Okay, DUers - time to design the $1 trillion coin

[derby378]

I'd suggest rhodium or iridium as the metal to mint it with, but to avoid a court battle, let's go ahead with platinum.

My vote is for a 13-sided coin (for the 13 original colonies), 50 millimeters wide and 5 millimeters thick. Put Benjamin Franklin on the front and the signing of the Declaration of Independence on the back.

Your turn.

[aintitfunny]

1. I don't care what it looks like

But I want them to mint the coin. Halt at least some of the abuse of power now held by lunatics who could care less about this Country.

[Hatchling]

2. I like the 13 sides

An I want a crying Bohner on one side and and upside elephant on the other side with x's over it's eyes. Is there a way we can tint the coin orange and still have it platinium?

[derby378]

4. Orange? How come? (n/t)

[Hekate]

46. No doubt for The Orange Man, Boehner nt

[theKed]

3. I thought the suggestion

of Ronald Reagan on the back was an excellent one. And probably an inscription of "In Wall Street We Trust" on the front....Google Translate gives "In Murum Platea Nos Confídimus" as the phrase in Latin, but I suspect that's not quite right.

[pinboy3niner]

16. If Reagan's on the obverse, the reverse should incorporate this image:

?f061b7ce9937c38b702e6f308816ac2a14e2a4ec

[muriel_volestrangler]

27. I think I'd go with "In Via Muri Credimus"

Via is a more common term for road (though perhaps it's a bit more for roads between cities - I'm not sure). Most of the names I can find use an adjective for the name, and I've no idea if there's such a thing for 'wall' in Latin, so I've gone for the genitive of the noun - 'of the wall'. The 'nos' would be optional - it would emphasis that we trust in Wall Street, even if other people don't. There are several possibilities for 'trust' - confidimus, fidimus, credimus. Since 'credimus' has the sense of 'believe' (like the Credo, a statement of faith), it seems the most appropriate here.

[MADem]

53. Confidimus!! It's evocative of the "con" game those bums played on us! nt

[KamaAina]

31. Thank you.

[pansypoo53219]

54. 'he built it' actually yellow might be better.

the tinkle down golden shower aspect.

[rucky]

5. Someone on the radio suggested this guy:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Ponzi

[derby378]

6. Not bad

But then what would we put on the back?

[rucky]

7. a pyramid, of course!

[GObamaGO]

42. Bernie Madoff?

[JHB]

8. For who to put on it: Reagan or Boehner

May need some additive to the platinum to make the color orange.

On the other side, the Articles of Confederation, our first principle document of the national government, to remind people that it did exist, and that our Founding Fathers scrapped it because it left the national government weak enough to drown in a bathtub.

[geardaddy]

60. How about Boehner fellating Reagan?

[hootinholler]

9. Here ya go

A coin with a 4" diameter and 1/4" thick, struck from beryllium or other toxic metal. Reagun on the obverse, an elephant taking a dump on the reverse.

Motto on coin edge: Illegitimi Non Carborundum

[derby378]

10. Oooooh, a TOXIC metal!

Hadn't occurred to me that maybe you should only handle the coin with safety gloves...

[hootinholler]

12. I was thinking uranium

But thought it might be over the top.

[dixiegrrrrl]

41. How about all that depleted uranium we have lying around Iraq, going to waste?

[Fumesucker]

11. Dubya kissing a sheikh with Cheney's quote: Reagan proved that deficits don't matter

I'm not particular about what's on the back

[cherokeeprogressive]

13. A single $1 trillion coin is such shortsighted and timid thinking...

If ONE is such a good trick, why not have President Obama issue an Executive Order to mint 17 of them? That way we can wash our hands of the National Debt, and with the remaining $500 billion give $2500 (based on a population of 311 million) to every living American Citizen not in the 2%. Think what a shot in the arm THAT would be for the economy!

And since President Obama can be said to have solved the debt problem with a stroke of his pen, we put a bust of HIM on the obverse, and the Capitol Building (since Congress is responsible for the debt problem) on the reverse.

I'm not sure though, whether I'd prefer the coins be made of cubic zirconia, or Fools Gold.

[derby378]

15. CZ would be a neat trick

The coins would have to be sculpted instead of minted, yes? That'll cost a little money, too.

[cherokeeprogressive]

17. Maybe they can just fake it.

[RomneyLies]

34. The problem is the actual logisitcs of what would be done with the coin.

The Fed, at any given time, holds about $1.6 trillion of the national debt.

the deposit to the fed would pay off $$1 trillion of that.

the Fed constantly buys up the securities that make up the national debt, so they would need time before a second $1 trillion coin is struck.

[JaneyVee]

14. Bush on the front, IN WALL STREET WE TRUST on the back.

[RomneyLies]

35. Federal law limits whose face can be on a coin to only people who are deceased.

No Bush. Reagan is fair game.

[hughee99]

18. I was thinking since we're going to use a wacky scheme and accounting gimmicks to

make debt disappear, make money appear, and make it look like you have money when in fact you have a large debt, perhaps we could put Ken Lay's picture on it, or maybe a giant crooked "E".

[RomneyLies]

36. See above, no living people can be on a coin under the law.

Same portion of the US code that autorizes the Treasury Secretary to strike the coin limits whose face can be on a coin to deceased persons.

[hughee99]

38. Do you know something about Ken Lay most people don't?

Word is, he died in 2006.

[RomneyLies]

39. D'oh!

I forgot. Of course, he was completely forgettable.

[Silent3]

19. I'd make it about the size of a manhole cover

I don't want it to be too easy to walk off with.

Then I want to see a vending machine designed to accept that coin, and make change.

[derby378]

22. I'd like to see the goods such a vending machine would dispense

I'll take a honey bun and the deed to one of Donald Trump's golf courses.

[Sheepshank]

20. I think the coin should be more 3-D and they should mint one for every state...share the $1T

perhaps in the shape of a 4 sided pyramid. All sides being equal in surface area. It's image is already on the dollar bill.

With 5 sides, there's lot of room to put something significant on every side.

1. All seeing eye on one side (gotta make conspirasits happy), with an eagle holding wheat sheaths reflected in the iris.,
2. The numeric and alpha $1 Trillion statement, with come curly certificate-ish graphics in the background.
3. Obama's face on another side, face to face with Bill Clinton with the WH in the background
4. Picture/engraving of the US Treasury Bldg, with some comforting statement about honoring debts
5. A peace sign, next to the state bug for each of the states

[theKed]

21. How about this fellow?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A._Philip_Randolph

[derby378]

23. A good man - and a civil rights pioneer worth remembering

Thanks for sharing!

[theKed]

33. Not only civil rights

but the American labour and socialism movements. All things celebrated by the Democratic Party.

[muriel_volestrangler]

24. I think it should be triangular, but with this design on one side

Why triangular? Because it should be call the Ningi:

The Universe

"Some information to help you live in it.
...
4. Population: none.

It is known that there are an infinite number of worlds, simply because there is an infinite amount of space for them to be in. However, not every one of them is inhabited. Therefore, there must be a finite number of inhabited worlds. Any finite number divided by infinity is as near to nothing as makes no odds, so the average population of all the planets in the Universe can be said to be zero. From this it follows that the population of the whole Universe is zero, and that any people you may meet from time to time are merely the products of a deranged imagination.

5. Monetary Units: none.

In fact there are three freely convertible currencies in the Galaxy, but none of them count. The Altairian Dollar has recently collapsed, the Flainian Pobble Bead is only exchangeable for other Flainian Pobble Beads, and the Triganic Pu has its own very special problems. Its exchange rate of eight Ningis to one Pu is simple enough, but since a Ningi is a triangular rubber coin six thousand eight hundred miles along each side, no one has ever collected enough to own one Pu. Ningis are not negotiable currency, because the Galactibanks refuse to deal in fiddling small change. From this basic premise it is very simple to prove that the Galactibanks are also the product of a deranged imagination.

http://hitchhikers_guide.webs.com/theuniverse.htm

[PeaceNikki]

25. I'd like to see Mr. Burns on it. what's "release the hounds" in Latin?

[derby378]

26. Expedio a canibus?

Latin scholars, would that be close enough?

[muriel_volestrangler]

28. 'Canes expedite' (or 'canes expedi'), perhaps?

The first is an order to several flunkies, the 2nd to just one.

[jmowreader]

30. Probably not

I think that means 'don't bogart that joint.'

[Initech]

44. "If it's a crime to love one's country then I'm guilty."

"If it's a crime to steal one trillion dollars and hand it over to communist Cuba, then I'm guilty of that."

"And if it's a crime to bribe a jury, then so help me, I'll soon be guilty of that!"

[PeaceNikki]

48. "Does anyone have change for a button?"

[Initech]

57. "Back in my day nickels had pictures of bumblebees on them!"

"Give me five bees for a quarter you'd say!"

[PeaceNikki]

61. "So I tied an onion to my belt, which was the style at the time."

You dropped that part!!



I adore the Simpsons.

[jmowreader]

29. Make it a foot in diameter and an inch thick

Machine it from acrylic and vacuform a layer of platinum foil onto it.

The obverse will have four faces. Reagan, for teaching us taxes are bad and deficits don't matter. Shrub, for taking him literally. Norquist, for being the power behind the throne. And Dick Armey, for inventing the tea party.

On the reverse will be this inscription: "I have 23 more of these. Don't try this again."

[derby378]

32. ...

[RomneyLies]

37. It's illegal to put the face of a living person on a coin n/t

[jmowreader]

63. It's also illegal to allow the government to go into default because you don't like spending

Okay, just put Ronnie's face on the thing, make it out of pot metal flash-plated with platinum - the cheapest shit they can possibly find - and make it big like a ceremonial check so it'll be easy to see at the deposit ceremony.

[RomneyLies]

65. Actually, that's legal

Of course the only reason it's legal is because Congress made it so.

[jmowreader]

66. The 14th Amendment says it isn't

Section 4: "The validity of the public debt...shall not be questioned."

[RomneyLies]

67. No, it doesn't

The 14th amendment is a dead end otion that would only result in impeachment.

[Kaleva]

40. Why the Nazi measurements?

[derby378]

43. WHAT Nazi measurements?

Need some hot chocolate?

[Kaleva]

45. millimeters. Nazi measurements

[hobbit709]

49. HUH????

[Kaleva]

59. It's a joke from a comedy skit. The metric system is Nazi and thus Un-American.

[derby378]

50. Blame the French

They were comfortably using millimeters back when Herr Schicklgruber's father Alois was still in his diapers.

[Kaleva]

58. It's more sinister sounding if one says the metric system is Nazi!

[Larrymoe Curlyshemp]

47. It's gotta be Dubya!

I mean, seriously, who fucked us the hardest?

[MADem]

51. Ronald Reagan on the coin--no contest.

If you look at American currency, the less of a force you were for good, the higher the denomination you are pictured upon.

George Washington--father of our country--he's on coin and bill, everyone sees his face each and every day. Same deal with Honest Abe, the Emancipator--even the poor can see his face on their money.

Woodrow Wilson? He's on an uncirculated bank note worth $100,000.

On the back, the Pentagon--where most of our money has gone over the past half century or so.

This isn't my design, but it is one I wholeheartedly endorse.

It says so much, so clearly. It also shuts up the "Put Reagan on the currency" crowd--they can be told that he's on the priciest currency we have.

[derby378]

55. Great find!

Of course, the GOP will complain that "In God We Trust" is missing from the design, but still, there's that shiny Pentagon.

[MADem]

56. They could inscribe "War Without End, Amen" on it--that sounds vaguely holy! nt

[DefenseLawyer]

52. To stick it to our friends in the Tea Party

This would be perfect

[SidDithers]

62. I think it should be made out of lead, and be 14 feet in diameter, and 3 feet thick...

don't want somone slipping it into their pocket and walking away with it, you know.

Sid

[Art_from_Ark]

64. The "coin" could be minted in any metal, actually,

since platinum itself is not a traditional coinage metal (it's only been used since 1997, and only for non-circulating bullion coins), and since the coin would have to contain tons of any metal to give it an intrinsic value of a trillion dollars.

[Initech]

68. Reagan on one side and a giant middle finger on the back.

[AnnieBW]

69. Put Ronald Reagan's Face On It

And the Pentagon on the back. Show people what their trillion dollars are funding, and who's responsible for it.