U.S. Mint to Start Producing $1 Coin Featuring Trump’s Face
· Time
The United States Mint will begin producing a $1 coin etched with President Donald Trump’s face, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced on Wednesday.
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The new coin is in commemoration of the U.S.’s recent 250th birthday and will “honor the enduring legacy of liberty and a lasting symbol of patriotism,” according to Bessent.
“It celebrates the strength of American values, and the promise of a nation dedicated to preserving freedom for all,” the Treasury Secretary wrote on X.
The front of the coin features the President’s face next to the words “In God we trust,” encircled with the word “liberty” and “1776-2026,” marking the 250 years between the country’s adoption of the Declaration of Independence and the present, according to renderings posted by Bessent. The back depicts the “Great Seal” of the U.S.—a bald eagle holding arrows in one talon and an olive branch in another—with the number “250” integrated into it.
The coin is currently in production and will become available in the fall, a Treasury spokesperson told news outlets, adding that it will have a “gold-like finish,” but is composed of non-precious metals. TIME has reached out to the department for further information.
The commemorative coin is just one of a slew of government programs, buildings, documents, and other items that the Trump Administration has emblazoned with the President’s name and image as Trump looks to leave his mark on the country.
Wednesday’s announcement follows other efforts by the Administration to in particular create currency bearing Trump’s image or signature. It has also previously announced plans to add the President’s signature to future U.S. currency, revealed that $250 bills featuring his face were in the works, and secured approval for a design for a 24-karat gold coin etched with an image of him leaning over a desk. The latter two proposals would also be made to commemorate the country’s Semiquincentennial anniversary.
Federal law prohibits U.S. currency featuring images of living people, stating that only “the portrait of a deceased individual may appear on United States currency and securities.”
A law passed in 2020 and signed into law by Trump during his first term does permit the Treasury to produce $1 coins “with designs emblematic of the U.S. semiquincentennial” to celebrate the country’s 250th anniversary, though it also says that “no head and shoulders portrait or bust of any person, living or dead, and no portrait of a living person may be included in the design on the reverse of any coin.”
The first draft design of what would become this new commemorative coin that was released by the Treasury last year featured Trump on both sides, showing him in profile on the front and raising his fist in front of an American flag on the back. But later iterations of the design, including one recommended by the Commission of Fine Arts in January and the slightly different final one Bessent shared on Wednesday, depict his image only on the front and not the reverse.
The Administration has argued that including Trump’s image on the new coin is legal. “During the 150th, there was a Calvin Coolidge coin,” Bessent said while appearing on Fox News earlier this week, “so we can put living presidents’ images on a coin.”
The efforts to feature Trump’s name and image on currency have faced criticism and pushback from lawmakers, however.
A group of Democratic Senators penned a letter to the Treasury Department’s internal watchdog in June in which they called on it to investigate the resources used to develop the $250 bill.
“The fact that Treasury officials have reportedly pursued this effort despite serious legal objections only raises more concerns about Treasury’s misplaced priorities and disregard for our current laws,” wrote Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden of Oregon, and Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada, and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York.
Merkley and Cortez Masto in December also introduced a bill that would block Trump’s efforts to put his face on the $1 commemorative coin.
“While monarchs put their faces on coins, America has never had and never will have a king,” Cortez said in a statement at the time.
Republican Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, who has frequently clashed with Trump and earlier this year lost the primary for his seat to a challenger backed by the President, disparaged the new coin in response to Bessent’s post on Wednesday.
“Congratulations, we’ve entered the end stages,” Massie wrote. “Eliminate the penny, plug the nickel, and make some commemorative gold coins nobody can afford. I feel sorry for the folks who will be sold worthless knockoffs of this by the usual grifters.”