IN GOD WE TRUST

in god we trust

IN GOD WE TRUST

On Dec. 8, 1863, Mint Director James Pollock wrote to Treasury Secretary Salmon P. Chase recommending the issuance of a two-cent piece in French bronze, the same alloy chosen for the slimmer Indian cent. Pollock submitted two proposed designs, both by Chief Engraver James B. Longacre, who also had designed the Indian cent. One bore the head of George Washington; the other depicted a shield and arrows. Pollock and Chase both favored the latter.

Up to then, U.S. coinage had carried no reference to a supreme being. But that was about to change, thanks largely to the strong religious fervor born of the Civil War. In 1861, a Baptist minister, the Rev. Mark R. Watkinson of Ridleyville, Pennsylvania, had written a letter to Secretary Chase urging that provision be made for "the recognition of the Almighty God in some form on our coins." Said Watkinson: "This would relieve us from the ignominy of heathenism. This would place us openly under the Divine protection we have personally claimed." Clearly, Chase had taken this appeal to heart, for he specified the inclusion of some such inscription on the two-cent piece.

Watkinson didn't come up with the words IN GOD WE TRUST. On the first trial striking of the two-cent piece, the motto that appeared was GOD OUR TRUST. Numismatic scholar Walter Breen theorized that the final form was influenced by the motto of Chase's alma mater, Brown University: IN DEO SPERAMUS, a Latin phrase meaning "In God we hope." However it happened, IN GOD WE TRUST was the version picked in the end.