actually, while it is true that the US has condemned the coup, the US' State Dept. personnel in Latin America often seem to operate with a mind of its own. It is possible that there was a difference of opinion with the people on the ground and Washington. Many of the people in Latin America came to their jobs in the waning days of the Cold War and considered their mission to contain and prevent another Nicaragua/Cuba or the victory of the Guatemala and Salvadorean guerilla (of course, Chavez is the new Devil and he has been used effectively to mobilize opposition against many of the "new left" governments in the region. For many of the US State Dept. personnel, and for much of the Honduran elite, they are still fighting against communism (now reincarnated in Chavez) and believe that having a strong tie with the military and the "trustworthy" business elite is the best way to prevent this from happening. I would not be surprised if in the corridors of the different embassies and at Foggy Bottom the comments are along the lines of "Obama is new to this, soon he will realize who are the real friends of the US..."

consider that it might need to be cut if there is a small accident. I looked at something similar in the past, we were thinking of Titanium, but on the advice of a firefighter and an ER nurse, we went with gold instead. The reason, gold can be cut and repaired quite easily, where as a very hard material like titanium (in our case) would be quite difficult to cut and could result in irreparable injury to the finger.

Do something unique with the gold, make it have some interesting patterns or shapes, but keep the metal soft enough to deal with possible accidents (the other idea we were given was to have hairline cuts fused with gold or similar material, like that it could be cut if needed.)