2016-11-30 Wed

Atheists wanted the national motto of the United States of America, “In God We Trust”, to be removed from the money!

A lawsuit, which had over 41 plaintiffs, was filed to get the words “In God We Trust” removed from the dollar notes and coins as it is deemed to be unconstitutional and fails to separate the church from the government. There are many atheists who feel that the phrase is nothing but a religious burden.

Whether it gets scrapped off or not, let’s see since when and why was it put on the currency notes and coins in the first place!

The use of the phrase “In God We Trust” in U.S. currency first appeared in 1864. Since 1956, it was adopted as the US’s national motto and as an alternative or replacement to the unofficial motto of “E Pluribus Unum”.

The words were placed on United States coins in 1864 largely because of the increased religious sentiment during the Civil War. Many appeals were made by devout people to put a deity on US coins and hence Secretary of the Treasury Salmon P. Chase instructed James Pollock, Director of the Mint at Philadelphia, to prepare a motto that would appear on the coins.

After a lot of suggestions by Pollock and amendments by Chase the final “In God We Trust” was to be used on the government's coins. "In God We Trust" appeared for the first time in 1864 on the new two cent coin, and by 1909 it was included on most the other coins also.

It seems that wars were a major factor for the phrase to appear on the money! It was later during the Cold War that the phrase made its entry on the dollar bills also. On July 11th, 1955, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the Public Law 140 making it mandatory that all coins and dollar bills display the motto.

Well...but this isn’t the first time a lawsuit was filed against the use of the motto. The motto was first challenged in Aronow v. United States in 1970. Many say that the motto is a violation of the United States Constitution and that it in way establishes the state religion.

However, we are not here to discuss philosophies or religion! But having deities on currencies isn’t a new thing. Almost all the currencies, ranging from the ancient times to modern, have a deity depicted on them.

To view coins and currency notes visit us at our site: Mintage World