Treasury: Forget About That $1T Platinum Coin

The $1 trillion platinum coin being touted as a bizarre solution to the debt ceiling debate will only ever exist as an illustration of just how dysfunctional Washington has become. A Treasury official tells the Washington Post that the department has no intention of minting such a coin to get around the debt ceiling and even if it did, the Federal Reserve would refuse to accept it.

"Neither the Treasury Department nor the Federal Reserve believes that the law can or should be used to facilitate the production of platinum coins for the purpose of avoiding an increase in the debt limit," the official says. For the trillion-dollar coin plan to have worked, the Fed would have to have accepted the coin for deposit. (More Treasury Department stories.)