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?
We sent you all the rude and stupid ones, figuring that they already had two key attributes of a Southerner. Enjoy 'em.
Can you keep your Lincoln Coven under control? Calling people Klansman is getting old.
ROTHFLMAO. Put a muzzle on Cowboyway and Idabilly and Southernsunshine first and then we'll talk.
Funny, IMO Lincoln would have approved of these same Klan tactics in the "territories" pre-war. He wanted them lily white you know...
Gee, help me. Tell me where somebody called a Coven member a racist or a murderer aka Klan?
They call their opponent liberal Democrats which, on a site like this, is a whole lot worse. They call them Muslims. Their name calling is constant. So look to your own house first, if you don't mind, before you call for a cleaning of mine.
Calling someone a Klansman is going nuclear, calling someone a liberal? Give me a break. You guys suck. I would never call or taunt somebody on FR that I wouldn't do it face to face. Tell me, would you call me Klansman to my face?
Speaking of rabblerousers, hows the whining to the mods working out for ya?
Since I don’t worship the man as an Earthly idol, I don’t see him as anything other than what he was....
Yawn.....
You're a mental midget and I'm done with you.
(you can complain to the mods if you like)
You’re wasting your time, Sunshine.
General Kangaroo believes in total war. He advocates that we practice the same policies as Shermy and the yankees in Afganistan, you know, killem all, let God sortem out. Women, children, elderly, the infirm included.
Bravo!!
Nothing quite like taking the high road, is there?
Methinks thou doest bitch too much.
I would never call or taunt somebody on FR that I wouldn't do it face to face. Tell me, would you call me Klansman to my face?
Not without evidence. But I have absolutely no doubt whatsoever that your compatriots would be just as nasty, just as vile, just as rabid in person as they are on this forum. So again, rein in your own assholes before you start whining about others.
And still goes on in places like Ohio, Michigan and other northern states.
To bad the your Coven doesn't practice that. Keeping your torches under control is not a Neo-Yankee trait.
Excuse me, what did you just imply? -- mstar
What can you expect from the descendants of Shermy, Sheridan and the yankee rabble/criminals that gleefully executed orders to make 'total war' on non-combatants, mstar?
mac_truck is just showing his low bred yankee classlessness which is, unfortunately, the rule not the exception, for the coven.
LOL. It sure as hell ain't a Lost Cause one either.
If you mean that we don't put up with a lot of silly shit, which the coven is full of, then you're right.
I see you coven are attacking our female posters again. First it was that crude remark that you made to salamander, now, your boy mac-truck, is attacking mstar. Shermy would be so proud of you.
I guess it's just genetic.....
Nothing funny about being called a Klansman. But by all means keep it up. Every time the Coven pulls that crap and call us Klansman you probable convert 10 lurkers to our side.
Nope. I mean that I have absolutely no doubt that you're just as foul mouthed, foul tempered, and blissfully moronic in person as you are on the forum. What part of that is unclear?
I see you coven are attacking our female posters again.
If they don't want to run with the big dogs then they should stay away. Their phony indignation grows tiring after a while. So does your's on their behalf.
Except when you're applying it to Abe Lincoln, is that it? Well, what's good for the goose is certainly good for the gander. Besides, I though all y'all were big on Southern heritage.
But by all means keep it up. Every time the Coven pulls that crap and call us Klansman you probable convert 10 lurkers to our side.
Doubtful. All your simple minded lurkers appear to be over here trashing Lincoln for all they're worth. Which fortunately is not much.
I guess calling respectable women Klansman is really something for the Coven to be proud of, even on an anonymous forum. Like I said keep it up. You learn these tactics from Shabazz?
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