The money quote:

> The trillion-dollar-coin concept first emerged in 2010 before the first big Obama-era debt ceiling fight. A musing in the comments of a popular blog on economics and finance about the viability of minting such a coin to create money out of thin air and avoid default spurred a debate about creative ways to avoid an economic catastrophe.

Right! Unlike the money that the Fed creates from their vast storehouse of mysterious if undoubtedly far less ephemeral stuff!