The trillion dollar platinum coin is probably not going to happen, although Paul Krugman makes a really strong case for it here. The problem is apparently the silliness factor - people obsessed with being "the adult in the room" would rather see the country held hostage by a bunch of lunatics than do anything that would upset the Very Serious People Who Are Wrong About Everything.
Still, there is an undeniable attraction to the idea of short-circuiting the plans of people who have made an art form out of using manufactured crises and hissy fits to extort what they can't otherwise get at the ballot box by using an idea that strikes right at the heart of their primitive fetishes. Talking Points Memo has a list of candidates to put on the coin as a way of embellishing the message, and I've added a couple of my own. More below the Orange Omnilepticon - and a poll.
Here's the TPM list of 10 candidates, along with a couple of candidates of my own. (TPM has their own justifications for their choices; I'm paraphrasing them here and/or offering my own.)
John Boehner - because who else has done as much to get us here?
Paul Krugman - because it would probably make conservative heads explode.
Sandra Fluke - Hey, after all the insults and slander, she's still infuriating the wing nuts.
Greg Walden - R, Oregon, he's so afraid of the coin, he wants to pass a law against it.
Newt Gingrich - Why not? He shut down the government in his day and is still throwing great hissy fits "from the highest of principles" of course.
Mitt Romney - Poster boy for the interests who've brought us to this point.
Dr. Evil - Because he's well, evil - and because it would be hard to fit the Koch Brothers and Sheldon Adelson all on one coin.
Ronald Reagan - What could be more fitting? The man who set the country on the road to this disaster so many years ago. Welcome to the endgame of the Reagan Revolution and the triumph of Voodoo Economics.
Joe Biden - because he's cool and it would be another "BFD" for all time.
The Sinking of the Titanic - Because the NRCC was claiming a trillion dollars worth of platinum would be so heavy, it would sink the Titanic. They don't understand the concept of fiat currency I guess.
I've got two more candidates to make it an even dozen. I'm actually surprised they haven't come up before.
Grover Norquist - He's been working to wreck the full faith and credit of the government for a long time. What better way to recognize his accomplishments?
Richard M. Nixon - This is the centennial year of his birth. GOP Patron Saint of the politics of division, who better to make a point about why we've reached this point?
There you have it. Feel free to suggest candidates of your own. IF the coin does get minted, I'm guessing they'll go with some traditional design, like an eagle or the Statue of Liberty. But who knows? We may have a winner right here.