Alan Rappeport
US President Donald Trump is finally getting some change he can believe in: a gold $1 coin with his face on it.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced on Wednesday that the US Mint would begin striking the new coins in celebration of the nation’s 250 years of independence.
The creation of the coins bearing Trump’s image is one of several initiatives the Trump administration has been working on to fuse the president’s legacy with American currency, including adding his signature to new notes this year and an attempt to create a $250 bill with his portrait.
In a social media post, Bessent said the new coin would “honour the enduring legacy of liberty and a lasting symbol of patriotism”.
The Treasury Department last year unveiled initial designs of the coins. The plans to mint money with Trump’s image stirred controversy because of an 1866 law that enshrined a tradition that only deceased people could appear on American currency to avoid the appearance the US was a monarchy.
But the Treasury defended the move, and said it was authorised to mint the coin under the Circulating Collectible Coin Redesign Act of 2020. The department said Bessent had exercised his authority to issue coinage “with designs emblematic of the United States semiquincentennial” and that the proposed images reflect Trump and his vision for America.
Changes to American money tend to be controversial, as the imagery that is chosen typically reflects how people view the nation’s identity.
A 2016 push during the Obama administration to put Harriet Tubman, a former slave and abolitionist, on the $20 note became a fraught political issue. That effort stalled during the first Trump administration, and Bessent this month said the Treasury Department had no plans to carry out that initiative.
The new notes bearing the signatures of Trump and Bessent are being printed and will be in circulation this year. Because paper currency is not allowed to include images of living people, the proposed $250 notes would require legislation from Congress.
It is unclear when the new commemorative coins will be available or how much they will cost. The US Mint currently sells semiquincentennial proof sets for $107.
A US Mint spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.
The new coin drew rebukes from both Democrats and Republicans, who have been critical of Trump using the nation’s birthday to celebrate himself.
Republican congressman Thomas Massie said the United States had entered “the end stages”.
“Eliminate the penny, plug the nickel, and make some commemorative gold coins nobody can afford,” Massie wrote in a post on X. “I feel sorry for the folks who will be sold worthless knockoffs of this by the usual grifters.”
Democratic senator Maggie Hassan called the coins “ridiculous and un-American”.
“The American people deserve a president who cares more about putting money in people’s pockets than he does about putting his face on people’s money,” Hassan said.
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