Trillion Dollar Coin?

In order avoid a financial collapse of the United States economy, Wall Street analysts and economists have suggested that the United States print a trillion dollar coin. The U.S. mint would melt and mold the high-value coins to send to the Federal Reserve, which they would then use to help pay the debt of the government to foreign agencies.

There are laws regulating the amount that a specified amount of metal can hold in values of currency.  Gold, silver and copper are controlled in this regard.  Therefore, they cannot be used to mint coins of considerable value, most definitely including trillion dollar coins.  However, due to the rarity of such a material, there are no regulations against the minting of platinum.  Therefore, the rare material will be used for the trillion dollar coin if such a need arises.

However, such a proposition can lead to considerable bureaucratic concerns.  The design of the coin must be a dead person, and the proposition must be voted on by the American people.  This design must then be passed through legislation, leading to the possibility of a filibuster blocking the proposal.

According to Gregory J. Krieg of ABC News:

"It goes like this: Should Congress fail to extend the U.S. debt limit — reached again on Dec. 31 — the president could ask the Treasury to begin printing trillion dollar coins (in a process explained mostly seriously by Jim Pethokoukis on his American Enterprise Institute blog), a number of which could then be put toward fulfilling debt obligations in the event new legislation stalls in Congress.
While there are laws in place to regulate how much paper, gold, silver or copper currency can be circulated by the government, there is nothing so clearly stated when it comes to platinum. That door open, the Treasury could have the U.S. Mint melt and mold a few trillion dollars of it, then ship the goods over to the Federal Reserve for safekeeping until the time comes to pay the bills."