The Think Tank

I checked my email the other day and I found a plea in there for me to sign a petition to insist that the motto “In God We Trust” be placed on the new $1 coins featuring likenesses all of the US Presidents.  Personally, I do not feel that “In God We Trust” should be on our national currency.  I think the idea of the government officially sanctioning one religion over others is a mistake that has historically lead to the subjugation of followers of other faiths, not to mention the hardships endured by people of no particular faith at all.

To that same end, I do not feel that our Pledge of Allegiance should include the line “Under God”, which it did not contain until 1957 when President Eisenhower pushed the Congress to have it added.  In his presidential memoirs he has said he wanted to have it added as a way of psychologically differentiating  ourselves from the Soviet Union, not for any particularly religious reasons.

With only a few minutes of internet research I was able to find that, regardless of my personal beliefs as to the national sanctioning of religion, the email was pointless.  The new coins will indeed have the phrase upon them, though it will appear in small lettering cut into the edge of the coin instead of its more traditional place of honor along the top edge.

Along the way I found out several things that I thought I would share.  Read on and you will find some interesting fact:

The first mention of inscribing our currency with a salute to the Christian Deity appears in a letter written to Secretary of the Treasury Salmon P. Chase by Reverend M. R. Watkinson of Ridleyville, Pennsylvania in 1861.  He wrote: “One fact touching our currency has hitherto been seriously overlooked. I mean the recognition of the Almighty God in some form on our coins.”  He went on to describe the coin he would like to see minted: “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.”

Secretary Chase was moved by the letter and that very same week instructed the Director of the Philadelphia Mint to create a new coin honoring Almighty God.  His letter began: “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.”

A strange thing for a country with a supposed separation of church and state, but I digress.

Thanks to an Act of Congress in 1837 the design of US coins could not be changed without a further Act of Congress, which was passed in 1863.  The final designs for the new one cent, two cent and three cent coins were submitted to Chase for his approval, bearing the motto “Our Country; Our God”.  Chase wrote back to the Director of the Mint with this suggestion: ” 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”.

Chase’s motto was adopted and first appeared on the two cent coin in 1864.  The phrase appeared on several different coins, but was not uniformly used until the Coinage Act of 1873 was passed, which instructed the Secretary of the Treasury to “cause the motto IN GOD WE TRUST to be inscribed on such coins as shall admit of such motto.”

That is not to say that the phrase has been in constant use ever since.  It disappeared and reappeared on the penny and nickels several times throughout the years, until 1938 when it began its uninterrupted reign.  In 1956 President Eisenhower approved a joint resolution of the 84th Congress declaring “In God We Trust” our national motto, and allowed the phrase to be printed on paper money for the first time in 1957.

The new $1 Presidential coins are the latest attempt in an ongoing program by the Department of the Treasury and the Mint to replace paper singles with coins, at an approximated savings of $500 million dollars in annual printing expenses, since coins are much more durable then paper bills.  Their previous attempts with Susan B. Anthony dollars and the golden Sacagawea coins were met with only a luke warm response from the public, despite the fact that most other countries have converted their smaller denominations to coins without incident.

The next new coin in this program to replace paper bills was announced at the same time but has drawn very little attention: a 24-karat $10 piece featuring the First Ladies of the United States.  This coin is set for release at the end of 2007