President to Crack Down on Unauthorized Obama Coins?

Bloomberg is reporting that White House lawyers are looking into whether or not President Obama can do anything to stop marketers from using his and his family's image for commercial purposes. The story quotes White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki as saying, "Our lawyers are working on developing a policy that will protect the presidential image while being careful not to squelch the overwhelming enthusiasm that the public has for the president."

This is going to be a tall order in our society, which is so strongly grounded in free speech ideals. I think the last straw for Obama, and the thing that might have set the lawyers on the hunt, may have been the Sasha and Malia dolls created by the Ty company, which were rumored to have greatly upset First Lady Michelle.

Whatever the mitigating cause for the White House lawyers' research, I think it is unlikely that much can be done to stop people from making money off of Obama's name, image, and ideals unless they are committing some kind of fraud. There is a long tradition of selling presidential paraphernalia in America, although it might be possible for the lawyers to protect Obama's girls' images.

As for putting a stop to the rip-offs selling unauthorized Obama coins, we'd have a much better chance getting the U.S. Mint to back legislation that prohibits people from defacing U.S. coinage. (Most of the Obama coins being sold all over the place are legal tender U.S. coins that have been colorized or had stickers applied to them.) These coins are a terrible investment!

There is one Obama coin being sold to the public that is official and which Obama has approved of. It just went on sale in late January; learn more about the official Obama coin and where to get it. Also check out my article about the Obama coin rip-offs. You were warned... ;)

The U.S. Mint issued a consumer advisory about the unofficial Obama coins in early December of 2008. However, my newsletter readers had been warned about these Obama coin rip-offs more than a month earlier. Stay in the forefront of important coin collecting related news and tips by subscribing to my FREE weekly About Coins newsletter now!