Email: New Dollar Coin Omits 'In God We Trust'
Netlore Archive: New dollar coin gaffe. Email rumor claims the motto 'In God We Trust' was omitted from new one-dollar U.S. coins.
Description: Email rumor
Circulating since: February 2007
Status: Mixed
Example:
Email contributed by George S., Feb. 27, 2007:
| NEW DOLLAR COIN This new coin came out this month The U.S. Mint hopes the redesigned $1 coin will win acceptance with consumers.  It does not have In God We Trust on it. Another way of leaving God out. Send this on and let consumers decide if it will win acceptance or not. |
Analysis: According to the U.S. Mint, an unknown number of new one-dollar George Washington coins (at least 50,000 of them, by one estimate) were erroneously struck without the motto "In God We Trust" and found their way into the batch of 300 million issued on February 15, 2007.
A rumor began circulating soon afterward to the effect that the religious slogan, which has been a standard inscription on U.S. coins since 1938 and the national motto since 1956, was intentionally omitted from the entire run of one-dollar coins.
That rumor is false, unless government sources are mistaken or lying. What remains unclear is whether it was inspired by the above-mentioned minting error or the fact that even when properly manufactured the new coin says "In God We Trust" on its outer edge instead of its face, per the Presidential $1 Coin Act of 2005:
(10) In order to revitalize the design of United States coinage and return circulating coinage to its position as not only a necessary means of exchange in commerce, but also as an object of aesthetic beauty in its own right, it is appropriate to move many of the mottos and emblems, the inscription of the year, and the so-called "mint marks" that currently appear on the 2 faces of each circulating coin to the edge of the coin, which would allow larger and more dramatic artwork on the coins reminiscent of the so-called "Golden Age of Coinage" in the United States...
About.com Coins Guide Susan Headley has followed the minting SNAFU since it was first discovered by collectors in February 2007 and sums it up in her Washington Dollar Plain Edge Coins FAQ.
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Sources and further reading:
Coins Circulating Without 'In God We Trust'
Associated Press, 8 February 2007Locals Give New Dollar Coin Mixed Reviews
Tribune Democrat (Johnstown, PA), 25 February 2007Local Man Protests New Dollar Coin
The Daily News (Longview, WA), 23 February 2007Presidential $1 Coin Program
U.S. Mint, 14 Feburary 2007History of 'In God We Trust'
U.S. Treasury fact sheet
Last updated: 12/17/10
