Has this phrase always graced U.S. Currency?
From the US Mint site:
From Treasury Department records it appears that the first suggestion that God be recognized on U.S. coinage can be traced to a letter addressed to the Secretary of Treasury from a minister in 1861. An Act of Congress, approved on April 11, 1864, authorized the coinage of two-cent coins upon which the motto first appeared.
The motto was omitted from the new gold coins issued in 1907, causing a storm of public criticism. As a result, legislation passed in May 1908 made “In God We Trust” mandatory on all coins on which it had previously appeared.
Legislation approved July 11, 1955, made the appearance of “In God We Trust” mandatory on all coins and paper currency of the United States. By Act of July 30, 1956, “In God We Trust” became the national motto of the United States.
Several years ago, the appearance of “In God We Trust” on our money was challenged in the federal courts. The challenge was rejected by the lower federal courts, and the Supreme Court of the United States declined to review the case.
And I wonder how the pledge debate would affect this. Imagine our money being unconstitutional!
And I wonder how the pledge debate would affect this. Imagine our money being unconstitutional!
I was wondering that myself. It only makes logical sense that “In God We Trust” on our money is just as unconstitutional as “Under God” in the pledge.
What a pain in the neck it would be to reprint all the currency and redo all the coinage. If only this happened before the currency was redesigned and the new dollar coins and quarters were created. Talk about a waste of tax dollars.
Theodore Roosevelt is responsible for the removal of IGWT on the new designs for the gold coinage. While a deeply religious man, he felt that it was bad policy to emblazon the motto on money, in large part because money can be used for differing purpose, some good, some bad. Prostitution, for example. His reasons for this are often left unmentioned so I thought it would be interesting to note.
This would not be required, even if the use of the phrase was found to be unconstitutional. The change would only be required for new issue.
There are times when I barely see the difference between Canadians and Americans, but when religion comes up it’s painfully clear. Printed on the Canadian “tooney” (2 dollar coin)? The word “Knowledge”.
That was only the Millennium issue of the two-dollar coin, but, yes.
OTOH, the other side of the coin has a picture of Elizabeth II and the initials “D. G. Regina”, which, translated, means by the grace of God Queen…
British coins have, in addition, “F. D.”, which means defender of the Faith, which was apparently a title awarded to King Henry VIII by the Pope, back before that whole messy divorce thing.
Well, the word is that the federal government is already looking at redesigning paper currency again, to give different denominations different colors and make it harder to counterfeit. Why not slip in a “In God We Trust” edit while we’re at it?
(Short answer: because it’d piss off the conservative fundies who are currently making hash over the Pldge. 
)
Exactly.