Posted on 10/18/2001 9:09:12 AM PDT by betty boop
This so-called paper money is in fact a cotton and linen blend
... is a bit silly. Paper, the best of it, is made from cotton and/or linen.
Now, can you find the key on the front of the dollar?
I may be wrong but I think its 27 states written out.
I thought this was going to be that old Soupy Sales' routine...
Actually, that was the first thing I though of when Bush did that “Hey kids, send a dollar to the starving children in Afghanistan! Send it to the White House, 1600…”
Good!, I'm not the only one!!
The eagle has always faced toward the arrows, but a similar eagle appears on the seal of the Office of the President, and Truman has that President's seal redone to have the eagle (on the Presidential seal) face the olive branch.
The seal of the United States was first worked up during the First Congress but the artwork looks like something I would draw on a napkin ... and it stayed that way until about 1890, when the govt hired Louis Comfort Tiffany (famous for his jewelry store and glass lampshades) to work up an artistic rendering. The version that appears on the dollar bill is Tiffany's artwork and certain features (such as the arrangement of the 13 stars into a sort of Magen David constellation, and some of the occurrences of 13 - before Tiffany you couldn't tell how many feathers the eagle's tail had) are original with Tiffany. The seal first appeared on the dollar bill during FDR's administration (originally it was planned that the pyramid image - the "reverse" of the seal, would be on the right but FDR instructed the Treasury to put the eagle on the right and the pyramid on the left even though the reverse of the seal is secondary).
REALLY??? References, PLEASE! We need to find out which school districts are doing this and gear up a highly-targeted FREEP to discourage such practices!
(The "separation of Church and School" tack would be useful here. Give the commies a taste of what it feels like to be on the receiving end of anti-Religious zealotry!)
Freeper battle cry!
:b ttt Eagles Up!
History of the Motto
"In God We Trust"
The motto IN GOD WE TRUST was placed on United States coins largely because of the increased religious sentiment existing during the Civil War. Secretary of the Treasury Salmon P. Chase received many appeals from devout persons throughout the country, urging that the United States recognize the Deity on United States coins. From Treasury Department records, it appears that the first such appeal came in a letter dated November 13, 1861. It was written to Secretary Chase by Rev. M. R. Watkinson, Minister of the Gospel from Ridleyville, Pennsylvania, and read:
Dear Sir: You are about to submit your annual report to the Congress respecting the affairs of the national finances. One fact touching our currency has hitherto been seriously overlooked. I mean the recognition of the Almighty God in some form on our coins. You are probably a Christian. What if our Republic were not shattered beyond reconstruction? Would not the antiquaries of succeeding centuries rightly reason from our past that we were a heathen nation? What I propose is that instead of the goddess of liberty we shall have next inside the 13 stars a ring inscribed with the words PERPETUAL UNION; within the ring the allseeing eye, crowned with a halo; beneath this eye the American flag, bearing in its field stars equal to the number of the States united; in the folds of the bars the words GOD, LIBERTY, LAW.
This would make a beautiful coin, to which no possible citizen could object. This would relieve us from the ignominy of heathenism. This would place us openly under the Divine protection we have personally claimed. From my hearth I have felt our national shame in disowning God as not the least of our present national disasters.
To you first I address a subject that must be agitated.
As a result, Secretary Chase instructed James Pollock, Director of the Mint at Philadelphia, to prepare a motto, in a letter dated November 20, 1861:
Dear Sir: No nation can be strong except in the strength of God, or safe except in His defense. The trust of our people in God should be declared on our national coins. You will cause a device to be prepared without unnecessary delay with a motto expressing in the fewest and tersest words possible this national recognition.
It was found that the Act of Congress dated January 18, 1837, prescribed the mottoes and devices that should be placed upon the coins of the United States. This meant that the mint could make no changes without the enactment of additional legislation by the Congress. In December 1863, the Director of the Mint submitted designs for new one-cent coin, two-cent coin, and three-cent coin to Secretary Chase for approval. He proposed that upon the designs either OUR COUNTRY; OUR GOD or GOD, OUR TRUST should appear as a motto on the coins. In a letter to the Mint Director on December 9, 1863, Secretary Chase stated:
I approve your mottoes, only suggesting that on that with the Washington obverse the motto should begin with the word OUR, so as to read OUR GOD AND OUR COUNTRY. And on that with the shield, it should be changed so as to read: IN GOD WE TRUST.
The Congress passed the Act of April 22, 1864. This legislation changed the composition of the one-cent coin and authorized the minting of the two-cent coin. The Mint Director was directed to develop the designs for these coins for final approval of the Secretary. IN GOD WE TRUST first appeared on the 1864 two-cent coin.
Another Act of Congress passed on March 3, 1865. It allowed the Mint Director, with the Secretary's approval, to place the motto on all gold and silver coins that "shall admit the inscription thereon." Under the Act, the motto was placed on the gold double-eagle coin, the gold eagle coin, and the gold half-eagle coin. It was also placed on the silver dollar coin, the half-dollar coin and the quarter-dollar coin, and on the nickel five-cent coin beginning in 1866. Later, Congress passed the Coinage Act of February 12, 1873. It also said that the Secretary "may cause the motto IN GOD WE TRUST to be inscribed on such coins as shall admit of such motto."
The use of IN GOD WE TRUST has not been uninterrupted. The motto disappeared from the five-cent coin in 1883, and did not reappear until production of the Jefferson nickel began in 1938. Since 1938, all United States coins bear the inscription. Later, the motto was found missing from the new design of the double-eagle gold coin and the eagle gold coin shortly after they appeared in 1907. In response to a general demand, Congress ordered it restored, and the Act of May 18, 1908, made it mandatory on all coins upon which it had previously appeared. IN GOD WE TRUST was not mandatory on the one-cent coin and five-cent coin. It could be placed on them by the Secretary or the Mint Director with the Secretary's approval.
The motto has been in continuous use on the one-cent coin since 1909, and on the ten-cent coin since 1916. It also has appeared on all gold coins and silver dollar coins, half-dollar coins, and quarter-dollar coins struck since July 1, 1908.
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Me talking now: And, as someone above said, "how many signers of the DOI?"
Also, take a look at the stars above the eagle's head: looks like a Star of David, doesn't it? Some say that General Washington had it done that way as a 'thank you' to the Jews who helped the RevWar with some major gelt.
If you go to St Paul's Chapel in NYC (just east of Ground Zero)and see the General's pew, you will also see the original painting of the Great Seal. The stars are not arranged in any pattern. Interesting.
Ssshhh! The new FR Police will pull it. They can't have anyone actually enjoying something for the first time. It wastes bandwidth.
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