# Multipe pens used when presidents sign bills **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 23, 2010, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/multipe-pens-used-when-presidents-sign-bills/533489 "2010-03-23T15:59:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2010, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/multipe-pens-used-when-presidents-sign-bills/533489/1 "2010-03-23T15:59:18Z")
So, I’m watching Obama sign the HCR bill. As usual, he’s using a bunch of different pens to sign it. I always assumed that presidents signed their full names multiple times, but it looks like he’s using each pen to make just a tiny mark on the paper, meaning that he signs only once, but with different pens used for different parts of his name. Is that right, and is that how it’s done? ---
**Author:** ![johnspartan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a183cd/32.png) [@johnspartan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnspartan)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2010, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/multipe-pens-used-when-presidents-sign-bills/533489/2 "2010-03-23T16:00:39Z")
It’s so more than one person can have the “honor” of being given “the pen” used to sign the bill. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2010, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/multipe-pens-used-when-presidents-sign-bills/533489/3 "2010-03-23T16:01:15Z")
For the ones with sufficient manual dexterity (or, since he’s a lefty, sinistrality), yes, that’s the tradition. Dubya used 3 pens, one for George, one for W, one for Bush, then put them all back in the box and shuffled them around before handing out the whole bunch. ---
**Author:** ![Henrichek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/5daacb/32.png) [@Henrichek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Henrichek)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2010, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/multipe-pens-used-when-presidents-sign-bills/533489/4 "2010-03-23T16:05:51Z")
Some unfortunate people will be getting a HUSSEIN pen :eek::p. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2010, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/multipe-pens-used-when-presidents-sign-bills/533489/5 "2010-03-23T16:05:55Z")
> [@johnspartan](#): > > It’s so more than one person can have the “honor” of being given “the pen” used to sign the bill. Yes, I know that. I was asking about the mechanics. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2010, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/multipe-pens-used-when-presidents-sign-bills/533489/6 "2010-03-23T16:06:56Z")
> [@Henrichek](#): > > Some unfortunate people will be getting a HUSSEIN pen :eek::p. My thoughts, too. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![johnspartan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a183cd/32.png) [@johnspartan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnspartan)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2010, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/multipe-pens-used-when-presidents-sign-bills/533489/7 "2010-03-23T16:24:05Z")
Ahh. Well then, yeah, it’d be doing certain letters in their name with each pen. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2010, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/multipe-pens-used-when-presidents-sign-bills/533489/8 "2010-03-23T16:26:14Z")
I think it was Bill Clinton who started to this fairly often. He’d use a different pen for each letter of his name. I’m not sure if presidents before him always used a single pen or not. Of course, presidents have to sign eleventy billion things a day; they only do they many-pens bit for the big-picture stuff. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2010, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/multipe-pens-used-when-presidents-sign-bills/533489/9 "2010-03-23T16:27:42Z")
> [@friedo](#): > > I think it was Bill Clinton who started to this fairly often. He’d use a different pen for each letter of his name. I’m not sure if presidents before him always used a single pen or not. The tradition goes back much further than that, especially for “landmark legislation”. ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2010, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/multipe-pens-used-when-presidents-sign-bills/533489/10 "2010-03-23T16:30:07Z")
I would think they practice just writing one letter at a time, that is not a normal way to sign your name. ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_Robson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gary_robson/32/3448_2.png) [@Gary\_Robson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Robson)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2010, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/multipe-pens-used-when-presidents-sign-bills/533489/11 "2010-03-23T16:37:23Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > For the ones with sufficient manual dexterity (or, since he’s a lefty, sinistrality), yes, that’s the tradition. [nitpick] It’s still dexterity, whether he’s a lefty or not. Sinistrality doesn’t imply dexterity (or lack thereof) – it’s the antonym of dextrality, not dexterity. [/nitpick] ---
**Author:** ![elmwood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmwood/32/3060_2.png) [@elmwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elmwood)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2010, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/multipe-pens-used-when-presidents-sign-bills/533489/12 "2010-03-23T16:50:50Z")
[teabag] How much did all those pens cost the U.S. taxpayer? All those pens are just driving up the national debt; they’re more evidence of the wasteful tax-and-spend policies of the DEMONcrats. Also, Hitler and Stalin were lefties. [/teabag] ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2010, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/multipe-pens-used-when-presidents-sign-bills/533489/13 "2010-03-23T16:52:56Z")
In the past I read that the political parties pay for the pens so they cannot be accused of wasting tax money. So the Dems are now paying for the pens. ---
**Author:** ![minor7flat5](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/minor7flat5/32/258_2.png) [@minor7flat5](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/minor7flat5)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2010, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/multipe-pens-used-when-presidents-sign-bills/533489/14 "2010-03-23T17:27:15Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > The tradition goes back much further than that, especially for “landmark legislation”. I immediately thought of MacArthur, signing the [Japanese Instrument of Surrender](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_Instrument_of_Surrender#Surrender_ceremony) at the end of WWII [QUOTE=Wikipedia] Afterwards, U.S. General of the Army Douglas MacArthur, Commander in the Southwest Pacific and Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers, also signed (9:08 a.m.).[1] As witnesses, U.S. Lieutenant General Jonathan Mayhew Wainwright IV, who had surrendered the Philippines, and British Lieutenant General Arthur Percival, who had surrendered Singapore, received two of the six pens they used to sign the instrument. Another pen went to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, and one to his aide. All of the pens used by MacArthur were black, except the last which was plum colored and went to his wife. [/QUOTE] ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2010, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/multipe-pens-used-when-presidents-sign-bills/533489/15 "2010-03-23T17:34:52Z")
> [@elmwood](#): > > [teabag] > > How much did all those pens cost the U.S. taxpayer? All those pens are just driving up the national debt; they’re more evidence of the wasteful tax-and-spend policies of the DEMONcrats. Also, Hitler and Stalin were lefties. > > [/teabag] The pens are where they store the red ink. If we get rid of pens, we could balance the budget.😃 ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2010, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/multipe-pens-used-when-presidents-sign-bills/533489/16 "2010-03-23T17:38:28Z")
Yea, I’d always heard it was a different pen for each letter, not signing the bill multiple times for each pen. Gotta be kinda tough to do without making your signiture look like it was scrawled by a six year-old. Maybe he signs in full in pencil, then traces over with the different pens? ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Moto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9de0a6/32.png) [@Mr.Moto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Moto)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2010, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/multipe-pens-used-when-presidents-sign-bills/533489/17 "2010-03-23T17:45:39Z")
> [@Bijou\_Drains](#): > > So the Dems are now paying for the pens. More proof that this is a partisan exercise, right? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2010, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/multipe-pens-used-when-presidents-sign-bills/533489/18 "2010-03-23T17:45:48Z")
> [@Simplicio](#): > > Yea, I’d always heard it was a different pen for each letter, not signing the bill multiple times for each pen. > > Gotta be kinda tough to do without making your signiture look like it was scrawled by a six year-old. Maybe he signs in full in pencil, then traces over with the different pens? What!? Obama can’t sign his name without a stencil to copy? I guess that goes along with the whole teleprompter thing… 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Duckster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duckster/32/1244_2.png) [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2010, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/multipe-pens-used-when-presidents-sign-bills/533489/19 "2010-03-23T17:51:08Z")
> [@elmwood](#): > > [teabag] > > How much did all those pens cost the U.S. taxpayer? All those pens are just driving up the national debt; they’re more evidence of the wasteful tax-and-spend policies of the DEMONcrats. Also, Hitler and Stalin were lefties. > > [/teabag] As well as [several other famous people](http://www.indiana.edu/%7Eprimate/left.html), too. Let’s not forget that the brain hemispheres control the opposite sides of the body. So that means Lefties are the only people in their right minds. ---
**Author:** ![Si\_Amigo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/si_amigo/32/2877_2.png) [@Si\_Amigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Si_Amigo)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2010, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/multipe-pens-used-when-presidents-sign-bills/533489/20 "2010-03-23T18:13:50Z")
> [@Henrichek](#): > > Some unfortunate people will be getting a HUSSEIN pen :eek::p. I’d take and be proud to have it because some of us are mature enough to still have respect for the office and not get hung up on making crude remarks about someones name. :smack: Save your name bashing for the pit please. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/multipe-pens-used-when-presidents-sign-bills/533489.md?page=2)