[joeswamp]

The history of this is actually pretty interesting. The motto was first placed on coins during the Civil War, because at the time the religious folks argued that we had that war because of separation of church and state -- which they wanted to end. I believe putting that motto on coins was a sort of compromise to appease these people.

The motto was added to paper money in the 1950's, when lots of folks were working hard to distinguish ourselves from the godless commies. This was at around the same time that we added the words "under god" to the pledge of allegiance, and people were mounting the ten commandments in front of courthouses (paid for by a Hollywood studio to promote the Charleton Heston movie).