Meaning of President "Coin" in the Hunger Games books?

Question

My impression was that the name Coin is meaningful as opposed to arbitrary. My thoughts on the meaning so far are: - "Other side of the same coin" in that Coin represents the good guys, but is also an authoritarian This relates to the communal society of District 13, rendered necessary due to the condition of extreme resource scarcity, but there is no indication that things will change all that much with a new regime in the capital. - That you're flipping a coin in choosing a leader Because you can never be certain of how they will rule once in power. I'm interested in other ideas on the meaning of the name in the context of the books, and if Collins herself has commented on it.

Answer 1

I thought about that quite a bit when I read the series. Coin as a name choice is interesting for reasons you stated. I might also add that a coin is also a form of currency. Coins usually represents lower value increments of currency, so they cannot pay for much as a single unit. Take the U.S. penny for example. One penny has been rendered basically worthless, and even costs more to make a penny than it's worth. But if you have, let's say, 100,000 pennies saved up in piggy banks and jars scattered around the house over a long period of time, suddenly a penny can seem quite special. I won't continue to drag out this metaphor - Coin on her own would be just your average charismatic and charming person, your standard extroverted leader type. But Coin with lots of other same or similar "Coins" if you will, or Coin followers, is far more powerful. My interpretation is in the power of numbers.

I do think this is something that is an extension of your own interpretation as well because you could say the same general premise has been applied to the top 1% districts in the Capital - power in numbers. The flock of people wanting things a certain way, and enough people believe it should be that way. But then we'd have to talk about Snow and snowflakes in this blizzard. And, I could. But I think you get the gist.