Contest: Design a Trillion Dollar Coin

The coin, if you haven't heard, was a hypothetical solution to political brinksmanship. If Congressional Republicans refuse to raise the debt ceiling and, in doing so, hobble the country's economy and prohibit it from paying what it owes, the thinking among #mintthecoin proponents was that the president ought to exploit a legal loophole. Technically, the Constitution allows him to choose to press a $1 trillion platinum coin to add to the Treasury, which would add $1 trillion of space between where we are now and the debt ceiling.

If that sounds a little Wile E. Coyote to you, you're not alone. But the debate took over social media and the political and economic blogosphere, and increasingly, serious people began discussing it. Some have suggested that million-dollar coins, or billion-dollar coins, might work, even if the trillion-dollar coin isn't possible.

This weekend, the Treasury Department announced that it won't mint the coin. But we started to wonder what the coin would have looked like if it had existed. That's where you come in.

the OBJECTIVE \n

Suggest a design for what would have been the most valuable coin ever made. How big would it be? What image is worthy of a trillion dollars?

the ASSIGNMENT\n

Create a front and back design for the coin. Include a line or two explaining your design, and noting the dimensions of the final coin.

the REQUIREMENTS\n

Email your submission to projects[at]goodinc[dot]com as a .jpg image 500 pixels wide and less than 1 MB in size. Submissions will be accepted until Friday, January 25.

The winner will be featured on GOOD.