Hoot's got the Guest Editorial in CoinWorld this week

[airplanenut]

...on putting Reagan on a coin and why it's being done way too quickly.

 

Well written with a great message!

 

Congrats, Hoot!

[Hoot]

Thanks Jeremy! I fully expect to get flamed for that one.

 

Hoot

[chrisfuccione]

Great Job! Chris

[Weidel Legacy Collection]

Mark -

Thanks for a well-reasoned and eloquently voiced commentary. I couldn't agree with your words and sentiment more.

 

While its far too soon to even consider placing President Reagon on our coinage and currency, I long for more allegorical representations of the spirit in which our republic was founded.

 

Well done!

[jom]

...on putting Reagan on a coin and why it's being done way too quickly.

 

Hoot should (or did he?) be talking about why it's being considered AT ALL.

 

No more dead Presidents on coins! Circulating ones that is...

 

jom

[goose3]

can someone post Hoots editorial on here?

[Weidel Legacy Collection]

can someone post Hoots editorial on here?

 

With pleasure - here it is:

Why is there such urgency to place Ronald Reagan on a coin or currency? Are we afraid we'll forget him? Unfortunately, the answer is altogether too obvious that this is a political game.

 

We live with such immediate urges. To honor a person with unrestrained acts that present the American public with yet another presidential coin, bounded by law, is one more example of how pathetic our nation has become to have "instant gratification." I say, forget the man as best you can, so that his deeds be those things you cannot forget. Then if his legacy is recollected by history and posterity as that of an inspired individual, commemorate him, recall him, and be creative in his spirit. Meanwhile, there are many well-deserving people who are greatly remembered, as they reside in collective memory with the due tests of time. Let us utilize the auspices of commemorative coinage for the honorarium of greatness.

 

The spirit of greatness looms and is not forgotten, while the infatuations of partisan politics or personal assuasions and the urgencies for the creation of modern heroes are nothing but sore examples of an iconoclastic society. Must we be so short-sighted that we continue the mistakes of coinage-past where political leaders were honored with swift abandon, while the depictions of Liberty that unite a Nation were dropped with a fervent zeal? And what of Liberty, Justice, Columbia, or America and the vestiges of our foundational ethos that reside deeply in our American monetary expressions?

 

Why have our politicians become so mired in their political agendas that they have forgotten the bases of American greatness that our coinage and currency are to reflect? This is not a game where my form of politics gives me greater allowance of basic expression than your form. Unfortunately, with such acts before Congress as those to place Reagan on coinage or currency, as well as the act recently passed of securing Thomas Jefferson and Monticello on our Nation's five cent piece, the expressions of our politicians are more of private rather than public mores. Our coins and currency are not to reflect constituencies. Yet, politicians forget that they are to be leaders of the public in a common good, not a partisan good. And their personal public follows and does not direct, while these "leaders" are running amok with agenda-driven actions backed by uncommon wealth. This is not visionary, this is deceitful. And we are seduced by petty changes in our coinage and currency, rather than by insightful shifts that level the ground between people of polar political beliefs. The latter would create coinage and currency that would be representative of the constitutional foundations of our great republic and that would create no fervor of dispute. Who among us would dispute Liberty as a precious American tenet for living?

 

No individual depicted on our current coinage or currency represents Liberty. Liberty has been lost in the frays of antiquity, preserved only by seven letters stamped into the face of every coin. And we rage in dispute about what this individual or that individual means to us personally as if our beliefs apply to all others, forgetting all-the-while that there are as many spins on such politics as there are stars in the sky. I have to believe that the founders of this Nation would be appalled. And we as a people united for the common good should also be taken aback to gauge the wisdom of our decisions.

 

I will reiterate Nancy Reagan's serious doubt that Mr. Reagan himself would have felt his image appropriate on a circulating coin (or currency). May this modesty save us, if not the wisdom of our "leaders."

 

Mark Hooten

[DonHeath]

Yet, politicians forget that they are to be leaders of the public in a common good, not a partisan good.

 

Isn't that so.

 

Mark, congratulations and I support your belief in historical perspective 100%. Well done.

[Wihlborg]

Wonderful Editorial Mark! I especially like the following quote ‘Yet, politicians forget that they are to be leaders of the public in a common good, not a partisan good.’

 

Mark, have you ever thought about running for a political office?

I can imagine it now, chants of ‘Run Mark, run’ and ‘If you give a hoot vote for Mark Hooten’ ringing through the air. Oh, what a campaign it would be!

 

John

[Hoot]

Mark, have you ever thought about running for a political office?

I can imagine it now, chants of ‘Run Mark, run’ and ‘If you give a hoot vote for Mark Hooten’ ringing through the air. Oh, what a campaign it would be!

 

John

 

Ack!

 

Thank you for the kind words, ALL! Roger - Thank you for taking the time to post this!

 

Don - I think we could have a good political debate, but lets not and say we did!

 

Hoot

[airplanenut]

...on putting Reagan on a coin and why it's being done way too quickly.

 

Hoot should (or did he?) be talking about why it's being considered AT ALL.

 

No more dead Presidents on coins! Circulating ones that is...

 

jom

See CoinWorld, April 12, 2004... not Reagan, but I wrote the Guest Editorial about why the Presidential Dollar series was/is a terrible idea.

 

Jeremy

[Hoot]

...on putting Reagan on a coin and why it's being done way too quickly.

 

Hoot should (or did he?) be talking about why it's being considered AT ALL.

 

No more dead Presidents on coins! Circulating ones that is...

 

jom

See CoinWorld, April 12, 2004... not Reagan, but I wrote the Guest Editorial about why the Presidential Dollar series was/is a terrible idea.

 

Jeremy

 

Jeremy - It's ironic that I was digging through my back issues of CW last night, trying to find those I had not read. I found one - April 12! So, I read your post, wandered out of my home office and grabbed it. Your editorial is fantastic. I could not agree with you more that the circulating dollar, presidents or not, will be as much a flop as the SBA and Sac. Why do politicians have their heads rammed so far that they are creatures of the night? The dollar coin won't circulate with the bill. And imagine some of the UGLY portraits!

 

Hoot

[TomB]

Well written article Mark, it was a hoot to read!

[ziggy29]

It was a nice comment. People who debate the pros and cons of putting Reagan on the coin based what they believe his legacy would be are missing the point, or at least proving the more critical point:

 

 

We are seeing what politics are doing to our coins once we put dead presidents on them.

 

Every special interest wants THEIR standard-bearer on coins, and every one fight to prevent THEIR standard-bearer from being removed. That's true whether it's along partisan lines, along the lines of a state's "favorite son," et cetera.

 

What are they going to do? Start creating new denominations every time a president dies? Oops, there goes Carter -- let's create a 2-cent piece and put him on it. Bush Senior? He gets a new 20-cent piece. Clinton? How about a new $25 bill? Or maybe a 75-cent piece?

 

And pretty soon, our coinage would look like it did around the 1870s, when there were 1c, , 3c (two types), 5c (two types), 10c, 20c, 25c, 50c, $1 (two types), $2.50, $3, $5, $10 and $20 (not including Trade dollars, Stellas or Half Unions).

 

This type of politicking is exactly THE reason why we need a clean slate. The only politically acceptable way to avoid "slighting" fans of Jefferson, Roosevelt, Kennedy, et cetera is to treat ALL of them equally and get them ALL off, relegated once again to commemoratives. Heck, Reagan can have a commem in 2011 (the 100th anniversary of his birth), and Lincoln can be on a coin again in 2009 (200th). Why not?

 

All the recent fighting about who goes on coins should remind us of sibling fights when we were little and fighting over the same toy. Mom would take it away and not let EITHER of us have it. It's time Mom takes ALL the favorite sons off of our regular-issue circulating coins.

[Hoot]

Nice ziggy and welcome to the boards!

 

Hoot

[EVillageProwler]

Yes, it was a hoot to read Mark's article. And, it's a hoot to read Ziggy's first post here. Welcome, Ziggy!

 

EVP

[airplanenut]

...on putting Reagan on a coin and why it's being done way too quickly.

 

Hoot should (or did he?) be talking about why it's being considered AT ALL.

 

No more dead Presidents on coins! Circulating ones that is...

 

jom

See CoinWorld, April 12, 2004... not Reagan, but I wrote the Guest Editorial about why the Presidential Dollar series was/is a terrible idea.

 

Jeremy

 

Jeremy - It's ironic that I was digging through my back issues of CW last night, trying to find those I had not read. I found one - April 12! So, I read your post, wandered out of my home office and grabbed it. Your editorial is fantastic. I could not agree with you more that the circulating dollar, presidents or not, will be as much a flop as the SBA and Sac. Why do politicians have their heads rammed so far that they are creatures of the night? The dollar coin won't circulate with the bill. And imagine some of the UGLY portraits!

 

Hoot

Thanks According to the Denver mint (toured it Thursday), the dollar bill was supposed to be discontinued when the sac came out... then Edward Kennedy blocked that from happening since the paper mills are located in MA...