US law dictates that “only the portrait of a deceased individual may appear on United States currency and securities.”
A US Treasury spokesperson previously told Business Insider that the commemorative Trump coin for America’s 250th anniversary would be produced in accordance with the Circulating Collectible Coin Redesign Act of 2020, which authorized “$1 coins with designs emblematic of the United States Semiquincentennial during the one-year period beginning January 1, 2026.”
However, as Business Insider’s Katherine Li reported, the Circulating Collectible Coin Redesign Act of 2020 also states 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 specified coins.”
Still, the US Commission of Fine Arts, whose members were appointed by Trump, approved a design featuring his portrait earlier this year. The version unveiled in July differs slightly, including a gold-colored finish instead of solid gold.
The US Mint says the $1 coin will be available in the fall, along with other semiquincentennial designs. It’s unclear if the Trump coin design will be successfully challenged in court; a federal lawsuit in Oregon was voluntarily dismissed in July shortly after the final design was unveiled, Reason Magazine reported.
A living president has been featured on US currency once before, when a Calvin Coolidge coin was created for America’s 150th anniversary in 1926, NPR reported.