Lawmakers have come down on both sides of the trillion dollar coins debate. | REUTERS Platinum coin petition signed by 6K

A White House petition to mint platinum $1 trillion coins to avert a debt ceiling fight and pay the national debt has more than 6,000 signatures in the week since it launched.

“With the creation and Treasury deposit of a new platinum coin with a value of $1 trillion US Dollars, we would avert the absurd-yet-imminent debt ceiling faceoff in Congress in two quick and simple steps!” the petition states. “While this may seem like an unnecessarily extreme measure, it is no more absurd than playing political football with the US — and global — economy at stake.”


The proposal needs about 19,000 more signatures before Feb. 2 to reach the requisite 25,000 threshold and prompt a White House response. The idea has won support among high-profile economist Paul Krugman and Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.).

“It would normally not be proper to consider such a thing, except when you’re faced with blackmail to destroy the country’s economy, you have to consider things,” Nadler said.

On Monday, Rep. Greg Walden (R-Ore.) introduced a bill to bar the U.S. Treasury, with the president’s orders, from minting the platinum coins.

“This scheme to mint trillion dollar platinum coins is absurd and dangerous, and would be laughable if the proponents weren’t so serious about it as a solution,” Walden said in a statement.