4 reasons the government won't mint a trillion-dollar coin to prevent a debt-ceiling crisis

The bizarre gimmick is being discussed — seriously, by some — as a way for the government to keep paying its bills without a fight over raising the borrowing limit

Finally, someone's come up with a way to create one out of thin air: Minting a $1 trillion platinum coin.
(Image credit: Killer Stock, Inc./CORBIS)

With an epic fight looming over raising the debt ceiling, Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) and others are reviving a quirky old idea to keep the government from defaulting on its debt: Mint a trillion-dollar coin (or two), deposit it in the Treasury, and use it to pay the bills without having to push the borrowing limit above the current $16.4 trillion. "I'm being absolutely serious," Nadler told Capital New York's Reid Pilifant. "It sounds silly but it's absolutely legal." Actually, not everyone agrees. Here, four reasons the magic coin solution will never happen:

1. It's pretty much illegal

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Harold Maass, The Week US

Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.