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Godless Coins Real or Just an Urban Myth?
 | By Richard Giedroyc, World Coin News
October 16, 2008 |
Urban legends regarding coins and bank notes can be entertaining. I wrote about many of them in my 2004 book Superstition, Urban Legends and Our Money (PublishAmerica).
Well, according to an Aug. 22 article appearing in The Grand Rapids (Mich.) Express newspaper, the recently released U.S. Andrew Jackson dollar coin has created an urban legend of its own. Some people apparently don't understand that the legend "In God We Trust" appears on the edge rather than on the obverse or reverse.
According to the article, "Snoopes.com, a well-known urban legend tracking site, said e-mails urging a boycott of the coins because of the alleged omission began to circulate around the same time the coins were released in 2007. The origin of the e-mail is unclear, but it stays alive by getting passed around. Aside from rare errors, the motto has been included on all U.S. coins since 1938, according to the U.S. Treasury."
Peggy LaPenna of Ada, Mich., is reported in The Grand Rapids Express article as apparently still being in shock over the discovery. Apparently she hasn't paid much attention to the earlier dollar coins already released in the ongoing Presidential dollar series. She is quoted in the newspaper as saying through an e-mail message, "If someone gives you a dollar coin as change, refuse to take it and insist on a dollar bill, and tell them why," adding, "Send the U.S. Mint a strong message, we insist that God stay on 'the front' of our money."
Why am I addressing this ridiculous news tidbit in a world coin column? Because most urban legends come from such ridiculous misunderstandings. This is apparently about to become the next such legend that if I ever do a second edition of my book should be included.
There really are "godless" coins that have created an uproar among the public. Likely the two most famous examples are the U.S. 1907 Saint-Gaudens gold double eagle and the Canada 1911 coinage of King George V.
U.S. President Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt was responsible for the absence of "In God We Trust" on the US $20 coin. The motto was quickly added to the dies producing further coins following public criticism of the missing legend.
Canada's "godless" coins of 1911 were quite an embarrassment politically. According to the book Striking Impressions by James A. Haxby, "To the dismay of the Mint and Finance Department the obverse was not as they anticipated. The royal title had been altered so that it lacked the abbreviation 'Dei Gra:' (for Dei Gratia), which was to indicate that King George V like his predecessors back to Richard III ruled 'by the grace of God.'"
An inquiry into the reason for the change in obverse legends due to an upcoming election resulted in the embarrassing conclusion "The Minister of Finance himself had approved it in reply to a letter from the [British] Royal Mint in early March [1911]! & In late September after 15 years of uninterrupted power the Liberals went down to a crushing defeat."
King George V's urban legend problems regarding religion didn't stop there. In my own book Superstition, Urban Legends and Our Money it explains, "The ornate obverse bust of the king facing left appearing on the [India] 1-rupee coin depicts the monarch royally crowned, wearing royal robes, with the Order of the Indian Empire about the neck. On this order was an object meant to be an obscure depiction of an elephant. The mint engravers didn't put their best effort forward, resulting in an elephant with a short tail and feet which made it resemble a pig, not a particularly popular animal to many [Hindu and Islamic] religiously oriented native Indians. Due to these religious customs the public was outraged and quickly rejected the coin."
If you think poor old Andrew Jackson is getting a bum rap on his 2008 presidential dollar coin, what about the early Canadian bank notes of Queen Elizabeth II said to have a symbol resembling the devil's face appearing in her hair. Bank note engravers had to do some fancy footwork to explain the engraving that led to the supposed face in her hair, which was quickly changed on further issues.
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