The $5 Trillion Coin

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

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Really?  What is the limit at present? 

The limit is on the amount of United States Notes issued directly by the Treasury as opposed to Federal Reserve Notes.

The limit is $300,000,000 and they were last issued in 1971 so they are rarely seen in circulation.  (Altho I did get a $5 US Note in change last year and have kept it.)  The designs are similar to those of Federal Reserve Notes, with the most noticeable difference being that instead of a green seal, they have a red seal.  (Silver Certificates had blue seals, Gold Certificates had yellow seals and brown seals were on National Bank Notes and Federal Reserve Bank Notes.  The difference between Federal Reserve Bank Notes and Federal Reserve Notes was that the FRBN were backed by only one of the twelve Federal Reserve Banks)

Actually, there is a portion of the amount that has been authorized but not currently issued, so there is a small pittance that could be made available by printing new ones. Indeed, since the only denomination limit is that they must be at least $1, they could print a single note for the outstanding authorization and deposit it in a Federal Reserve Bank if they needed to.

Personally, I think they should authorize the issuance of additional U.S. Notes anyway, but not as money intended for general circulation.  Issues of commemorative paper money would be a way for the U.S. Treasury to make a modest profit.  Why should the Mint and the USPS be the only makers of collectibles?

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

As for the idea of a $5 Trillion dollar coin, I was going to say impossible, but it seems there is a loophole in 31 USC 5112, the section of law that authorizes the minting of coins.  For the coins normally minted for circulation, the denominations that are authorized for minting are specified, with the largest value circulating coin being the dollar coin.  The various bullion and commemorative coins that the mint is authorized to make also have their denominations generally set by law.  However, by oversight the size and denomination of the platinum bullion coins are left to the discretion of the Secretary of the Treasury.

Since they were first issued, the platinum bullion coins have carried nominal denominations of $100 per troy oz.  However, there is nothing in the law that would prevent the minting of a $5 trillion coin, provided that it is minted in platinum bullion.

Given how volatile platinum prices have historically been, I suspect the authority to set the denominations was given so that if platinum plunged, the denominations could be adjusted to be lower than the bullion price without requiring an Act of Congress.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

If Obama took advantage of the loophole to mint fiat platinum coins, do you think the Democrats in the Senate would stop him?

Besides, it shouldn't be a single $5 trillion coin.  They should be $1 billion coins with Senator Everett Dirksen on the obverse.