The United States Commission of Fine Arts recently approved plans to mint a 24-karat commemorative gold coin featuring President Donald Trump as part of the celebrations for the nation’s 250th anniversary.
On March 19, the commission unanimously approved plans to mint the 24K coin featuring Trump standing at a desk while leaning forward on his fists on the front.
WSJ: A federal panel approved a commemorative gold coin design featuring President Trump, endorsing the rare step of putting a living, sitting president on American money. pic.twitter.com/3RZhcs8Hda
— Politics & Poll Tracker 📡 (@PollTracker2024) March 19, 2026
“As we approach our 250th birthday, we are thrilled to prepare coins that represent the enduring spirit of our country and democracy, and there is no profile more emblematic for the front of such coins than that of our serving President, Donald J. Trump,” said U.S. Treasurer Brandon Beach in a statement.
As reported by Reuters, the U.S. Mint will determine the coin’s final size and details of the coin, while President Trump has already approved the design. The next step is for Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to give the official order to mint the coin.
According to People Magazine, James McCrery, the commission’s vice chair and an architect, approved the design while strongly encouraging that it be made “as large as possible, all the way to 3 inches in diameter.”
“I think the president likes big things,” he told a senior design official at the U.S. Mint, as per the outlet. “I think the larger, the better, and the largest of that circulation I think would be his preference,” said Commissioner Chamberlain Harris.
Meanwhile, according to Megan Sullivan, the acting chief of the Office of Design Management at the U.S. Mint, the coin will likely be expensive. “I know he reviews a lot of different images and is very particular about what is put out there about him. So, obviously, if we’re gonna depict him, I want him to have seen that, to have reviewed that, and to be in favor of said image,” Harris told Sullivan as per the aforementioned outlet.
She continued, “I know it’s a very strong and a very tough image of him, and I think it’s fitting, to have a current sitting president who’s presiding over the country over the 250th year on a commemorative coin for said year.”
Although the 24-karat gold coin would be a collector’s item, a separate $1 coin featuring Trump will determine the coin’s final size and details, as per USA Today.
U.S. plans to issue $1 coin with Trump’s likeness on it next year — CNN pic.twitter.com/3mjzYuUPEL
— NewsWire (@NewsWire_US) December 12, 2025
”No fake news here. These first drafts honoring America’s 250th Birthday and @POTUS are real,” Treasurer Brandon Beach wrote in a X post dated October 3, 2025.
However, critics have argued that the move breaks longstanding coin-design norms, noting that the $1 coin could violate an 1886 law stating “only the portrait of a deceased individual” can be featured on currency, according to the outlet.
“Monarchs and dictators put their faces on coins, not leaders of a democracy,” Jeff Merkley, a Democratic U.S. senator, told Reuters. He continued, “Trump’s administration moving to put his face on a commemorative coin is his latest effort to distort the meaning of America’s 250th birthday.”
However, according to the BBC the coin is being issued under the authority of Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who has the power to mint and issue proof gold coins.
