“In God We Trust” Removed From Face Of New Coins
Posted on November 27, 2006
Hat tip: Iowa Voice
They say it is to make more room for Presidential portriats.
The American mint has removed the official “In God We Trust” motto from the face of it dollar coin and has relegated it to the gold-colored coin’s thin edge. Mint officials said the reason for the change is to leave more room for portraits of former presidents and the Statue of Liberty.
You can view the coins here. Click on the “Edge Lettering” to see what they have done.
“Out of sight, out of mind”, I think. Perhaps our athiest friends who keep suing, with the help of the ACLU, are starting to get their way?
Perhaps so. This could be some kind of sneaky attempt at a compromise, but don’t think anything will satisfy the secular cleansing crowd besides totally erasing all reference to God from every single American mint. Furthermore, those that support keeping this National motto on our coins are going to feel quite short changed indeed. This change won’t make either side happy.
Oh, and a keen friend noticed that the word “Liberty” was completely removed to be replaced nowhere. Isn’t that nice? I don’t think this is a conspiracy, but they had to have known it was going to stir up some controversy.
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9 Responses to ““In God We Trust” Removed From Face Of New Coins”
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Syndicate Me
So, how many months of regular handling would it take to erase the edge lettering?
Lest we not forget putting “In God We Trust” on our money and putting the phrase “under God” in the pledge of allegiance only date back to the 1950’s when our country was unfortunately gripped by McCarythyism and anticommunist paranoia. Those displays were actually changes to how our money was originally designed and are fairly recent.
Since putting “In God We Trust” on our money is an unequivocal violation of separation between church and state it should be removed.
My point proven by Sailnsouth. Even if this was an attempt to compromise it will not satisfy either side. Those that believe in the “seperation of church and state” B.S. will only be satisfied by complete removal from all U.S. mint.
Of course, I disagree with you, but I don’t have the time to debate “Seperation of Church” today. That is a never ending argument anyway.
(Picking up the sword laid down by Jay)
The only ’separation between church and state’ is that Congress cannot declare a state religion, or oppress religions other than theirs. It wasn’t until recently that the constitutional revisionists decided it meant that government employees and elected officials cannot express their own religion. As time goes on, every little expression of religion by any governmental body has been attributed to be an ‘endorsement of a particular religion by the government’- an effort spearheaded by the ACLU.
Funny how many of these same people that think the first amendment is so absolute think that the second is subject to interpretation that increases the regulation allowed.
Indeed. There is only one possible compromise, but I don’t think anyone wants to change the motto to “In God Some Trust”.
Personally, I believe the mint’s reasoning. The edge lettering is certainly an impressive way to keep the face of the coin simple and elegant.
Sailnsouth is correct that the phrase’s use as a motto is spotty, at best. However, his assertion that “putting ‘In God We Trust’ on our money is an unequivocal violation of [the establishment clause]” has been rejected by more than one court.
Salin,
You are wrong. It goes back further.
From Treasury Department records it appears that the first suggestion that God be recognized on U.S. coinage can be traced to a letter addressed to the Secretary of Treasury from a minister in 1861. An Act of Congress, approved on April 11, 1864, authorized the coinage of two-cent coins upon which the motto first appeared.
The motto was omitted from the new gold coins issued in 1907, causing a storm of public criticism. As a result, legislation passed in May 1908 made “In God We Trust” mandatory on all coins on which it had previously appeared.
Legislation approved July 11, 1955, made the appearance of “In God We Trust” mandatory on all coins and paper currency of the United States. By Act of July 30, 1956, “In God We Trust” became the national motto of the United States.
As for the Establishment Clause:
Several years ago, the appearance of “In God We Trust” on our money was challenged in the federal courts. The challenge was rejected by the lower federal courts, and the Supreme Court of the United States declined to review the case.
More on the history of God appearing on our currency here.
Again the purpose of my post was to show that the mention of God on our currency was not original and of a fairly recent origin as backed up by the by the legislation mentioned above in 1955. So by removing “In God We Trust” we are just bringing our money back to being religiously neutral.
It is certainly arguable that putting “In God We Trust” on money is our governments sponsorship of a particular religious viewpoint.
So goes for the pledge of allegiance as well.
Particular religious viewpoint? No. The word “God” is neutral to all religions. It is definitely not specific to any particular religion. It is arguable that it endorses or excludes any religion. Unless you consider athiesm or secularism a religion. If this is the case, then removing it would be an endorsement of a particular religion.