Continental Dollar: Mind Your Business

 

As the Continental Congress was emboldened to declare independence, it also made plans to issue its own money. Ben Franklin provided the design–including that cheeky motto. And some rich folk contributed silver, brass, and pewter for some pattern strikes.

If you see any of these in your holiday change box, hold on to them.

 

A Bit of Americana

Before you buy that slice of apple pie today, reflect a moment before you hand over that $2 bill.

 

A Good Day To Be An American

 

Ian O’Neill at Universe Today describes a bit of the Google satellite that produced this image.

 

Injuring a Good Cause

My wife was watching PBS earlier tonight, Ken Burns’ profile of Thomas Jefferson. A good quote for many things today, though I didn’t catch the context in which the third president said it:

A good cause is often injured more by ill-timed efforts of its friends than by the arguments of its enemies.

 

Fifty and Done?

Will we Americans get a fifty-first state, do you think? We’ve already gone the longest period in US history without adding a new one.

Anita picked up a map reproduction several months ago and it was only recently that I looked at Oklahoma closely. What do you make of it?

It’s the Oklahoma and Indian Territories before uniting into the 46th state, each with its own territorial capital, Guthrie and Tahlequah.

Getting back to the question, lots of speculation has gone into what lies beyond fifty for the US. I’ve read of splitting California, and New York City from State. There’s Puerto Rico, Iraq, Kuwait, Panama, Cuba, Australia, and the Canadian Maritimes. Or perhaps you have a better idea?

 

Fifty Still Nifty Almost Fifty Years Later

Most everybody probably missed it. I know I did. When we Americans woke up on the morning of 11 July this summer, our nation had gone the longest period in its history without adding a new state. The time between the admission of Arizona (February 14, 1912) and Alaska (January 03, 1959) was surpassed by the time since we added Hawaii for number 50 on August 21, 1959.

Some almost states:

Franklin: This almost-state received the support of seven other state delegations to the Continental Congress, but North Carolinians were not pleased with this collection of frontier counties who sought financial support from Spain.

Texas, upon admission to the union in 1845, was given the right to split into up to four states. Some talk early and even fairly recently of splitting up California, too. Some people labor under the misconception that state-splitting is against the Constitution, but legally, all one needs is the approval of the state legislature and Congress.

Brigham Young conceived a grand proposal for a state of Deseret to be admitted to the union with California in 1849. Next year the LDS folks got Utah Territory instead and waited for 46 more years before gaining admittance as the 45th state.

You might check out this site for the State of Jefferson. People were semi-serious about it in 1941 before Pearl Harbor.

Alternate history authors such as Harry Turtledove posit states we never knew. In his novel How Few Remain, reviewed here, the CSA purchases Sonora and Chihuahua from Mexico to reach its own manifest destiny at the Pacific Ocean. Cuba is a CSA state later in Turtledove’s massive what-if-the-union-lost series.

I’ve probably missed some interesting stories of other near-states. Any information out there?

 

If You Want to Celebrate Early …

… feel free. Y’all realize that the DofI was approved by congressional vote on the 2nd of July, right?