Design approved for US Mint's 24k gold Trump coin, despite objections

The U.S. Department of the Treasury has taken a big step forward in a plan to etch President Donald Trump’s portrait on a 24-karat gold commemorative coin.

The Commission of Fine Arts, an advisory board whose members were handpicked by Trump, approved the general design on March 19 for a gold commemorative coin emblazoned with the president’s image.

Separately, the treasury has said it plans to issue a $1 Trump coin the fine arts commission approved in January, despite protest from Democrats and coin enthusiasts who say the move shatters long-standing norms.

The commemorative coin features a picture taken by the chief White House photographer of Trump leaning over the Resolute Desk, a photo on display in the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery. The U.S. Mint did not respond to a request for comment on how much the coins will cost, though others on the agency’s website sell for thousands of dollars.

"It's a very strong, very tough image of him," said Chamberlain Harris, a member of the committee and deputy director of Oval Office operations at the White House. "It's fitting to have a current sitting president who's presiding over the 250th year on a commemorative coin for said year."

Megan Sullivan, acting chief of the mint's Office of Design Management, said the treasury secretary presented a series of designs to Trump before submitting the proposal to the commission. Trump, she said, approved this image. The coin will have a denomination, though it has not yet been chosen, Sullivan said.

Commissioners recommended small changes, including adding wood grain to the Resolute Desk and suggested the coin measure about 3 inches in diameter, the largest coin the agency can create.

"Don't sell out. The larger the better," said James C. McCrery, vice chair of the commission and the initial architect for Trump’s proposed White House ballroom project.

The coin is expected to join a slate of special-edition currencies and medals the treasury is releasing for the nation's semiquincentennial year, including the separate $1 Trump coin the Fine Arts commission approved in January.

But neither the $1 coin or the gold coin have received approval from the Citizens Coinage Advisory Council, a nonpartisan group created by Congress to advise the treasury on coin design. That committee declined to review both coins and argued that depicting a sitting president on currency runs counter to the country's founding principles.

Donald Scarinci, chair of the advisory council, described the two proposals "as abhorrent to the Declaration of Independence" and said it was a "huge irony" to celebrate the country’s break from the British monarchy with coins of the president.

"If you issue a coin with a portrait of a sitting president, it will send a message that the sitting president is a king," Scarinci said.

George Washington refused to have his image printed on currency during his lifetime, believing it was "monarchical." Only one American president – Calvin Coolidge – has ever had his likeness printed on currency while he was living. He was featured alongside Washington on a controversial 1926 half dollar for the nation's 150th anniversary. The coin wasn’t popular, and most pieces were melted by the mint.

If created, the Trump coins will join a growing list of buildings and items fashioned with the president’s name and image, including national park passes, banners outside government buildings and the recently renamed Trump-Kennedy Center for the Arts.

Are the coins legal? 

Unlike the $1 coin, which will circulate as currency, the gold coin is designed purely as a collectible. A 1935 law prohibits gold currency from being used for commerce in the United States.

Because it won’t circulate, the gold coin also faces less legal pushback than the $1 coin does.

Congress must authorize creation of new currency, but because the commemorative coins are gold, the agency doesn't need approval, said Scarinci, who has served on the coinage advisory council since 2005.

The treasury has argued that its authority for the $1 coin comes from a 2020 law allowing the pressing of celebratory 250th anniversary pieces.

But Democratic lawmakers, led by Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nevada, requested earlier this year that the agency cease creation of the $1 Trump coin. They say it’s illegal.

At issue, they say, is past legislation, including an 1886 act requiring that "only the portrait of a deceased individual" appear on currency and securities.

The mint did not immediately respond to requests for comment about the status of the $1 dollar coin. Masto’s office said the treasury appears intent on continuing the project.

"The White House’s decision to trudge forward with a gold coin featuring President Trump is embarrassing and goes against our country’s foundational values," the senator said in a statement.

This story has been updated to fix a typo.