"Mind Your Business" .....which way was this intended?
FloridaBill
Posts: 896 ✭
The Continental Currency coins have the phrase "mind your business". Was this meant as keep "focused" and "work hard", or was it more in the spirit of "mind your OWN business"?
Just curious...Thanks.
FloridaBill
Just curious...Thanks.
FloridaBill
0
Comments
Collector of Early 20th Century U.S. Coinage.
ANA Member R-3147111
Coin's for sale/trade.
Tom Pilitowski
US Rare Coin Investments
800-624-1870
It's a great motto for a coin.
(Just think of city streets clogged with a hundred thousand horses each generating 15 lbs of manure every day...)
<< <i>Possibly in the area of States rightes >>
Yeah, maybe. The founders were into freedom and created what became the most free nation the world had ever seen. The opposite of these lowlifes in government and the media nowadays.
Coin's for sale/trade.
Tom Pilitowski
US Rare Coin Investments
800-624-1870
Proud recipient of two "You Suck" awards
<< <i>It's amazing to me that Franklin was a womanizer. He makes one heck of an ugly coin. >>
Hank Williams Sr
"Mind your own business" is a common English saying which asks for a respect of privacy. It can mean "Stop meddling in what does not concern you," "Attend your own affairs", etc.
In American politics
Obverse of 1787 "Fugio cent"On 21 April 1787, the Continental Congress of the United States authorized a design for an official penny, later referred to as the Fugio cent because of its image of the sun shining down on a sundial with the caption, "Fugio" (Latin: I flee/fly). The image and the word combine to mean "Time Flies". This coin was reportedly designed by Benjamin Franklin, and as a reminder to its holders, he put at its bottom the message, "Mind Your Business". This design had also been used on the "Continental dollar" (issued as coins of unknown real denomination, and in paper notes of different fractional denominations) in February of 1776.
Continental Currency 1/3-Dollar (obverse) with inscriptions "Fugio" and "Mind your business"Some historians believe that the word "business" was intended literally here, as Franklin was an influential and successful businessman. However, considering the full saying of "mind your own business," which would not have fit on the coin, it can just as easily be interpreted as a statement of privacy. Given Franklin's history publishing aphorisms, it may have been intended to mean both.
The reverse side of both the 1776 coins and paper notes, and the 1787 coins, bore the third motto "We Are One" (in English).
Following the reform of the central government with the 1789 ratification of the 1787 Constitution, gold and silver coins bore the motto "E pluribus unum" from the Great Seal of the United States.
In 1864, during the Civil War, the Union (North) introduced a two-cent coin with the motto "In God We Trust". In 1956, Congress declared "In God We Trust" the official national motto and mandated its appearance on all U.S. currency, but more recently there have been calls to restore the original mottoes.
<< <i>It's amazing to me that Franklin was a womanizer. He makes one heck of an ugly coin. >>
He knew how to treat the ladies.
60 years into this hobby and I'm still working on my Lincoln set!
<< <i>
<< <i>It's amazing to me that Franklin was a womanizer. He makes one heck of an ugly coin. >>
He knew how to treat the ladies. >>
Also, he wasn't too choosy. One of his favorite expressions was "All cats are gray in the dark." I'll let you figure out what he was talking about.
Worry is the interest you pay on a debt you may not owe.
"Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value---zero."----Voltaire
"Everything you say should be true, but not everything true should be said."----Voltaire
<< <i>The Continental Currency coins have the phrase "mind your business". Was this meant as keep "focused" and "work hard", or was it more in the spirit of "mind your OWN business"?
Just curious...Thanks. >>
i have always believed the phrase was used by our colonial forefathers in this manner intentionally as a double-entendre, such that it could be taken either way.
K S
<< <i>It's amazing to me that Franklin was a womanizer. He makes one heck of an ugly coin. >>
It wasn't his "coin" they were interested in.
If you don't "Mind Your Business", someone else will.......
that's the context I take it's in.
Too many positive BST transactions with too many members to list.
When Franklin wrote "mind your business" he was saying "pay attention to your matters," which ties in well with the word "fugio," or "time flies."
I knew it would happen.
OWN is redundant, intended as a qualifier to mind what's yours ONLY, but the word OWN comes from OWNER, not ONLY.
<< <i>When Franklin wrote "mind your business" he was saying "pay attention to your matters," which ties in well with the word "fugio," or "time flies." >>
While this is the most likely meaning, it's more fun to think that it could have been meant both ways! Really, it's one of the most interesting coin mottos, along with "I Am Good Copper" and "Value Me as You Please" on the Higley coppers.