If you listened to rightwing accounts, you'd think our founding fathers were trying to set up some kind of theocracy. That's hard to jive with actual relics from the past such as the penny from 1792 that, in place of the current-day motto, 'In God We Trust', sported the rather secular sounding, 'Liberty Parent of Science & Industry':
The coin's design is telling about the period in time when it was struck. Where current pennies read "In God We Trust," the Miss Liberty prototype instead says "Liberty Parent of Science & Industry."
"At the time, industry and science reflected an enlightenment mindset," Todd Imhof of Heritage Auctions told ABC. "People believed freedom of thought and industrial growth would bind and unify the new country, not religion or God." ["Rare Penny Auctioned For More Than $1 Million In Schaumburg", HuffPost, 4/20]
