The U.S. Mint has started producing a new $1 coin featuring President Donald Trump's image, and the coin goes on sale Wednesday, according to the Mint.
The design shows Trump's face as 'heads,' with the word 'LIBERTY' arced above and '1776 ~ 2026' below. The 'tails' side carries the Great Seal of the United States: a bald eagle gripping arrows and an olive branch, with 'E PLURIBUS UNUM' in a banner in its beak. The Mint says the coins were struck to 'honor 250 years of great American heritage.'
The design cleared the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts this year. Trump appointed the commission's members. The president has said putting his face on a coin was 'very unusual' but that he was 'honored by it.'
A roll of 25 coins costs $61, and a bag of 100 costs $154.50. The Mint randomly hid special-issue coins — marked 'July 4th,' for the day they were struck — inside some rolls and bags. Households are capped at two orders each, though that limit lifts at 2 p.m. Eastern on Thursday.
Federal law bars depicting a living president on U.S. currency, and the coin has drawn some criticism on that basis. But the Treasury Secretary holds authority, in certain circumstances, to authorize the minting and issuance of special coins — the legal basis the administration is using here.
The coin is one of several efforts by the president to attach his name or image to American institutions during his second term, including moves to put his name on the Kennedy Center and the U.S. Institute for Peace. Those efforts have become entangled in lawsuits, according to Fortune.
The numbers come first, and they tell a simple story: a legally authorized commemorative coin, priced for collectors, timed to a milestone anniversary the whole country can celebrate. Critics will call it self-branding; the administration calls it heritage. Both things can be true without either one being a scandal — the Treasury Secretary's authority to strike special coins is written into law, not improvised by this White House.
What matters for the taxpayer and the collector alike is that the transaction is voluntary and the price is transparent: $61 for a roll, $154.50 for a bag, capped at two orders per household until Thursday afternoon. No mandate, no subsidy, just a market for commemorative currency that Americans are free to buy or ignore. The lawsuits over the Kennedy Center and the Institute for Peace are a separate fight over institutional control in Washington — one where Trump's critics have far more standing to complain than they do over a coin sold at face value plus a modest premium.
If the 250th anniversary of American independence produces a legacy this benign — a gold-finish dollar with an eagle on the back — the republic will have survived worse debates than this one.
