The Amero??

A post put up on movethemarkets.com this weekend regarding a proposed new currency, called the Amero, piqued my interest. I think it mostly piqued my interest because I've never even heard of the proposal for a unified currency until this point. One would think that an attempt to issue one currency for Canada, Mexico, and the U.S. would have a publicity campaign behind it, so why has this been so tight-lipped? A good starting point for more information on the proposed North American Union (NAU) and it's Amero currency would be here (also contains a brief and interesting dissertation on the history of U.S. currency). One of the articles linked to in the website mentions a meeting (held back in March of '05) between the respective presidents of the U.S., Mexico, and Canada and a joint statement published announcing "the formation of an initial entity called, “The Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America"...aimed at producing a North American security plan as well as providing free market movement of people, capital, and trade across the borders between the three NAFTA partners." Interesting that currently one of the top issues for dealing with our "homeland security" is by "securing our borders", via building fences/walls along the California, Arizona Mexican borders, beefing up patrols of said borders, and by reforming immigration policies, and yet this meeting sees the security of our collective countries resting in the idea of a border-less and fully integrated Union? But I digress.
Back to the Amero Coin. Currently these coins are billed as "private-issue fantasy pattern coins [that] will be struck as an annual series (until such time as it is no longer legal to do so), starting in the latter part of 2007." I assume it would be "no longer legal to do so" because that would mean the minting would then be taken over by the Federal government if the currency would be put into circulation? Orders for the coins can be made here. And the designer of the coin has designed some of the statehood quarters and is also known for designing parody coins like the New York - Defiant Finger Tower coin.
So, while it seems to be a parody coin at the moment the concept of an Amero may be slowly creeping into public attention and looking for legitimacy in a covert way. All we need is for widespread media attention on the matter. We all know how the media can give legitimacy to something.