Via Presidential Inaugural Committee

President Obama will be inaugurated into his second term in 18 days. With January 21, 2013 rapidly approaching, hotels, restaurants and other merchants across the D.C. area are grabbing at the opportunity to raise their rates for this quadrennial celebration of patriotism. And sometimes, they go too far. “Ridiculous Inauguration Deal of the Day” will examine the most ludicrous offerings we can find.

It’s been a while since we’ve done one of these, but with less than three weeks to go, it’s high time we get back up on this horse. And today’s insane Inauguration sale comes directly from the ceremony itself.

The Presidential Inaugural Committee—sort of an after-birth of President Obama and Vice President Joe Biden’s re-election campaign—needs to raise lots and lots of money for all the events it intends to stage later this month. And whatever it can’t get out of corporate donors, it’ll need to raise from folks who want to emblazon their homes and persons with the faces of the president and vice president.

How about some commemorative medallions? For the not-so-low price of $7,500, you can get yourself three specially minted coins bearing the likenesses of Obama and Biden standing side-by-side in profile view. The two larger coins are silver and bronze, the smaller is solid gold. On the obverse is a print of the U.S. Capitol along with a commemoration of the special day.

Individually, the silver coin goes for $1,250, while the bronze goes for a more reasonable $50. For an extra $6,200, though, you get the gold piece. Its diameter is roughly half that of the other coins, but the set of three coins comes in handsome wooden box. Considering that the price of gold is somewhere between $1,700 and $1,800 an ounce, the box must include traces of something even more rare—kryptonite or uranium, perhaps?