Mint is Not for Sale!

Apr 1, 2016 | fun

No, the U.S. Mint is not being privatized or sold to anyone. Given the significance of the date, I thought I would add to the fun.

If you read the post carefully, you would have noticed:

• The “Poboy Mint” was a play on Pobjoy Mint, the private mint based on Surrey, England. While the Pobjoy Mint strikes coins for other governments, particularly smaller members of the Commonwealth Realm, I don’t think they would be a candidate to buy U.S. government assets. Besides, they probably won’t make a good Po’ Boy sandwich!
• The Chairman of the House Financial Committee is Jeb Hensarling (R-TX). I don’t know who Jed Harding is or if that is the name of a real person.
• Similarly, the Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee is Richard Shelby (R-AL). In trying to come up with a translated name, all I could think about was Carroll Shelby, the man who created the AC Cobra and later the Ford Mustang Cobra.
• Brad Hoyle sounds like he should be a card game inventor but he is not Brendan Boyle (D-PA) who represents the Philadelphia district where the U.S. Mint is located.
• While Dana Gillette sounds like she might be a top sports broadcaster or spokesperson, Diana DeGette (D-CO) represents the fine people of Denver.
• MUSC doesn’t exist but musk is a substance secreted from a gland under the skin of a male musk deer that is used in perfumery. Without being mixed with other scents, musk does not smell good!
• Finally, congress is on spring break and (thankfully) not in Washington!

In short:

Like the Orson Well’s broadcast of The War of the Worlds, all you had to do is change the channel (or check another source).

That was fun!

Stand by for more on the Whitman Baltimore Spring Expo.

Congress Votes to Privatize the Mint

Apr 1, 2016 | fun

In what is seen as an election year move during a late night session, congress voted mostly along party lines to sell the U.S. Mint and its assets to a private corporation headed by the founders of the Poboy Mint.

The measure moved quickly through congress after the bill was introduced by House Banking Committee Chairman Jed Harding. In his floor statement, Harding said that he and his senate counterpart Carroll Cobra have been discussing this with interested companies and other members for more than a year. They see it as a way to make money without making money.

Under the terms of the agreement, the current U.S. Mint properties will be leased to the Mint of the United States Corporation (MUSC), the new entity being created for this venture. They are required to use these facilities for 50 years at which time either party can end the agreement with 120-days notice.

Rep. Brad Hoyle said that he worked hard to ensure that the facility in Philadelphia remained. “The Mint employs a lot of people in Philadelphia,” Hoyle said. “We just couldn’t see all those jobs leaving.”

“Besides,” Hoyle continued, “how would it look if the city where the Mint started would lose the Mint after all these years? It would be devastating to our local economy.”

Dana Gillette, who represents Denver was note as upbeat. Gillette disagrees with the privatization efforts saying, “I know the constitution does not say that the government doesn’t have to own the Mint, but this is a bit too far.”

The transfer to MUSC will begin immediately, ending 224 years of operating as a government entity.