One of the strangest ideas to come out of Washington is the one to mint $1 trillion coins and then deposit them in the Federal Reserve to cover the American national deficit. The idea has gotten enough traction, having been endorsed by Nobel Prize laureate Paul Krugman, in a Jan. 7, 2013 column, that an initiative has started in Congress to stop it before it begins, according to a Jan. 7, 2013 story in Hot Air.
The idea probably would not fly, but it might be combined with a number of schemes to mine platinum from space. Moon Express and Planetary Resources are proposing extra terrestrial mining operations, focusing on platinum, an expensive metal used in a number of Earth bound applications.
What if the American government were to lend some support to such space based mining efforts, in return to a certain amount of platinum with which to mint commemorative coins that are certified to have come from beyond the Earth? Instead of being horded, these coins would be auctioned off to wealthy collectors.
The scheme may not raise enough money to put much of a dent in the budget deficit. However it would constitute a source of income to the government that it hitherto had not enjoyed. As a side benefit, a space based mining industry would be created with all that implies.
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