The U.S. Mint will soon begin producing a new $1 gold-hued coin with President Donald Trump’s face on it to commemorate America’s 250th birthday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced this week.
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The coin’s face features Trump alongside the phrase “In God We Trust.” It is encircled with the phrases “Liberty” and “1776-2026.” The flip-side of the coin shows an eagle holding arrows in one talon and olive branches in the other.
Since the start of his second term, Trump and his allies have pushed to reissue federally created currency and documents to feature the president’s name and likeness. Examples include a commemorative passport with Trump’s image inside its pages and the addition of his signature on newly printed $100 bills. There are also proposals to feature the president’s image on 24-karat gold coins and commemorative $250 bills.
Bessent said in a post on X that the coin “celebrates the strength of American values, and the promise of a nation dedicated to preserving freedom for all.”
Earlier drafts proposals of the $1 coin showed Trump standing with a clenched right fist in front of an American flag and the words “Fight Fight Fight” — a reference to the 2024 assassination attempt at his campaign rally in Pennsylvania.
When plans for the $1 coin were revealed last year, concerns emerged over whether the proposal to include a living president’s image on U.S. currency could violate the law.
Under a law passed in 2020, the Treasury Department can mint $1 coins during 2026 to mark the 250th anniversary “with designs emblematic of the U.S. semiquincentennial.” However, according to U.S. code, “[o]nly the portrait of a deceased individual may appear on United States currency and securities” — a law that sprang from a Colonial-era tradition against putting current presidents on American coins themselves from the British monarchy.
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In addition, the 2020 law states that “[n]o 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” produced for the semiquincentennial, which could be violated by having Trump’s image on both sides of the coin.
Bessent argued that the $1 coin design was legal, telling Fox News this week that although he is otherwise barred from featuring a living person’s image on U.S. currency, “during the 150th, there was a Calvin Coolidge coin, so we can put living presidents’ images on a coin.”
The design for the coin also was not what the Commission of Fine Arts, which is composed entirely of Trump appointees, recommended when members met in January. The obverse design recommended by the commission featured Trump’s face in profile, while the final design shows the president with his eyes forward. The treasury secretary has the final say on the design.
Megan Sullivan, the acting chief of the U.S. Mint’s office of design management, said during the January commission meeting that “the legal research has been done both at the Mint and up into Treasury, and they have determined that [the proposed coin featuring Trump’s image] does not violate any laws.”
Sullivan described the coins as being “a little bit larger than a quarter” and being composed of “manganese brass” and displaying as “golden in color.”
The $1 coins are distinct from the 24-karat coins created by the Treasury Department that typically sell for thousands of dollars. Senate Democrats, in June, urged the Trump administration to halt production of that solid gold coin, citing concerns that some of the U.S. Mint’s gold could have links to foreign cartels.
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Amy B Wang contributed to this report.
