Claim:
The first U.S. official coin in circulation said “Mind Your Business” instead of “In God We Trust.”
Rating:
True ( About this rating? )
The birth of the United States in the 18th century brought with it the dawn of many things, including the design and minting of currency. According to some online posts , this included the first official one-cent coin in American circulation, which supposedly bore the slogan "Mind Your Business" rather than " In God We Trust ."
One Reddit post ( archived ) shared in 2023, for example, had received more than 9,000 upvotes at the time of this publication.
TIL the first U.S official coin in circulation, the Fugio Cent, had the motto "Mind Your Business" instead of "In God we Trust".
by u/SuperMcG in todayilearned
Snopes dug through historical documents hosted by the U.S. Library of Congress and the National Museum of American History to confirm that this claim is true.
The so-called Fugio cent — also known as the "Franklin," "Sun Dial," "Ring" and "Mind your business" cent — was first minted by Congress in 1787.
The "sun and sundial on this coin symbolize time, and together with the Latin word fugio ('I fly'), they express the idea 'time flies.'" Below the sundial is the phrase "Mind Your Business." The Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta wrote that both phrases are attributed to Benjamin Franklin.
On the other side of the coin are 13 links forged into an unbroken chain, with "We Are One" representing the uniting of 13 colonies into one nation.
(PGCS)
The Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia wrote that the government selected James Jarvis, a Connecticut coiner, to strike 300 tons of Fugio cents. However, the National Museum of American History reported, Jarvis "misdirected much of the metal to unauthorized projects," making the coins lightweight and unfavored by the general public. The copper coins were sold to a merchant at a loss and replaced by new coinage the next year. (For more on the commissioning and history of the Fugio coins, check out this explainer by the University of Notre Dame.)
The United States Mint, which produces legal tender, wrote that in 1787, most states ratified the Constitution, establishing a new government and creating a new debate over national coinage. The Coinage Act of 1792 established national coins, replacing the Fugio cent.
The Professional Coin Grading Service, a group that authenticates coins, classified the Fugio cent as one of the earliest U.S. regular-issue coins.
An 1875 issue of the American Journal of Numismatics further confirms that the "Fugios" were the earliest coins issued by the authority of the United States:
The records relating to them are very meagre, and the papers therein referred to cannot now by found. The entries in the journal of Congress contain all the information…
Coin was made of copper, stamped on one side "thirteen circles linked together, a small circle in the middle, with the words 'United States,' round it ; and in the centre, the words 'We are one;' on the other side of the same piece the following device, viz. : a dial with the hours expressed on the face of it ; a meridian sun above, on one side of which is to be the word 'Fugio,' and on the other the year in figures '1787' below the dial, the words 'Mind your Business'
(American Journal of Numismatics)
Snopes found historical documentation of the minting of the coins in the Journals of the Continental Congress from April 1787. The records describe the daily proceedings of the Congress and include the text of the ordinance by the Board of Treasury that noted that Fugio cents were "of the federal standards" per weight standards stipulated the year before, pages 223 , 224 and 225 , as shown below:
(Journals of the Continental Congress)
The U.S. Congress wrote that "In God We Trust" first appeared on the 1864 two-cent coin during the Civil War. The following year, an act of Congress allowed the Mint director, with the Treasury secretary's approval, to place the motto on all gold and silver coins that "shall admit the inscription thereon."
According to historical Congressional documents , the motto " In God We Trust " was placed on United States coins mainly because of an increased religious sentiment during the Civil War. It was adopted as the national motto during the 84th Congress between 1955 and 1956. In 1957, Time magazine reported that the phrase had first appeared on paper currency.
Sources:
Bohner, Steven BohnerSteven. "The First Official US Coin Said 'Mind Your Business' — Fact Of The Day." 100.5 The River, 22 Apr. 2013, https://rivergrandrapids.com/the-first-official-us-coin-said-mind-your-business-fact-of-the-day/ .
Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. https://www.atlantafed.org/about/tours/story-of-money/11-after-revolution/fugio-cent . Accessed 7 Aug. 2024.
Fugio Cents - Introduction. https://coins.nd.edu/ColCoin/ColCoinIntros/Fugio.intro.html . Accessed 7 Aug. 2024.
"Fugio Cents - PCGS CoinFacts." PCGS, https://www.pcgs.com/coinfacts/category/fugio-cents-1787/5954 . Accessed 7 Aug. 2024.
"---." PCGS, https://www.pcgs.com/coinfacts/category/federal-contract-coinage/fugio-cents/fugio-cents-1787/845 . Accessed 7 Aug. 2024.
Institution, Smithsonian. "1 Fugio Cent, United States, 1787." Smithsonian Institution, https://www.si.edu/object/001-dollar-fugio-cent-1787%3Anmah_1096631 . Accessed 7 Aug. 2024.
"Journals of the Continental Congress | Continental Congress and the Constitutional Convention | Articles and Essays | A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation: U.S. Congressional Documents and Debates 1774-1875 | Digital Collections | Library of Congress." Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. 20540 USA, https://www.loc.gov/collections/century-of-lawmaking/articles-and-essays/continental-congress/journals-of-the-continental-congress/ . Accessed 7 Aug. 2024.
Meredith, Stephanie. "Coinage Act of April 2, 1792 | U.S. Mint." United States Mint, 6 Apr. 2017, https://www.usmint.gov/learn/history/historical-documents/coinage-act-of-april-2-1792 .
---. "History of U.S. Circulating Coins | U.S. Mint." United States Mint, 22 Apr. 2019, https://www.usmint.gov/learn/history/us-circulating-coins .
Money in Colonial Times. https://www.philadelphiafed.org/education/money-in-colonial-times . Accessed 7 Aug. 2024.
"The First Coins of the United States." American Journal of Numismatics, and Bulletin of the American Numismatic and Archaeological Society, vol. 10, no. 1, 1875, pp. 1–6. JSTOR, https://www.jstor.org/stable/43584964 .
"The TIME Vault: October 14, 1957." TIME.Com, http://time.com/vault/issue/1957-10-14/spread/34/ . Accessed 7 Aug. 2024.
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