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Bernanke says recovery in jeopardy
The Business Review
Date: Wednesday, October 5, 2011, 6:55am EDT - Last Modified: Wednesday, October 5, 2011, 7:57am EDT

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke told Congress yesterday that the recovery from the recent recession “is close to faltering,” the Associated Press    is reporting.
That's "what most of America has sensed for some time," the report said, but for Bernanke, the message was "unusually frank."
Asked about the growing protests on Wall Street, Bernanke said: “Certainly, 9 percent unemployment and very slow growth is not a very good situation. That’s why they are protesting,” the AP reported.

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History of the Mint

"The Congress shall have the Power . . . To Coin Money."

(Constitution of the United States, Article I, Section 8.)

When the framers of the U.S. Constitution created a new government for their untried Republic, they realized the critical need for a respected monetary system. Soon after the Constitution's ratification, Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton personally prepared plans for a national Mint. On April 2, 1792, Congress passed The Coinage Act, which created the Mint and authorized construction of a Mint building in the nation's capitol, Philadelphia. This was the first federal building erected under the Constitution.


David Rittenhouse
First Director of the
United States Mint



President George Washington appointed Philadelphian David Rittenhouse, a leading American scientist, as the first Director of the Mint. Under Rittenhouse, the Mint produced its first circulating coins -- 11,178 copper cents, which were delivered in March 1793. Soon after, the Mint began issuing gold and silver coins as well. President Washington, who lived only a few blocks from the new Mint, is believed to have donated some of his own silver for minting.