How 'In God we trust' found its place on nation's coins

'In God we trust."

The obverse side of every modern U.S. coin is stamped with this, America's national motto. Many hold this as an affirmation of a Christian origin of the American republic, while others argue - often in court - that freedom of religion may also be construed as freedom from religion. As debate kicks up concerning which faces and phrases adorn U.S. fiat currency, consider a brief history of the minted maxim:

The first coins struck by the nascent United States did not bear the motto. Craftsmen at the Philadelphia Mint under its inaugural director, David Rittenhouse, were bound by Congress to show "an impression emblematic of Liberty, with an inscription of the word Liberty, and the year of coinage; and upon the reverse of each of the gold and silver coins shall be the representation of an eagle, with this inscription, 'United States of America.' "

Statesmen soon became eligible alongside allegorical Liberty. George Washington, whose visage is realized on a 1792 half-dollar designed by Lancaster's Peter Getz, chafed at the monarchical homage paid to him. However, references to any celestial authority were few.

It was not until 1864, amid heightened religiosity stoked by the Civil War, that a push for "ceremonial deism" on national specie, or coin, began. The first of many appeals that landed on Treasury Secretary Salmon P. Chase's desk came from one Rev. M.R. Watkinson, minister of the gospel from Ridleyville. He advocated "God, liberty, law."

"This would make a beautiful coin," Watkinson wrote, "to which no possible citizen could object."

Chase, an advocate of black suffrage who was brought up by an Episcopal bishop uncle, wrote to the director of the Mint, former Pennsylvania Gov. James Pollock:

"The trust of our people in God should be declared on our national coins. You will cause a device to be prepared without unnecessary delay with a motto expressing in the fewest and tersest words possible this national recognition."

With a nod from Congress and a bit of editing by Chase and Pollock, "In God we trust" first appeared on the 1864 two-cent coin. Gold and silver coins that "shall admit the inscription thereon" were included the following year.

In the decades after the Civil War, the minter's punch proved untrustworthy. The motto disappeared from several classes of coins and was not included on any of the nation's newly printed greenbacks. Which notes and coins, if any, carried the message was left by Congress to the discretion of the Treasury chief, with few exceptions, well into the 20th century.

It wasn't until 1956 that President Dwight Eisenhower approved a congressional resolution declaring "In God we trust" the national motto of the United States. It first appeared on printed bills and notes in 1957, and shortly thereafter came to be featured in the design of all classes of U.S. currency.