By Pat Centner, AFAJ staff writer
November-December 2001 – Throughout America’s history, when dark days of great calamity have come, our nation’s citizens, in the midst of devastation, have been reminded anew that God is the foundation upon which this country was formed, and the One to whom our allegiance is owed. But more than that, dark times have triggered a desire and apparent need on the part of Americans to publicly recognize God and His centrality in the life of America.
It was so during the Revolutionary War when men like George Washington led America’s militia and, in letters and writings he penned during that time, honored God as the source of his strength. Then, the Declaration of Independence openly proclaimed homage to the Creator who endowed man with the rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
It was so during the War of 1812 when, after Maryland’s Fort McHenry withstood a 25-hour British bombardment, a huge 32 x 40-foot flag was flown atop the fort’s garrison, and Francis Scott Key, seeing the flag, wrote the poem that became the Star-Spangled Banner. (See AFA Journal 10/01.)
And it is so today. Americans have responded to the great tragedies of September 11 by attending church and candlelight prayer services in record numbers; by hanging “In God We Trust” posters in thousands of schools and public buildings all over the nation; by making our Pledge of Allegiance the subject of a national television advertisement; and by plastering “God Bless America” signs and banners on buildings and marquees in towns and cities nationwide.
There was yet another time in America’s history when the need to publicly recognize God on a national basis was deeply felt. That time was the Civil War. And as a result of that initial outcry, our nation’s coins and paper money now carry the inscription “In God We Trust.”
Toward the end of the 1850s, darkness enveloped our nation, and the air smoldered with angry accusations and counter-accusations as the North and South argued over government control, industrialization and trade. But the topic that caused the most heart-wrenching conflict and bitterness was that of slavery.
In the fall of 1860, Abraham Lincoln was elected President. This greatly displeased many in the South and, as tensions mounted, the republic that had once been staunchly united became a nation divided. Eleven Southern states seceded from the Union and formed a separate government – the Confederate States of America. The cry of “War!” rang out, and blood covered the nation as the great Civil War began.
There is nothing, perhaps, that brings more anxiety to a nation than the engagement of her sons in war. And this was certainly true of America. Typically, war unites a country against the enemy. But this war ripped the nation apart, and mothers wept bitter tears as one son donned the blue uniform of the Union, and the other Confederate gray.
The fact that the North had nearly three times more men of fighting age than the South, as well as the ability to easily manufacture war materials, caused Lincoln and his War Cabinet to believe they would quickly win the War. But they didn’t count on the tenacity of the Southerners and, as a result, the North had to spend far more money than expected on the war effort.
Early on, fear and uncertainty about the war had resulted in Yankees hoarding the coins that served as the nation’s currency. The resulting shortage prompted the Union to begin issuing paper money in 1862. Called “greenbacks” and “shinplasters,” the paper money was despised and said to be useful only for applying medicine to someone’s sore shins!
Both the North and the South felt their cause was just, and that God was on their side. But a Yankee minister from Ridleyville, Pennsylvania, the Rev. Mark. R. Watkinson, had a particular concern about this. He sat down on November 13, 1861, and wrote a letter to Salmon P. Chase, Secretary of the Treasury under President Lincoln.
Watkinson lamented, “One fact touching our currency has hitherto been seriously overlooked. I mean the recognition of the Almighty God in some form on our coins. … This would relieve us from the ignominy of heathenism. This would place us openly under the Divine protection that we have personally claimed.”
Chase apparently agreed with Watkinson, because one week later he wrote James Pollock, director of the U. S. Mint in Philadelphia, declaring, “No nation can be strong except in the strength of God, or safe except in His defense. The trust of our people in God should be declared on our national coins.” Chase then instructed Pollock to design a new “device ... with a motto expressing in the fewest and tersest words possible this national recognition.”
On the day after Christmas, 1861, Pollock responded to Chase’s request, offering eight new pattern dies of coins with the words “God our trust” engraved on them. Pollack explained that the words “Our trust is in God” (as first suggested) took up too much space on smaller coins, thus the proposed change to “God our trust.” He awaited further instructions from Chase.
Possibly because of the war and its impact on the U.S. Treasury, Chase had still not responded to Pollock by June of the following year. His delay was apparently the reason no dies with the new motto were cut in 1862. On June 16, Pollock wrote Chase, informing him that it was now time to begin preparing dies for 1863 coins. A total of 29 pattern coins with some form of the new motto were produced that year. “In God we trust” appeared on patterns for two cent, quarter, half dollar, and dollar coins.
Up until 1864, the amount of metal in U.S. coins closely matched the worth of their particular denomination; for example, a quarter contained approximately 25 cents worth of silver, a ten-dollar gold piece, $10 worth of gold, etc. But the shortage of metals caused by the war made this impossible. As a tentative solution, the U.S. Mint produced a bronze alloy for the Indianhead penny and then waited with fingers crossed to see how people would react.
Fortunately, the public liked the new alloyed penny far better than the dreaded shinplasters. Better yet, since the coins weren’t really worth a penny, people didn’t hide them away.
On April 12, 1864, Congress passed a law changing the composition of the one-cent piece and authorizing the minting of a two-cent piece, stating that the “shape, mottoes and devices of said coins shall be fixed by the director of the Mint, with the approval of the Secretary of the Treasury.” As a result, a much-larger coin was designed by James Longacre and included the inscription “In God We Trust.” The new coin met with great success.
On March 3, 1865, Congress passed another law that allowed the Mint director, with the Secretary’s approval, to place “In God We Trust” on all gold and silver coins that were large enough to contain the inscription.
Precedent set
After the Civil War, the hoarded coins returned to circulation, and the necessity for the two-cent piece waned. The Mint continued to produce the coin until 1873, but by the end of the 19th century, it had virtually disappeared from circulation. Although the two-cent piece met with an unexpected demise, it played an important role in America’s history as one of our nation’s first means for widely proclaiming homage and allegiance to God.
The declaration “In God We Trust” has been used continuously on American pennies and dimes since 1909 and 1916, respectively, and on gold coins, silver dollars, quarters and half-dollars since July 1, 1908. The inscription was also engraved on five-cent coins from 1866 until 1883 and then reappeared on nickels in 1938. Since that year, all U.S. coins have been minted with the inscription.
Thus, what began as a plea to recognize in a public forum the great God of our founding fathers has ultimately resulted in His name being placed before our nation’s citizens on a continual basis. And the words “In God We Trust” serve as an important reminder to all Americans of His centrality in the life of this nation, from its beginning – through the good times and the bad – to this very day. 
