ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Platinum coin

Okay, kiddo, have you ever seen a coin before? It's usually round and made of metal, right? Well, a platinum coin is a special kind of coin made out of a very rare and valuable metal called platinum.

Now, why is it so special, you may ask? Well, sometimes countries, like the United States, need a lot of money to pay for things like roads, schools, and hospitals. One way they can get that money is by borrowing it from other countries or banks, but that can be expensive because they have to pay back with interest.

So, some people came up with an idea – what if they just made a really big platinum coin, worth a whole lot of money, and used that to pay for things? It's called a platinum coin because it's made of platinum, a metal that's worth a lot of money.

But wait, how can a coin be worth so much money? Well, just like a dollar bill, a coin has a value assigned to it by the government. For example, a U.S. dime is worth 10 cents.

So, if the government made a platinum coin that was worth, say, one trillion dollars (that's a one followed by 12 zeros), they could use it to pay for things without having to borrow money from anyone else. Of course, they wouldn't actually print out a trillion-dollar coin and carry it around in a piggy bank – it would be kept safe in a bank or the government's vault.

Some people think this idea is a little bit crazy, but it's been done before on a smaller scale. In 2013, the U.S. government considered making a platinum coin worth one trillion dollars to avoid hitting the debt ceiling (which is a limit on how much money the government can borrow). Ultimately, they decided not to do it, but the idea still gets talked about from time to time.

So, there you have it – a platinum coin is a really valuable coin made of platinum, and it can be used as a way for the government to pay for things without borrowing money from anyone else. Pretty neat, huh?