I had a dream last night that has the makings of a brilliant idea.
I dreamed that the U.S. Mint started allowing individuals to request
arbitrary messages be printed on the backs of coins. In my dream I found a
quarter which, on its reverse side, read “IN MEMORY OF MY AUNT MINNIE
BURGER” followed by that person’s dates of birth and death.
for free the US Mint would print either your message on one single coin,
or some small quantity of coins, and release them into circulation, in
the spirit of a message in a bottle. there is always the chance you
might find your coin in change (thinking of the TV show “That’s
Incredible”, about the girl who got a $20 with her name on it in change
many years after her name was written on it).
some of these coins could, one way or another, become quite valuable, or
at least collectible.
for a fee the Mint print print a larger quantity and send you a set of
10, or 100. but the magic of the promotion would be in the potential for
finding your coin in currency.
seemed like a sweet idea at the time. obviously it would entail a lot of
quality control issues, but in its spirit it reminded me to the “Name a
Star After Somebody” deal that the International Star Registry has been
doing since I was itty-bitty. I bought my sister a star once, for
Christmas. Wouldn’t it be cool to buy someone $100 worth of legal
U.S. tender coins with their name or image on it?
the US Postal Service did something like this with stamps. Custom stamps.
the only problem was that they had a bit of ugly about them, with a
barcode, as well as confusion and/or suspicion among consumers as to their
legitimacy. i think the custom stamps have been reasonably successful,
though.
