The Royal Canadian Mint has dinosaur coins for sale. Here's a picture of the first one. It shows a fossil Parasaurolophus, a crested, duck-billed species from Alberta.Future coins will depict Triceratops (2009); Tyrannosaurus rex (2009); and Dromaeosaurus (2010). The face value of the coins is $4 (CDN)—that's currently about $3.80 in US currency but it will be about $4.60 by the time the last coin is issued unless the US dollar stops falling. (Getting out of Iraq would help.)
Only 20,000 coins are being minted. The finish on the "fossil" image is impossible to reproduce exactly so each coin will be slightly different in tone and color. You can buy them for $39.95 (CDN).
How many people know what "D.G. Regina" stands for? (Hint: it's not an atheist slogan.)
10 comments :
Del Gratia Regina. I may be American, but I grew up close enough to Canada to know a little. (It means "By the Grace of God, Queen.")
I wonder if The Friendly Giant would have given one to Casey as a gift?
I meant, of course, Dei Gratia Regina.
How so very canadian: a $4 coin. (what is that, metric for something?) :)
- Divalent
I'm interested, how would getting out of Iraq increase the value of the US dollar? It's a very off-hand statement that needs some explanation.
Oooh! Dinosaurs on BOTH sides!
It's another secret spy coin, isn't it?
Dunbar says,
I'm interested, how would getting out of Iraq increase the value of the US dollar? It's a very off-hand statement that needs some explanation.
One of the reasons for the decline of the American dollar is the fact that they are running a huge deficit and accumulating a significant national debt. The war in Iraq is costing a lot of money.
The war in Iraq is costing a lot of money.
The technical term would be a buttload of money. Yes, Divalent, a metric buttload.
larry moran says,
One of the reasons for the decline of the American dollar is the fact that they are running a huge deficit and accumulating a significant national debt. The war in Iraq is costing a lot of money.
An abstract like national debt itself doesn't explain why the value of the US dollar is falling, because the value any currency is determined foremost by people (currency speculators and the like). You could say that investors do not want to buy US bonds because of the gargantuan national debt (which came as a result of not just the war, but also poor fiscal policy), thus contributing to the devaluation of the US dollar; however, it's overly reductionist to claim war=debt=devaluation thus end war, when in reality many significant factors affect the US economy and dollar. For instance, the Reserve is lowering interest rates to encourage loans and thus stimulate the flagging US economy, but which may have the corollary effect of inflation and devaluation.
While getting out of Iraq may increase the US dollar value, it isn't in itself a complete solution, which is why I commented that it was a off-hand remark that needed explantion. I was going to say that it's intellectually lazy to use the value of the US dollar to justify extraction from Iraq (when there are much better arguments), but apparently I'm going to have lunch with you in September so I probably shouldn't say that. I dodged a bullet there, eh?
Dunbar says,
I was going to say that it's intellectually lazy to use the value of the US dollar to justify extraction from Iraq (when there are much better arguments) ...
Of course it's intellectually lazy that's why you'll never catch me making such a silly argument. I merely said that getting out of Iraq would help keep the US dollar from falling. It's a bit of sarcasm and should have been taken with the obvious grain of salt that it deserved.
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