The Importance of Minting the Coin

Minting the coin is a solution that's discussed among some policymakers in America. A fiscally conservative senator thought it would be great if the American mint became a genuine source of revenue by printing but by not printing they didn't print money. So these policy wanks are saying why don't we just make a one trillion dollar coin and then we just give that coin to the Federal Reserve and then we can buy more debt with that money. That seemed pretty neat to me but you tell me Adam what does history suggest about sort of funding the government along these ways? I mean has that ever been tried before? What are the upsides and downsides there?