Popular Science News the idea of a Trillion Dollar Platinum Coin is a simple one. The US Treasury is restricted in the amount of currency it can issue into circulation. But these restrictions only apply to paper, gold, silver and copper. As you probably realise a $1000 paper isn’t worth that amount, it is just a document saying that if the note were presented to the US Federal Bank they would have to give you $1000 for it. Whether they would issue you another note is an interesting point. In theory they could take $1000 worth of gold from their reserves and give you that in exchange. That gold could then be exchanged anywhere in the world for goods and services.
The Trillion Dollar Platinum Coin idea is to overcome a ceiling on the US debt by issuing a coin worth only a few 100 dollars with a face value of $1,000,000,000,000 and this would be used to pay debts. It would be legal because there is no restriction on issuing platinum currency. Bit like the million pound note movie with Gregory Peck, you couldn’t cash it but you’d get a lot of credit based on it!
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