President Donald Trump, according to the ever-reliable hellscape that is X, is demanding that the Federal Reserve begin minting quarters without ridges. But is that actually true?
I wouldn’t fault you for believing the claim. Trump has called for much crazier things in the past. Remember when he suggested injecting disinfectant in order to combat COVID?
Well, in this instance, no, Trump isn’t asking for new quarters without those ridges around the edge. But some are. Why?
Where the Trump ridgeless quarters claim came from
It all started with a post from an account known as “1984,” which has racked up more than 244,000 followers by spreading claims that often espouse antisemitic views.
“BREAKING: Donald Trump orders federal reserve to begin minting quarters w/o ridges,” the account said. “This change comes as a result of a signed petition from 88 jewish advocacy groups claiming that quarters w/ ridges threaten the safety of jews and falls under IHRA definition of antisemitism.”
As evidence, the post also included an alleged screenshot of a CNN broadcast featuring a ridgeless quarter.
For starters, the image is fake. CNN never aired any such report. And by the way, the US Treasury Department, not the Federal Reserve, is responsible for minting coins.
Nevertheless, commenters flooded in with criticism of the fake report. In reality, it’s unclear if the top responders are bots, trolls, or genuinely believe the false claim.
“What an absolute Joke! Since when do the Jews dictate what we do with our currency???” one user asked.
Ridges were originally introduced to coins hundreds of years ago to stop people from shaving off pieces of the edge in order to sell off the precious metals once used. Antisemetic conspiracy theories have pinned the practice solely on Jews.
Antisemetic origins of the fake claim
Obviously, the fake post was meant to invoke these anti-Jewish views. And many were happy to pile on.
“If you don’t know why they would say that, you might do some research on the historical relationship between Jews and ridges on gold and silver coins,” one said.
At least a handful of users pushed back, however, and pointed out that the post was obviously fake.
“Why lie to people ? No, this claim is not true,” another said.
Either way, the post achieved what it likely set out to do. It was shared over 3,400 times, liked more than 23,000 times, and graced the timelines of at least 1.6 million people.
Just another day on X.
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The post Why do people think Donald Trump is demanding smooth quarters? appeared first on The Daily Dot.
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