At our coin club Christmas party, I mentioned to a buddy that the U.S. Mint is planning a Trump coin.
“No way,” he said. “You’re joshing.”
No, this is real, I replied.
“C’mon. You’re just pulling my leg.”
I wasn’t.
The Coin World newspaper (I’ve subscribed for 63 years) always has extensive coverage of proposed commemorative coins. With much about a series marking our 250th anniversary of independence. But oddly, I saw there just a single article illustrating a design portraying Trump — on both sides, no less. You’d think a U.S. coin issue would have to go through a lot of process. Yet it wasn’t even clear how this was happening.
My friend was so skeptical because he knew it’s illegal to put a living person on a U.S. coin. There’ve been a few strange exceptions — but nothing this blatant.
Two government bodies have a role in coin design — the Commission of Fine Arts (Trump has fired and replaced all its members) and the Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee (immune from him.)*
Coin World normally steers clear of anything smacking of politics. Recently it reported, deadpan, on a Republican congressman’s filing a bill to award a Congressional gold medal to a 23-year-old right-wing internet provocateur. I sent a letter-to-editor criticizing the article’s failure to note this is controversial. It wasn’t printed.
But comes now the March 23 issue with a long remarkable article about the CCAC in open revolt against the regime.
Congressional legislation requires CCAC review before any coin design is selected. Looking toward 2026 quarter commemoratives, the CCAC, as the culmination of a lengthy process, sent the Treasury Secretary a set of recommended designs. Which were completely ignored — the mint is moving forward with five totally different ones, never presented to the CCAC as required by law.
The mint seems to justify this glaring illegality by hypothesizing that sometime in the past the CCAC might have had some opportunity to see the new designs. The CCAC rejects this nonsense, and has communicated its outrage to the mint in no uncertain terms.
None of those five quarter designs depicts Trump, and what seems totally bizarre about Coin World’s article is no mention of the separate (gold, naturally) Trump issue. Except, obliquely, once: it quotes the opening statement by CCAC member Donald Scarinci at their February 24 meeting.
He begins by lauding Trump, yet ends with this: “For 250 years since [the Declaration of Independence] was signed, no nation on earth has issued coins with the image of a democratically elected leader during the time of their service. [My emphasis] Only those nations ruled by Kings or dictators display the image of their sitting ruler on the coin of the realm.”
The Mint has now finally made it official that it will issue a Trump gold coin, with a newly revealed facing portrait. While his appointed Fine Arts Commission approved it, the CCAC has refused to consider it. Again, the law requires CCAC review before any new coin design can be used. The Mint is ignoring that, and also invoking some dubious legal theory to evade the prohibition on portraying a living person. Making the coin doubly illegal.
We’ve just learned Trump’s also putting his signature on paper money. All this, we keep hearing, is about his “legacy.” The fool does not see he’s cementing a legacy as one of history’s greatest monsters. We also keep hearing that the American people deserve better. No, we don’t — we voted for this.
Tomorrow there will be the next “No Kings” rallies.
* I’d repeatedly applied for the CCAC, feeling well qualified. In fact I’d been appointed by President Nixon to the 1972 U.S. Assay Commission, tasked with ensuring that coinage met standards. Arguably a bigger deal. That body was soon abolished; and as the youngest of few ex-Commissioners, I have a shot at becoming the last survivor. But I finally gave up on the CCAC.
The Rational Pessimist 
