Commems Collection Classic: What If? 1919 French Tribute On US Silver Dollars

Thanks as alwasys, most informative.

As a one year issue maybe, but E Pluribus Unum had such a long history on our coins (since 1786) that permanently replacing it with something French probably didn't get much serious attention. Interesting tidbit though!

Thanks, commems, I think you put it in the proper forum!

I fully agree with the statement made by the ANA at the time. That was not an appropriate proposal by Rep. Schall.

I do find his first point somewhat valid (most Americans were unfamiliar with the proper translation), but I strongly suspect a far higher percentage of folks back then knew the translation than they do now. 100 years ago, Latin was more widely taught, even at the high school level.

I agree, or even thirty to forty years ago. Some of my high school classmates wrote Latin phrases in my yearbooks. I doubt we would see that today, more likely references to some meme or another.

Apparently, at the time he introduced his bill, Representative Schall reported that it was a common belief among the American general public that "E Pluribus Unum" was Latin for "In God We Trust."

In the 1920s in the United States, there was no such thing as a universal public education. We very much take it for granted these days that our kids can get a K-12 education and have a chance to attend a college or university or trade school.

Wealthy parents sent their male children for boarding at private schools, where they studied the Classical Trivium of Logic, Rhetoric, and Grammar. Those students would have learned Classical Latin as a matter of course and/or Ancient Greek as well, with additional studies perhaps in mathematics, physical sciences, and history. Young ladies were sent for boarding at private "finishing schools" where they learned etiquette, housekeeping skills, cooking, sewing, and correspondence (writing/note taking.) Unless you had the means, or a wealthy benefactor, this was very expensive, although some of the religious schools (Jesuits, Catholics, etc.) sometimes offered an alternative and more affordable path to getting a grade-school education. Colleges and universities were often by and large the exclusive domain of the wealthiest Americans. Trade schools sometimes took on students with an offer of a practical education in exchange for unpaid labor as an apprentice.

Cities and larger towns had schools, but the country was still in the process of industrializing even after WWI. As you got further and further away from the cities, and their relative prosperity, out into the farms and dairies and working fields, school was a privilege, if not a luxury, usually a small schoolhouse serving all student grades, and as soon as children got old enough many were put to work, meaning that a 6th grade education was often the upper limit for families without the means to send their children to private schools or provide tutoring from governesses and masters. The churches provided some education for youths, especially in terms of music and theology.

Even as late as the early 1920s there were not many improved roads outside of cities, and so even if parents did have the means to send their children off to school, unless there was a suitable school within a few miles nearby, or one that offered boarding, there were few ways for their children to safely and affordably travel. Despite the vaunted affordability of the Model T, a car was still a large investment for any family to make, or a tractor too for that matter. You must also consider that family sizes were often much larger than they are now, on average, with many families having three or more children, at a minimum.

The result was that ca. 1920 if you were to sample, say, 1000 adults below 30, you would find that their level of education was directly proportionate to household income or endowments from trusts/inheritances, the places where they lived, their race, and their gender. By the time you got out to the deep heartland of the country, where power and clean running water were still far from guaranteed, functional illiteracy among adults or a lack of literacy beyond a 5th or 6th grade was still the norm, since many children were busy working after that and did not have the means nor the time to attend school. A few of the brighter ones were able to teach themselves if they had access to books -- libraries were a big city thing, so books came from the church, or from travellers, or the "book ladies" that would sometimes come by, drop off a few books and pick up others.