CNN.com reports that the US Mint will release a new nickel today. The image of Monticello is gone. Instead of celebrating Jefferson’s domestic genius, the design will celebrate the Louisiana Purchase that vastly expanded the geographical jurisdiction of the federal government--just to remind us what really matters. Why is this being done? The Mint director explains that it just seemed to be the thing to do: “It is a new century, and the United States is in a renaissance of coin design.” Note that this ”renaissance” does not include changing the composition of the coins to give them commodity backing.
Incidentally, Scott Trask’s contribution to Reassessing the Presidency examines the Louisiana Purchase in some detail, showing that Jefferson saw the aquisition as justifiable because the federalist principle, and thus would the local rights of the new areas be uncompromised. Moreover, as a strict constructionist, he favored an amendment to the Constitution that would give the right to the federal government to acquire territory in the first place—a right he did not believe the government then possessed. He lost out in both cases.
