Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, February 20, 1992 TAG: 9202200256
SECTION: NATL/INTL PAGE: A-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
U.S. WON'T MAKE CHANGE ON COINS
A bill that would have radically redesigned U.S. coins was decisively rejected by the House on Wednesday after erroneous rumors circulated on the floor that the words "In God We Trust" would be taken off the coins.It was believed that some congressmen were also showing irritation that the proposal was a pet project of Sen. Alan Cranston, D-Calif., and his frequent social companion.
The legislation called for putting Bill of Rights themes on the "tails" side of the penny, nickel, dime, quarter and half dollar.
The bill also would have given the secretary of the Treasury discretion to touch up portraits of presidents on the "heads" side.
But, although the bill did not permit any tampering with the inscription, "In God We Trust," on the "heads" side, young members of Phyllis Schlafly's "Eagle Forum," a conservative group, handed out leaflets to congressmen claiming that it could.
That set off a wave of rumors during voting on the House floor and helped sink the legislation, 172-241.
Numerous members switched their votes as the rumors spread.
Lawmakers also said that there was ill feeling over reports that Cranston had quietly and single-handedly pushed the bill through the Senate last November, in part at the behest of his close friend Diane Wolf, a New York socialite and former member of the federal Commission of Fine Arts.
The new coin designs, celebrating the 200th anniversary of the Bill of Rights, would have replaced the Lincoln Memorial on the Lincoln penny, Monticello on the Jefferson nickel, the torch on the Roosevelt dime, the perched eagle on the Washington quarter and the presidential seal on the Kennedy half dollar.