A trillion-dollar coin could be minted within hours of an emergency decision to do so, former US Mint director says

• The US Mint can make a $1 trillion coin within hours of an emergency decision, an ex-director said.
• "This could be quickly executed on the existing plaster mold of the Platinum Eagle," he said.
• While it is possible, the Treasury secretary rejected the idea of such a coin in a CNBC interview.

A $1 trillion coin could be minted within hours of an emergency decision by Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen to avert a default on America's debts.

Philip Diehl, the director of the US Mint from 1994 to 2000, told Axios that the agency had no shortage of platinum coin blanks. That's the metal required to make such a coin, according to the law that the entire idea is based on.

"This could be quickly executed on the existing plaster mold of the Platinum Eagle," Diehl said, adding that only the denomination of the coin would need to be changed.

After that, the $1 trillion coin could be created within minutes at the West Point, New York, mint and flown to the New York Fed for physical deposit via helicopter.

The swiftness of creating a $1 trillion coin could serve as an extreme last-minute option if Congress failed to raise the debt ceiling before the Treasury runs out of money on October 18.

But as Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen urges Congress to raise the debt ceiling to avoid an economic catastrophe, she is also knocking down the idea of the $1 trillion coin.

In an interview with CNBC on Tuesday, Yellen said of the coin: "I'm opposed to it, and I don't believe we should consider it seriously. It's really a gimmick, and what's necessary is for Congress to show the world can count on America paying its debts."

A vote is scheduled for Wednesday to suspend the debt limit through the end of next year, but opposition from Senate Republicans gives the measure little chance of passing.

There would likely be many drawbacks from the materialization of a $1 trillion coin. It could undercut faith in America's monetary system and drag the Federal Reserve into a high-stakes political battle, Jason Furman, a former Obama administration economist, told Insider last month.

But the coin "gimmick" would effectively give the Treasury Department the funds needed to pay its debts and avoid an almost guaranteed economic recession in the scenario that Congress failed to act and raise the debt ceiling in time.

"Voila, we'd have bought ourselves the equivalent of a trillion-dollar increase in the debt limit, without any impact on inflation," Diehl said.