Could a $1trn coin end America’s debt-ceiling showdown?

“IT IS A mining rock of such resistance, that it is not easy to cut with the force of blows on a steel anvil.” So wrote Antonio de Ulloa, a Spanish traveller to America, about platinum in 1748. Such an image may resonate with those frustrated by regular showdowns over America’s debt ceiling. Janet Yellen, the treasury secretary, has said the country risks running out of money by October 18th if the federal-debt limit is not raised, something that the Republicans had been unwilling to countenance doing. On October 6th, as was going to press, Mitch McConnell, the Republicans’ leader in the Senate, offered to stop obstructing a small rise in the debt ceiling, which would put off the issue until December (see United States section). But a deal is yet to be done.Platinum is at the centre of a more unorthodox campaign to avert a debt crisis. In 1996 Congress directed the United States Mint to begin a commemorative coin programme. This included minting gold $5 coins depicting George Washington, and silver $1 coins to mark the 125th anniversary of the creation of Yellowstone National Park. But in 2010 Carlos Mucha, a lawyer, argued that he had found a loophole in the legislation. Whereas the Mint may not produce gold and silver coins in denominations of more than $50, no such limit applies to platinum coins. In 2011 a campaign began to encourage the Treasury Department to mint a “$1trn coin” as a way to sidestep a row over the debt ceiling. The campaigners argued that the coin would be “money” rather than “debt”, and that the Treasury could hand it over to the Federal Reserve in return for the right to draw down funds, in order to keep paying the bills while politicians haggled over the debt limit.