U.S. currency has carried in the motto In God We Trust since
In 1954, Congress passed a law requiring that In God We Trust be placed on all U.S. coins and currency. Prior to this action, the phrase had appeared only on some coins but not on dollar bills and paper currency. The first dollars bearing the religious motto were printed in October 1957. In 1956, Congress changed the national motto from E Pluribus Unum ("out of many, one," which still appears on the presidential seal) to In God We Trust. Original coins did not bear this motto. The first coin to bear the phrase was issued in 1864 at the request of the Baptist minister Mark R. Watkinson who suggested the addition would "relieve us from the ignominy of heathenism." Gradually the religious phrase was added to other coins, although President Theodore Roosevelt officially objected to the practice, regarding it as sacrilegious. Coin World claims that by 1938, when the Jefferson 5-center coin was introduced, In God We Trust was found on all U.S. coins.