams | 1825-1829 | ||
7 | Andrew Jackson | 1829-1837 | ||
8 | Martin Van Buren | 1837-1841 | ||
2009 | 9 | William Henry Harrison | 1841 | |
10 | John Tyler | 1841-1845 | ||
11 | James K. Polk | 1845-1849 | ||
12 | Zachary Taylor | 1849-1850 | ||
2010 | 13 | Millard Fillmore | 1850-1853 | |
14 | Franklin Pierce | 1853-1857 | ||
15 | James Buchanan | 1857-1861 | ||
16 | Abraham Lincoln | 1861-1865 | ||
2011 | 17 | Andrew Johnson | 1865-1869 | |
18 | Ulysses S. Grant | 1869-1877 | ||
19 | Rutherford B. Hayes | 1877-1881 | ||
20 | James A. Garfield | 1881 | ||
2012 | 21 | Chester A. Arthur | 1881-1885 | |
22 | Grover Cleveland | 1885-1889 | ||
23 | Benjamin Harrison | 1889-1893 | ||
24 | Grover Cleveland | 1893-1897 | ||
2013 | 25 | William McKinley | 1897-1901 | |
26 | Theodore Roosevelt | 1901-1909 | ||
27 | William Howard Taft | 1909-1913 | ||
28 | Woodrow Wilson | 1913-1921 | ||
2014 | 29 | Warren Harding | 1921-1923 | |
30 | Calvin Coolidge | 1923-1929 | ||
31 | Herbert Hoover | 1929-1933 | ||
32 | Franklin D. Roosevelt | 1933-1945 | ||
2015 | 33 | Harry S. Truman | 1945-1953 | |
34 | Dwight D. Eisenhower | 1953-1961 | ||
35 | John F. Kennedy | 1961-1963 | ||
36 | Lyndon B. Johnson | 1963-1969 | ||
2016 | 37 | Richard M. Nixon | 1969-1974 | |
38 | Gerald Ford | 1974-1977 |
Interesting observations, Publius.
How about the Roman numerals like the V for five-cent coins, and the X for dimes; and the dates as well. Romans were once Republicans, after all. Such a design would probably confuse today’s crop of public-school victims, but it would be as American as apple pie to move away from Arabic numerals.
BTW, Theodore Roosevelt was opposed to putting the Deity’s name on coinage; good arguments on both sides of that debate.
New York City was made by the progressives, out of the five independent cities. Corruption went on under different forms, but basically became more expensive and decision took longer.
In a way, it's a clever way of getting around the biblical injunction of not being able to worship God and Mammon at the same time. We finessed the problem by putting God on Mammon's coins. It's very businesslike, very American, and I think Alexander Hamiton would have appeciated he irony.
Right ON!
Yes, I think we are. I would rather they reserved former president's faces for FlimFlam Trac tickets so they could be punched.
I think that your theory is correct, Leisler, but I’m not finding any post-colonial issues bearing the motto. Not before 1907, on the Eagle ($10).
I have a similar collection - it’s $30 million dollars in pennies...
Sure, “minding your business” is being a good steward.
The motto first appears on the two cent piece in 1864, and some of the other coins, large and small in 1866.
The motto on coins stems from the Federal gov’t being urged to place the motto on coins during the Civil War.
Google “in god we trust on coins” and you’ll get the lowdown.
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