'In God We Trust' wasn't added to our money until after Civil War
It is entirely possible that a majority of Americans accept the motto "God We Trust" on our currency because they think it been with us for a long time. The same with "under God" I would like to present some facts as to how and when this all began.
The Pledge of Allegiance was written in 1892 by a Christian socialist named Francis Bellamy and was adopted as our national pledge in 1942. It did not contain the phrase "under God" in it when written nor when adopted. The phrase was added by the right-wing Congress during the reactionary red scare years in June, 1954. The Constitution had left the room in the era of Joseph McCarthy and the cold war fear-mongering gave the right wingers many excuses to subvert the Constitution. If you didn't agree, you were unpatriotic.
Our money did not have any religious mottos during the founding era. In fact, my favorite is the 1792 half dime that has the motto, "LIBERTY PARENT OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY". That should be a comfort to the anti-science folks on the right. The 1776 Continental Dollar had "MIND YOUR BUSINESS" for a motto. Another coin minted in 1783 had the motto "NOVA CONSTELLATIO", which means New Constellation, containing an enlightenment meaning of a new order of things. The Fugio Cent of 1787 and afterward also had the motto "MIND YOUR BUSINESS".
New York State issued the Excelsior coin in 1787. On the obverse in bold letters is EXCELSIOR, meaning "ever upwards". On the reverse around the outside is written E PLURIBUS UNUM, Latin for One From Many. Nowhere on our currency did any religious notion, except for a plethora of pagan goddesses like Minerva, Justitia and Libertas, appear during the founding era. That did not happen until right at the end of the Civil War when guilt and mourning swept the nation. From 1938 onward the motto appeared regularly but was not mandated by Congress until a month after the red scare congress put "under God" in our pledge.
James Veverka
Tilton
COINS OF THE REPUBLICS
This site features pictures of America's first currency coins and how they were fashioned after Classical coins just as Washington DC was fashioned on Greek and Roman classical pagan architecture and statuary
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