The E-Sylum:  Volume 9, Number 52, December 24, 2006, Article 13

GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEE DISCIPLINED FOR PUTTING OWN FACE ON MONEY

David Fanning forwarded an item from the humor publication The Onion
- "U.S. Mint Employee Disciplined For Putting Own Face On Nickels".
The item from June 4, 2003 is an image of a U.S nickel with an altered
portrait and the words "In Gary We Trust".

It's funny, but with the prolific output of the U.S. Mint today it
almost seems possible.  In 1864 government officials weren't too happy
to see the result after they directed that the portrait of "Clark" be
placed on a new piece of currency, referring to William Clark of Lewis
and Clark fame.

The superintendent of the National Currency Bureau, a government
bureaucrat named Spencer Morton Clark placed his own portrait on the
five-cent fractional currency note.  Clark was demoted and Congress
established a ban, which is still in effect today, on portraits of
living persons on all bank notes.  For more on the topic, see our earlier
E-Sylum discussions, where an author describes Clark as "...a bankrupt
sex pest under investigation for embezzlement and fraud."

SPENCER CLARK
esylum_v07n10a27.html

LIVING PERSONS ON COINS AND PAPER MONEY
esylum_v07n25a12.html

To view the image of The Onion's nickel, see:
The Onion's nickel

  Wayne Homren, Editor

	coinbooks.org Web

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