dead presidents on coins

This post of rodeo poped a question in my head:

Why do they only make coins with death presidents and no coins are made with the face of Clinton, Bush, Obama, ....
Is there a reason for that?

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

I think one reason is the Presidents that are currently on coinage made a significant impact or influenced our politics and government during their tenure as President. That's why you don't see recent Presidents on our coinage, it takes time to see if their policies made any difference, etc.

 

The first "Dead President" on a coin was Abraham Lincoln in 1909. I think there's a law somewhere that says a living person can't be on money...but I'm not 100% sure. We've had non-Presidents on money, too. (Hamilton, Frankin, etc).

 

Yeah,there is a reason. We don't honor living presidents because that would put them in the same class as rulers of countries and we have been adverse to that since the revolution. Our president is not our ruler but only an elected official.

 

...seems like a ruler to me.

 

Well first of all, the law states that a president must be dead two full years before being placed on a coin. There was actually hearings to make an exception for the Kennedy half, placing him on the 1964 fifty cent piece just months after his assassination.

 

there is a law for that?

i can undestand Kasia's point tough.
Here in Belgium its always the present king who is on the coins, when the king dies and his follower is on the throne, the coins change with his image on them.
I would rather have our previous king on the coins again, he was a king of the people

 

The other exception was Roosevelt on the Dime as well, since he died in 1945 and showed up on the Dime in '46.

 

here is the leaders of the usa

 

Woopsie, forgot about that one. Thanks!

 

Why don't we just get rid of images of dead people on our money and design coins and currency like we used to (i.e. mercs, SLQs etc.).

 

I'm with ya man! I don't think it's going to happen though. A beautiful image of Liberty just won't be controversial enough to be considered in today's coinage.:smile

 

Actually, that thought is kind of behind why we have presidents (dead ones) on our coins now. All the presidents that have been chosen are honored, not for being our 'ruler' like a monarchy or something like that, but for honoring the contributions they had and what they did for our country. Which is why we also had Benjamin Franklin, Susan B Anthony, and Sacajawea on our coins. Roosevelt and Kennedy were abberrations, in that they were popular presidents (sort of like if we had had Princess Diana in our country instead of her being a personage of England, and then would have honored her - she was so popular with the people). Those two were honored with places on the coins because they were recently deceased and wildly popular in the minds of many in our country. We might have added Reagan to that, but he had the decency to live longer outside his presidency so we didn't need to get crazy there.

Just for your information, the US was founded on the principles of being governed by the people, and not by monarchs, despots, autocrats, or any other type of single person ruler that usually follows family lines in succession. And we didn't put recognisable people (dead presidents) on any coins until 1909. Lincoln was the first, probably because people were wild about him. It was once said that if you wanted to write a book that would sell, just write one about Lincoln's doctor's dog, because most everyone would read stories about Lincoln, doctors, and dogs, and by combining that it would be sure to be popular.

 

LOL! Seems like it would be more fitting if it was issued by Kenya instead of Liberia. Liberia has no 'claims' to his residency.

 

What's the difference? I thought ALL kings were "Kings of the people" :scratch:

Doesn't Parliament run the country?

 

let me clarify that.
Indeed the parliament runs the country.
Our previous king however refused more than once to sign off on some laws because hi did not like them, and he knew the people would not like them to.
Whenever there was something that happend that was bad our previous king visited the people who where victims (like floods, big disasters, ...)
It was a king who knew what was happening to the people of Belgium, and he was very popular
Our present king does not care what law he signs, and he only comes out of his house when it is to make him look good for the people, he does not care what the people think about stuff is happening in this country.

 

like this goof ball

 

That's a shame. Well, King Albert has been King since 1993...he can't live for ever. I read somewhere that the Belgium Socialists were taking their part of the country and moving to France. Is that true? Perhaps they'll take Albert with them.

 

I like your explanation regarding dead presidents.
Year 2000, Presidential Historian Society voted Abraham Lincoln and Frank Delano Roosevelt o top leaders among 41 presidents served in oval office.
Here is the Photograph of the two great leaders. The Coin accidentally minted in US Mint, 1995 Penny On Dime.