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Small Change? Stop Screwing With Our Money
By Bill | September 26, 2007 | Email This Post
Okay, this is strictly an editorial, and not election related. Is anyone but me tired of the US Mint changing money designs? (Okay, this is Congress’ fault, underneath.) The latest is the Lincoln penny, the design of which has been unchanged for nearly fifty years (for another fifty before that, the reverse featured stalks of wheat; if you want to draw a conclusion about the earlier change being symbolic of a post World War II country rejecting it’s agrarian roots, I will not stop you.) If you’re in my age range, you grew up with the designs of American money being relatively constant, except for Bicentennial quarters (and half- and whole dollar coins, which rarely made an appearance.) And later on, of course, there were the Susan B. Anthony and Sacagawea dollar coins, and more recently the US presidential dollar coins, which nobody ever uses (if you want a sample, buy something that requires change from a US Post Office vending machine; since nobody else wants them, they seem to have a limitless supply. I’ve ready theories that the resounding failure of an otherwise sensible proposal - a dollar coin - is due to the fact it looks too much like a quarter, despite Sacagawea’s gold-tinged appearance which instantly tarnishes when you touch it. That’s what you get for over complicating things, throwing away a perfectly good silver dollar design that everyone liked. But I suppose the prospect of redesigning all the coin slots in America was too daunting.)
Lincoln doesn’t bear this assault alone, of course. The Jefferson nickel was similarly defaced (slightly missing the majesty of the tradition of the old Buffalo nickel by kinda-sorta reproducing that image on the back, along with changing the head shot of Jefferson from the stately founding father to a closeup worthy of soap opera camera work.) And then there’s our paper money, which has had color and other safety features added, resulting in something looking a bit like it should accompany a board game. (The anticounterfeit argument doesn’t seem to hold, either; after all these are the same folks that came up with a way to hide encoded information in your laser printer so that the government can track you down if it so desires.)
And its that symbolism that bothers me most. American money ought to be instantly recognizable, constant, and distinctive - not fickle and vapid. The logical next step will be for the Secretary of the Treasure to show up on the cable shopping channels hawking limited-edition collectors sets of our country’s wares; perhaps he might throw in a commemorative Gilligan’s Island plate set while he’s at it, if you place your order quickly enough.
I’m not a numismaticist at all (which is perhaps part of the problem - maybe coin collectors live for this kind of stuff) I’m just a regular citizen who wants his old money - not to mention the country for which it stood - back.
Topics: Editorial |