Treasury
Department to recall 25 million coins.
Washington D.C. Sat. April 1, 2000
The U.S. Treasury Department has announced
today that it will re-call all 25 million commemorative quarters honoring the
admission of Massachusetts into the union.
Over a ten year period all quarters coined will
have on the reverse side a symbol honoring a state’s admission to the union.
Five were minted in 1999 honoring the first five States. This year the first
state to be honored is Massachusetts.
The recall of the Massachusetts quarters is
prompted by the outcry from many groups over the depiction of a man with a gun.
The depiction represents the minutemen who fired the first shots of the
revolutionary war and has been used by the State of Massachusetts as a state
symbol. President Clinton has signed an executive order forcing the treasury
department to recall these quarters and issue ones more appropriate to the
history of Massachusetts.
A committee of Massachusetts’s legislators
and U. S. Treasury officials approved the design. President Clinton through his
spokesman Joe Lockhart stated that he was not properly informed by this
committee and is outraged that the coin was released without his approval. Sarah
Brady, the outgoing president of Handgun Control, Inc., said today, "This
administration has committed an act of insensitivity unprecedented in recent
history. How can the President at one time name the White House press briefing
room in honor of my husband Jim Brady, who was horribly wounded by a gun, and
then allow a coin to be issued containing the picture of a gun."
Donna Dees-Thomases, organizer of the Million
Mothers March against guns said, " This coin sends the wrong message to our
children. It says to the children that guns are not always dangerous, evil
objects that should only be possessed by the government. Also, I noticed that
the rifle on the quarter does not have a trigger lock."
Wayne LaPierre, spokesman for the Gun Lobby
said, " This is the type of hysterical over-reaction we have come to expect
from these ninnies."
We have also learned that Sen. Charles Schumer
(D. N.Y.) suffered personal humiliation and was injured as a result of the
release of the Massachusetts commemorative quarter. Sen. Schumer was recently
elevated to the Senate from the House of Representatives chiefly because of his
unyielding stance for reasonable gun control legislation. Sen. Schumer was
drinking in an upscale Georgetown watering hole with Sen. Ted Kennedy (D.
Mass.). According to police reports, Senator Kennedy was idly flipping a
quarter, which just happened to be the newest release. The quarter landed
unnoticed in Senator Schumer’s glass. As Sen. Schumer lifted the glass to take
a sip, he spied there in the bottom an image of a man with a gun. The Senator
was so frightened by this he dropped the glass and dove under the table. Sen.
Kennedy seeing this, and believing Sen. Schumer had a waitress down there, dove
on top of him causing minor injuries.
