So today at the store, I got back 60 cents in change. All well and good, but when I grabbed the quarters to put them in the pile for de-godding, I noticed that one of them looked a little different. “In [smudge] We Trust”, it read, unless my eyes deceived me.
Yes! Now, I had never used any quarters at that store, so this must have come from a parking meter, or from the little cafe near my office, or from the UNICEF box at Halloween. Not from a busker–they always got dollar coins, and always more than one (even the lousy ones got 2 bucks minimum–I kept telling myself, it’s not my money to spend, it’s our money to put in circulation).
This coin does look like one of mine, but of course there is another, even better possibility–that there are more of us out there, de-godding coins that will be around for decades.
I am amused by the tiniest of things, sometimes.
It may be a tiny thing now, but you’ve inspired me to start doing this, too. It’s bothered me forever but since I handle currency less and less frequently, I’d sort of put it out of my mind. Well, no more. I’m going through my wallet and I’m going to secularize all my cash/coins. If enough of us do it, maybe the federal government will get the message. (It’s good to dream, right?)
That’s all kinds of amazing.
careful there, it’s called defacing currency, http://www.moneyfactory.gov/historicallegislation.html, and you are giving ammo to your opposition.
I’m probably not organized enough to ever “de-god” coins. Last year I started replacing “god” with “reason” in ink on all my paper money.
“In reason we trust” sounds okay to me.
I fix every bill I receive at the bank and in change at stores. Unless there’s a busy line, I write at the counter before I put them in my pocket. I don’t do it if there’s a line because I don’t want to make people mad at waiting for my little bit of political action.
I’ve never had anyone make a comment or ask a question about what I’m doing with my pen and my money. I haven’t gotten a marked bill back in change either. Well, I can always hope that the bills are raising consciousness somewhere …
I have to transfer money from one bank account to another every month and I do it in cash. So there are always a bunch of secular bills in San Antonio. I’ve been waiting to get one that I didn’t mark myself. It will feel great when I do.
keresthanatos–from your link:
Clearly, my disfiguring is absolutely not intended to render these coins unfit to be reissued. The whole point is to get these into circulation!
Besides, if I get arrested, the first thing the judge will hear about are these “cross pennies” http://freethoughtblogs.com/cuttlefish/2012/10/03/i-think-im-doing-it-wrong/ , and a comparison of my degodding and their punching crosses out of coins (with impunity, publicly and proudly), along with the wording of the law, and I’m so clearly legal it’s not even a question.
And I very much disagree that I am giving ammo to my opposition. I only de-god a batch when I read or hear someone (turns out usually to be a politician) making the stupid argument that atheists shouldn’t use money because it has god on it. If that’s the argument they are using, this is the right thing to do. (Plus, every time they make that argument, it puts the lie to the concept of “ceremonial deism”–if the god is trivial enough to be constitutional on our money, it ought to be trivial enough not to use in that argument. If the god on our money is the same god a particular politician worships, it’s an establishment clause violation. I’m just making my money legal tender again.)
@keresthanatos #4 – According to your own link, it is criminal only if the intent is to increase numismatic value, to commit fraud or to render the item unfit for circulation. De-godding currency does not legally fall into any of these categories.
*sparkles! confetti! celebration!*
Small progress, but visible progress. Nice!
Speaking of de-godding currency,
https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/change-our-currency-god-we-trust-original-e-pluribus-unum/r11QKxnx