A Penny for Your Thoughts: “Liberty Parent of Science & Industry”

This is a beautiful and profound relic of American history.

A U.S. penny, depicting Lady Liberty and dated 1792, which, according to CNN, recently sold for nearly $1.2 million, is embossed not with “In God We Trust”—that didn’t appear on U.S. coins till 1864—but with “Liberty Parent of Science & Industry.”

Who was responsible for this national heresy? “Thomas Jefferson and George Washington discussed the design in letters dated August 1792, before it was presented to Congress as an option for the new coin.”

This is yet another indication of how secular and progress-oriented the Founders were—and of the fact that the United States is not and never was a Christian nation.

Here’s to the real Lady Liberty—and to a future fashioned her way.

Related:

• The Morality of Moneylending: A Short History
• Pawn Stars and the Beauty of Capitalism

About Craig Biddle

Craig is cofounder and editor of The Objective Standard, cofounder and director of education at Objective Standard Institute, and executive director of Prometheus Foundation. He is the author of Loving Life: The Morality of Self-Interest and the Facts that Support It; Rational Egoism: The Morality for Human Flourishing; and the forthcoming Moral Truths Your Parents, Preachers, and Teachers Don’t Want You to Know. He is currently working on his fourth book, “Thinking in Principles.”

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