The United States Mint wants the public to know they are not responsible for the commemorative Barack Obama coins now being advertised all over television and other media.

This gets confusing because a number of private groups use the name U.S. Mint in some way to confuse the public.

For example, “President-Elect Barack Obama is being honored on brilliant, uncirculated U.S. Mint Presidential Dollars by The New England Mint.”

That is the New England Mint not the real U.S. Mint run by the government. Here is the United States Mint’s official statement:

It has come to the attention of the United States Mint that several private commercial businesses are advertising so-called “Barack Obama Presidential $1 Coins,” as well as commemorative half-dollar coins, American Eagle Silver Coins and multi-coin sets bearing images of the President-Elect. These advertisements feature genuine United States coins that the private commercial businesses have altered by affixing a colorized image to the coin. Additionally, some businesses have treated the coins by gold plating them.

These items are not official United States Mint products. Furthermore, these products, businesses, and advertisements are not approved, endorsed, sponsored, or authorized by the United States Mint, the Department of the Treasury, or the United States Government.

Okay, so those are official coins, but not officially colorized and resold. How do these companies get away with altering, even defacing official coins? Is not that supposed to be against the law?

No, actually someone can do anything to a coin or bill as long as it does not interfere with its ability to circulate, I think.

That would seem to make the machines that squish pennies into commemorative designs illegal, but apparently that is okay too because it is not being done with fraudulent intent…If you don’t quite understand what is going on there, that is okay. It doesn’t make complete sense to me either, but at least we know those are not United States Mint commemorative coins.

Editor’s Note: Don’t blame for the same commemorative ad that pops us from Google Adsense. Google uses key words on the page to direct the appropriate ad to the site and…you guessed it. That’s what pops up. But if you click on it, I probably get a dime or so!