This is the design of the commemorative gold coin. Another $1 coin depicting President Donald Trump has drawn even more backlash.
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The U.S. Treasury Department has taken a major step forward with plans to engrave President Donald Trump’s likeness on 24-karat gold commemorative coins.
The American Board of Fine Arts, an advisory committee whose members were hand-picked by President Trump, on March 19 approved the general design for a 24-karat gold commemorative coin featuring the president’s likeness.
Separately, the Treasury Department announced it plans to issue $1 Trump coins, which were approved by the Fine Arts Commission in January, despite protests from Democrats and coin enthusiasts as breaking with long-standing norms.
The commemorative gold coin features a photo of President Trump leaning on a desk of determination, taken by the White House’s chief photographer, and is on display in the National Portrait Gallery at the Smithsonian Institution. The U.S. Mint did not respond to requests for comment on the coins’ prices, but some coins are listed on its website for sale for thousands of dollars.
“He has a very strong, very tough image,” said Chamberlain Harris, a member of the committee and White House deputy director of Oval Office operations. “It is fitting that a sitting president preside over the 250th anniversary and appear on that year’s commemorative coin.”
Megan Sullivan, acting director of the Office of Design Management, said the Treasury secretary presented a series of designs to Trump before submitting the proposal to the committee. She said President Trump approved the image. The coin will have a face value, but that hasn’t been decided yet, Sullivan said.
Commissioners recommended minor changes, such as adding woodgrain to the Resolute Desk, and suggested that the coin be approximately 3 inches in diameter, the largest coin the agency could produce.
“Don’t sell out. Bigger is better,” said James C. McCreary, the commission’s vice chairman and the original architect of President Trump’s proposed White House ballroom project.
The coin is expected to join a series of special edition coins and medals the Treasury Department will release for the nation’s 500th anniversary, including another $1 Trump coin approved by the Fine Arts Commission in January.
But neither the $1 coin nor the gold coin have received approval from the Citizens’ Coinage Advisory Committee, a bipartisan group created by Congress to advise the Treasury Department on coin design. The commission refused to examine both coins, saying they violated the nation’s founding principles.
CCAC chairman Donald Scarinci said the two proposals were “an abomination to the Declaration of Independence” and said it was a “huge irony” to celebrate the country’s departure from the British monarchy with presidential coins.
“When you issue a coin with the portrait of a sitting president on it, you send a message that the sitting president is king,” Scarinci said.
During his lifetime, George Washington refused to have his likeness printed on currency, believing it to be a “monarchy.” Calvin Coolidge is the only American president to have had his portrait printed on banknotes during his lifetime. He appeared with Washington in the controversial 1926 Centennial Half Dollar. was unpopular and most pieces were melted down by the Mint.
If created, the Trump coin would join a growing list of structures and items bearing the president’s name and image, including national park passes, banners outside government buildings and the recently renamed Trump Kennedy Center for the Arts.
Is the coin legal?
Unlike $1 coins, which circulate as currency, gold coins are designed purely as collectibles. A 1935 law prohibits the commercial use of gold currency in the United States.
Because gold coins are not in circulation, there is less legal resistance than a $1 coin.
Mr. Scarinci, who has served on the CCAC board since 2005, said the creation of a new currency must be approved by Congress, but commemorative coins do not require regulatory approval because they are made of gold.
The Treasury Department claims its authority over the $1 coin stems from a 2020 law authorizing the pressing of the commemorative 250th coin.
But earlier this year, Democratic lawmakers led by Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Ariz.) asked the agency to stop producing $1 Trump coins. They claim it’s illegal.
At issue are past laws, such as an 1886 law that required currency and securities to bear “only the likeness of deceased individuals.”
The Mint did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the status of the $1 coin. Mast’s office said the Treasury Department appears intent on continuing with the project.
“The White House’s decision to remove gold coins featuring President Trump is embarrassing and contrary to our nation’s core values,” the senator said in a statement.
