God, save our currency!

To think, it's so simple!

Washington Post, Letters to the Editor:

I have read with interest the letters regarding the paper dollar vs. the dollar coin. The lack of interest in the coin may be due to the fact that the motto "In God We Trust" was relegated to the edge of the presidential coins that were first minted.

I, for one, will never use a one-dollar coin, or any coin for that matter, as long that motto is in an obscure spot on the coin. The motto is something we should be proud of.

Michael Bridges, Silver Spring

 And from a much wiser source:

... As Benn Steil and Manuel Hinds point out in their remarkable book Money, Markets & Sovereignty, "to create a mystique premium on their coins, whose face value significantly exceeded their intrinsic value, rulers typically adopted religious symbols in their stamps.  The less gold, the more God.  In fact, 'In God We Trust' was added to American dollar bills only after their gold backing was dropped in 1862."*

Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
Professor of Economics
George Mason University
Fairfax, VA 22030

* Benn Steil and Manuel Hinds, Money, Markets & Sovereignty (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009), p. 70.