Bent Corner

I found the state quarter representing Hawaii in some of my change and I was disappointed to see that it features Hawaii’s King Kamehameha I on the reverse.  I never thought I’d see the day when we put a king on our money, especially one wearing some kind of fruity looking toga. At least when Canada or Australia puts someone of royal decent wearing a dress on their money, the person is a woman.

What’s even worse is that it features a words in some kind of foreign language.  I’m not certain, but I think it’s Klingon.

I thought the Hawaiian quarter was going to feature something more ethniclly or culturaly deserving on their quarter.  I just assumed like most people that it would feature the cast from Magnium P.I. or the Hawaiian Tiki statue from that episode of The Brady Bunch.  Instead of honored something wonderful from Hawaii’s culture, they have to put a king all dressed up to go to a Roman orgy on their quarter.

Its a sad day for America.

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I think this is my favorite of the United States Mint’s 50 State Quarters Program. I like the bird (a Peregrine Falcon) and I like all the open space on the coin. Less is more I think.

The U.S. Mint has issued a press release concerning reports that some of the 300 million George Washington Presidential $1 coins made don’t have the words, “In God We Trust” and “E Pluribus Unum,” on the edges like they are supposed to. They claim it was a mistake. They claim it wasn’t intentional.

I’m not buying it. I think they meant to do it.

It creates publicity for the new coin. The U.S. Mint wants to get people behind the new coin. They want people to want to use the new $1 coin. Like Cheap Trick said in 1978 from the Budokanin - I Want You To Want Me.

The U.S. Mint wants you to want the new $1 coin. They really do.

What better way to get people excited about these coins then to have a super über rare version? Better yet, it even capitalizes on the whole messy separation of church and state argument. Some people will get all agitated and worked up over an atheist version of the $1 coin. The only way they could have whipped up more controversy would have been to make some of the coins with a gay version of George Washington teaching a group of Boy Scouts how to make a campfire.

A gay campfire.

This isn’t the first time a “mistake” has come from the U.S. Mint. Some of the Wisconsin Quarters featured an ear of corn that had an extra piece of husk. When the mistake was first noticed, coins were going for over $300 on eBay. I didn’t even know they grew corn in Wisconsin and I’ve been there a bunch of times.

Link

Update: Scott from the Coin Collecting Blog and a fellow Marylander linked to a really good FAQ on the atheist version of the Presidential $1 coins.

Even though the U.S. Mint facilities in Denver and Philadelphia have made a combined 300 million of these, the only place I’ve seen them is on eBay. I’m sure they will eventually turn up in everyday life. I’m looking forward to using them.

I like coins. I’m not a coin collector, but I’m pretty sure I have the coin collecting gene. I’ve just really never allowed it to fully manifest itself. It takes a lot of money to collect coins. They don’t call it the Hobby of Kings for nothing. The inference is that kings have a lot of money. More money then electronic technicians such as myself have. It’s true. Kings make more money then electronic techs. I looked it up on Wikipedia once.

I don’t even know who “they” is.

These $1 coins kick off a new $1 coin program that will each feature a dead president. Even the ones nobody really remembers. Even the ones nobody really likes anymore. Every three months, a new $1 coin will be released. The first coin is Washington and the final coin will be of Reagan. I expect right-wingers to go crazy about that one.

Right-wingers love Ronald Reagan. They will have to wait till 2016 to use them.