How to Keep Track of Our Crumbling Empire? Let's Put Occupied Countries on Our Coins

[unhappycamper]

There's likely some international law against issuing currency for another country. But we shouldn't let something like national sovereignty get in the way.


How to Keep Track of Our Crumbling Empire? Let's Put Occupied Countries on Our Coins
AlterNet / By Jason Mark

December 20, 2010 | You've probably heard the old joke that Americans learn their world geography by having to locate where exactly a country is after we invade it. If only. College students -- I can tell you from some lecturing experience -- respond with blank stares when told about the U.S. military headquarters in the Persian Gulf emirate of Qatar. And ask any dude on the street about Djibouti and you're likely to be told that it's a hip-hop song or one of those caffeine-booze drinks, not the dusty outpost in the Horn of Africa where a couple thousand U.S. Marines stand watch over vital sea lanes. Many of us might be able to pinpoint Colombia (it's south of Mexico, right?), but would be surprised to learn of the half-dozen U.S. bases there.

~snip~

One of the great pleasures of the state quarters has been watching how the states chose to define themselves. Sometimes the statement in the design was obvious -- Wisconsin's dairy cow, South Dakota's Mount Rushmore. Often the design reflected some mythical time: bison for Kansas and North Dakota, horse pasture for Kentucky. I liked the few instances of irony, like when New Hampshire's Old Man in the Mountain collapsed not long after the coin was minted, or how socialist Helen Keller ended up representing arch-conservative Alabama.

I think it would be great to see the national identities that would come through on a series of occupation coins. For starters, I'm sure there would be some fun anti-imperialist similarities. In place of Delaware's horseback Caesar Rodney and Massachusetts' Minuteman we could have, perhaps, a lanky Augusto Sandino for Nicaragua (occupied 1912-1933) or the Viet Cong on the Ho Chi Minh trail for Vietnam (1960-1975). Maybe, like Colorado, Afghanistan (2001-present) would go for mountains, the snow-capped Hindu Kush. I'm sure some nations might play up their signature exports. Cuba (1898-1902) could be represented by sugar cane and tobacco, Honduras (1924-1925) by bananas.

I suppose there's some international law against issuing currency for another country. But to keep with the imperial spirit of occupation coins, we shouldn't let something like national sovereignty get in the way. Plus, we barely own the dollar anyway -- that would be our credit merchants in Japan and China. I think a lotus flower for Japan (1945 -1952) would make for a lovely coin.

If the Mint were to issue occupation coins, it would hopefully give Americans a fresh sense of our shared history with other countries. Just like Florida, the Philippines (1898-1910) might choose to go with a design featuring Spanish galleons. A baseball bat and maybe some palm trees would be perfect for the Dominican Republic (1916-1924). Who knows, maybe some kid (or big kid) with a hankering for coin collecting might see the words L'Union Fait La Force and hear an echo of E pluribus unum -- and then decide to go look up Haiti (1915-1934 and 1994) on the map.

[hobbit709]

1. The unrec fairy struck already but +1 from me.

[jaxx]

2. I'd rather just toss pennies at the naysayers.

They can collect them and build an empire since they want one so bad.

[soryang]

3. All occupied countries should be annexed...

...the subjects should be taxed for our services in "defending them." If they can't pay their property should be seized. We can quarter our troops in their homes. Why go on with the pretext of a war on terror? It's such a slender reed.