Fwd: total bullshit from a relative

I really hate forwarded emails — and I am not talking about the useful forwards I receive for work (my editors relaying requests, information about projects, manuscripts, and whatnot). I am talking about forwards sent by older relatives who somehow have my address: emails — usually featuring all-caps, huge and colorful fonts, tons of exclamation points, and awful punctuation — that urge me to forward to everyone I know to blind them with the Word or alert them of some dangerous liberal conspiracy to undermine American values. I usually delete them immediately, but one I received Tuesday night caught my attention.

The subject was “Fwd: Well, distribution has begun--new coins.” Along with being a license plate nerd, I guess I am also a money geek. (I am essentially a details dork.) Much like changes with license plates, I am interested in changes being made to our paper bills and coins and have been following the discussions about swapping the $1 bill for a $1 coin. (Ol’ Tom Harkin is spearheading the current effort with John McCain.) Interested in what this forwarded message had to say about new coins, I opened it and was assaulted by this: “Well, distribution has begun…Refuse new coins!” The lines just below read, “True Americans will refuse these It has begun…Refuse new coins!” Below is this picture of the George Washington $1 coin.


Below the picture, in bold capital letters, it says, “REFUSE NEW COINS.” Below that is this text, center justified:

This simple action will make a strong statement.
Please help do this.. Refuse to accept these when they are
handed to you.
I received one from the Post Office as change and I asked for a
dollar bill instead.
The lady just smiled and said 'way to go' , so she had read
this e -mail.
Please help out..our world is in enough trouble
without this too!!!!!

Okay… What’s the big deal? Scrolling farther down I read this (also center justified, and the money (haha!) lines colored red):

You guessed it
'IN GOD WE TRUST'IS GONE!!!
If ever there was a reason to boycott something,
THIS IS IT!!!!
DO NOT ACCEPT THE NEW DOLLAR COINS
AS CHANGE
Together we can force them out of circulation..

Below that in a massive, screen-filling font the email ends with “Please send to all on your mailing list!!!”

At first I wanted to reply all and inform everyone I will now only accept dollar coins for change, but instead just deleted the message. However, I wondered: do the new presidential coins omit “In God We Trust” (our national motto since 1951)? It took me seconds to find the answer: no. According to the US Mint website, common elements usually featured on either face of other coins — “In God We Trust,” “E Plurbius Unum,” the year of minting, and the mint mark — were “edge-incused” on the early Presidential $1 coins, meaning they were stamped along the edge of the coin. (They have since been redesigned so “In God We Trust” now appears on one of the faces.) Here is a picture showing the edge-incused features.


Armed with actual information and sources, I replied all, firing back:

This is actually not true.

"These coins feature large, dramatic artwork, as well as edge-incused inscriptions of the year of minting, or issuance, E PLURIBUS UNUM and the mint mark. In 2009, the inscription IN GOD WE TRUST was moved from the edge to the face of the coin." (http://www.usmint.gov/mint_programs/$1coin/)

"...the new Presidential $1 coins incorporated a few design features not found on other current U.S. coinage, one of which is that elements typically displayed on either the obverse or reverse of U.S. coins — the year of minting, the mint mark, the motto from the Great Seal of the United States ("E Plurbius Unum"), and the current national motto of the United States ("In God We Trust") — were instead included as edge-incused inscriptions. That is, all of these elements appeared on the edges of the new dollar coins rather than on their fronts or backs" (http://www.snopes.com/politics/religion/dollarcoin.asp)

Booyah! The wrath of truth has been released! Hallelujah! FORWARD TO ALL ON YOUR MAILING LIST!

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