Funny thing is, in the face of a debt limit impasse, minting the coin is the ONLY way to get through the situation without breaking the law.
His choices would be to violate the debt limit, violate Congress's spending directives, or use the authority delegated by Congress to mint a coin. All this "intent of the law" crap aside, it's the only legal option, and the only way to honor Congress's conflicting directives.
Some argue that the 14th amendment option is superior, though I don't really buy it. But ultimately this is the issue. If we hit the debt limit, laws will be broken, unless you employ one of the crazy options, one of which is clearly legal (coin) the other of which is open to more constitutional judgifying (14th amendment). Either go crazy or go illegal. Those are the choices.