June 06, 2004

Ronald Reagan is dead. I'm sure you've all heard. Does this mean the USA will now change the dime? Or does FDR still have enough historical clout to defend his coin? Does anyone care?
posted by kuujjuarapik 20 years ago
  • Leave Roosevelt on the dime. We can make room for Reagan on some other currency. Since he was prez for eight years during the 80s, maybe we should consider bumping George Washington from the $1 bill, slapping Reagan's face on there and editing to include the text "In Tony Montana We Trust". Everybody wins.
  • Perhaps you could indicate the monetary value of a dime somewhere on it, while you're at it. The demise of the UK's base-240 currency three decades ago surely makes the US's coinage the world's most visitor-unfriendly.
  • Seeing as how the Reagan years were the start of a huge assault on the legacy of the New Deal, having him replace FDR on the dime would be sickly appropriate.
  • Hmmm. Leave FDR on the dime. For now. But since we're talking about updating the money, how about MLK II instead of Andrew Jackson or Alexander Hamilton? LOL @ ThreeDayMonk.
  • Even Nancy Reagan has told the Republican congressmen to give it a rest wrt the dime. Clearly her patriotism is in question.
  • In December 1981 there was a massacre at El Mozote, where hundreds of men, women, and children were slaughtered by US-trained soliders, in what has been called one of the worst massacres in Latin American history. For months, the Reagan administration denied that El Mozote ever took place. In 1992, a UN truth commission revealed that the massacre had obviously taken place, and in the same year, the mass grave was unearthed. The Reagan Administration never accepted responsibility for the slaughter. In the onslaught of praise following Reagan's death, Charles Schumer, Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) said: "Whether you agreed or disagreed with Ronald Reagan, you can't deny that he was honest, fought hard for what he believed in, and had the courage of his convictions." The tale of El Mozote is but one way to disprove the first claim; as for what it says about Reagan's beliefs and the courage of his convictions -- I will leave those conclusions to the reader.
  • I come here not to praise Reagan but to bury him: Not an evil man, but bound by others' evil, some good is surely interred with this dead man's bones. So it was with Reagan. He was faithful friend to the gilt and guilty. In this he was ambitious. Yet When that the poor have cried, Reagan hath wept; He was denied his Oscar at Academy So when men regain their reason who will say that Four years of trickle-down tears and ketchup cloaked in the Rags of a vegetable Was not an Entertainment? O Judgement: Thou art fled to brutish beasts This man was a slight man Meant for errands Out Front. But I am unwell, and barren of spirit. Forgive my slanderous load. Best friends made and means stretched we set off these commons. (apologies to Shakespeare and act 3 scene 2 of "Julius Caesar")
  • Friends, monkeys, countrymen... lend Dizzy your ears.
  • *tears off ear, hands it to Dizzy*
  • languagehat that's disgusting!
  • uh... threedaymonk - our currency is what now? for gosh sakes, US currency is the only thing we take metrically. 'cept for pop bottle sizes over 16 oz, of course. i mean, i hope you were joking there...
  • Peraps threedaymonk was talking about nickels, dimes and quarters. I always get the first two confused.
  • I propose a new denomination: the $25.00 bill, with Reagan on it.
  • Leave the dime, lend dizzy the ears, and--if your a U.S. federal worker--enjoy this Friday as an impromptu holiday! I'm takin' a day off for the Gipper!
  • Slightly off-topic, but MLK should be on some American currency. And nothing like those stupid dollar coins, either, but money you might actually use. Anybody got any suggestions for somebody who should be on currency (any country) but isn't? For the non-Murrcans: Nickels are five cents, Dimes are ten, Quarters are twenty-five.
  • That's 'cause he's a twelve-foot python that eats bunnies!
  • hehe. Nicely done Binkley.