The E-Sylum:  Volume 5, Number 45, November 10, 2002, Article 14

MILITARY "COINS"

  An article on U.S. Army "Coins" appeared in the August 6,
  2002 issue of The Wall Street Journal.  With the latest U.N.
  resolution on Iraq, the subject may become more topical.
  Here are a few excerpts:

  "Army Maj. Dave Daigle will never forget the first time he
  was "coined." He had spent several weeks running a war
  game in Germany 13 years ago when his colonel, Eric K.
  Shinseki, now the Army's top general, gave him a small
  bronze disk bearing the unit's insignia.

  "That one was really special," says Maj. Daigle, who still
  carries it in his wallet.

  Maj. Daigle, who today is stationed at Fort Knox, Ky.,
  still has that one, too, and 50 more. He got many of them,
  he says, for just doing his job.

  Napoleon observed in 1802 when he initiated the French
  Legion of Honor that "it is by such baubles men are led."
  These days, the U.S. doesn't have a lot of opportunities to
  dole out combat ribbons and medals. So commanders are
  minting commemorative coins, paid for with unit morale
  funds, to reward the rank and file for everything from
  putting in overtime to blasting "enemy" tanks in a training
  exercise.

  In the process they have triggered a full-fledged coin craze.
  Today, just about every Army and Air Force command has
  a coin."

  "No one knows just when this practice began. The 10th
  Special Forces Group, a cadre of Green Berets, first began
  minting its own coin in the 1960s. It was one of only a handful
  of units with a coin until the mid-1980s. With every passing
  year, the coins have grown larger, flashier, and more plentiful.
  Today's coins, which are typically about twice the size of a
  silver dollar and weigh nearly 10 times as much as a quarter,
  frequently have beveled edges and enameled reliefs of
  exploding missiles, satellites and tanks. Some come in the
  shape of dog tags or tank tracks."

  "Last year, the Army, concerned that the coins were losing
  their meaning, tried to rein in the craze...    The proposal,
  which needed congressional approval, caused an explosive
  reaction. Soldiers flooded the Army Times, an independent
  newspaper, with angry letters, saying their coins meant
  more to them than service medals and ribbons."

  On August 10, 2002, this letter appeared, correcting the
  paper's incorrect use of the word "coin":

  "In regard to your Aug. 6 page one story "Army Calling Cards":
  It is the authorization of a government that makes a coin a coin.
  Under Article I of the Constitution, the power to coin money is
  expressly granted to Congress. The Oxford English Dictionary,
  Second Edition defines "coin" as "a piece of metal (gold, silver,
  copper, etc.) of definite weight and value, usually a circular
  disc, made into money by being stamped with an officially
  authorized device." The variously shaped pieces of metal
  described in your article may be medals or medallions. They
  may even be metal calling cards. They are not, however, coins.

  Franklin L. Noel
  Chief Magistrate Judge
  United States District Court
  District of Minnesota"

  Wayne Homren, Editor

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