Miss Dada  🏳️‍⚧️

but icbw, i'm not a lawyer, could be that the practical effect is that 5111(a) means "congress needs to authorize it" but 5112(k) bypasses it

That all depends on if you think a judge will side with you on whether your decision actually fits "to meet the needs of the united states"

yeah fair. what my reading of that was that 5111(a) applies to everything in 5112, so the needs thing also applies to 5112(k)

I think the best way to make the point is to reverse the reasoning here again. If that were true they would just use bills

bills are not done by the mint, they're done by a different part of the treasury, and as I understand it that's a service they provide for the Fed (so this needs congressional approval since it improves debt)

Right. The mint doesn't have the authority to mint coins. It only does so as directed by the treasury. They do not report to the fed, but they do sell coins to the fed to fund themselves

ah, this is what i'd missed. gotcha but yeah this is super pedantic mostly :) money is hard (abolish it?)