Summer of Change: Distribution of 2000 Jefferson Nickels

2011

 

Midnight on Wall Street. Alexander Hamilton appears on a red carpet, saunters past the Stock Exchange, and approaches the Federal Building steps.  In the center of the square is a cardboard box inhabited by The Common Man. “Who is here that distrurbs my slumber?” “It is I who have some to see/if there is anything I can do for thee…”And thus ensues a performance in rhyme, a modern day Faust which, like Goethe’s great story, tells the tale of ambition, wealth, and ultimately, folly, and chilling horror.

Midnight on Wall Street. Alexander Hamilton appears on a red carpet, saunters past the Stock Exchange, and approaches the Federal Building steps.  In the center of the square is a cardboard box inhabited by The Common Man. “Who is here that distrurbs my slumber?” “It is I who have some to see/if there is anything I can do for thee…”And thus ensues a performance in rhyme, a modern day Faust which, like Goethe’s great story, tells the tale of ambition, wealth, and ultimately, folly, and chilling horror. This is the fifth disribution of money to Wall Street and as in the other performances, the visage of the coin embodied, Thomas  Jefferson, appears in his silver numismatic mask, shining in the streetlights of midnight Wall Street, to ring in the shower of 2000 nickels.