Here’s the hard deadline for fixing the debt ceiling crisis (by minting a $1 trillion coin)

The quick model of the story is that former Delaware congressman Mike Fort (R) wished to assist collectors of commemorative cash. So, in 1995, he introduced legislation giving the Treasury Division extra flexibility within the cash it might produce. That resulted within the Commemorative Coin Authorization and Reform Act of 1995, which allowed the division to “mint and concern bullion and proof platinum cash in accordance with such specs, designs, varieties, portions, denominations, and inscriptions because the Secretary, within the Secretary’s discretion, might prescribe now and again.”