Minting Too Many Coins

This didn’t come to my attention until I read it in Michael Zielinski’s NY TImes op/ed piece:

Last year Congress passed legislation that will have a long-term impact on our pocket change. The law authorized a new series of quarters, to be released over 11 years, with at least 56 different designs featuring national parks or sites.
. . .
This year we have even more coin programs featuring rotating designs. For Lincoln’s 200th birthday, four different reverse (tails) designs were produced for the penny. American Indians will be honored with a new series of dollar coins. And six quarters will be issued featuring the District of Columbia as well as the territories of Guam, American Samoa, the Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico and the Northern Mariana Islands.

I agree with Mr. Zielinski that this too much. The 50 State Quarters Program was successful because at the time new coin designs were a novelty. Lured by the prospect of additional profits, Congress took this good thing and has gone too far with it. It’s getting to the point where we won’t even be able to recognize which coin is which.
The only coin of all the above proposed designs that I’d be interested in having would be one of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, and that’s only because of my regional attachment to it. I say just mint those and forget the rest.
Oh, and one more thing on the topic of U.S. money: please redesign the $1 bill to match the other redesigned bills. Thanks.
Just my two cents.

The Sinking of the Sultana

I was watching BookTV the other night and caught part of a segment featuring Alan Huffman’s book Sultana: Surviving the Civil War, Prison, and the Worst Maritime Disaster in American History.
I was surprised to hear that the Sultana was the deadliest maritime disaster in United States history. (More on the disaster here).
In short, a boiler blew on a severely-overcrowded steamboat just north of Memphis, causing approximately 1,800 ex-Union soldier POWs to burn, drown, or freeze to death. [To put this death toll in context, 1,758 Union soldiers died at Shiloh, and 1,517 people died when the Titanic sunk].
I’m sure I’ve read about this incident at one time or other in passing–I was a history major, after all–but for whatever reason it didn’t stick with me. News of the sinking was largely overshadowed at the time by the end of the Civil War and the assassination of President Lincoln. After the event people were reluctant to investigate and pursue the army corruption that had contributed to the disaster because the nation was recovering from a war that this same military had just won. Thus, it has largely been forgotten.
What makes my ignorance of this event even more noteworthy is that there’s a local tie-in. Since 1865, there have been many reunions of Sultana survivors, descendants, or historians here in East Tennessee, including one this spring. There’s also a memorial marker in the Mt. Olive Baptist Church in South Knoxville (picture).
I’ve ridden by that cemetery a number of times, but never stopped there. Sometime I should. It a shame to miss out on the history that’s hidden in plain sight.
For updates on all things Sultana, check out the Sultana Disaster blog.

Open Up Interstate 40 To Cyclists!

For the past year a section of Interstate 40 near downtown Knoxville has been closed while workers widen the highway and redo a couple intersections.
The project is nearing completion. I see on the Knoxville News-Sentinel website that TDOT is planning on holding a mile-long footrace on this section of interstate immediately before it reopens to vehicular traffic.

“It’ll give people a chance to do something they’ll never do again,” said Travis Brickey, regional spokesman for the Tennessee Department of Transportation.

The article suggests that there will also be a non-competitive period when the section will be open for pedestrians and families with strollers to use.
I hope this includes cyclists. I’d like to (legally) ride my bike on I-40. It would also send a message about the importance of cycling to this community.