The United States Treasury Department has taken a major step forward in plans to engrave President Donald Trump’s portrait on a 24-karat gold commemorative coin.
The U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, an advisory board whose members were selected by Trump, on March 19 approved the general design of a 24K gold commemorative coin bearing the president’s image.
Separately, the Treasury has said it plans to issue a $1 Trump coin approved by the Commission of Fine Arts in January, despite opposition from Democrats and coin enthusiasts who say the move breaks long-standing norms.
The gold commemorative coin features a photograph taken by the chief White House photographer of Trump leaning at the Resolute Desk, which is 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 would be worth, although others on the agency’s website sell for thousands of dollars.
“It’s a very strong, very tough image of her,” said Chamberlain Harris, a committee member and deputy director of Oval Office operations at the White House. “It is appropriate for the current President to issue a commemorative coin for the 250th year of his presidency.”
Megan Sullivan, acting head of the Office of Design Management, said the Treasury secretary presented a series of designs to Trump before submitting the proposal to the commission. Trump has approved this image, he said. The coin will have a denomination, Sullivan said, although it has not yet been chosen.
The commissioners recommended small changes, including adding wood grain to the Resolute Desk and suggested increasing the diameter of the coin to about 3 inches, making it the largest coin ever made by the agency.
James C. McCreary, vice chairman of the commission and an early architect of Trump’s proposed White House Ballroom project, said, “Don’t sell. The bigger the better.”
The coin is expected to join the list of special edition coins and medals the Treasury is issuing for the nation’s sesquicentennial, which also includes a separate $1 Trump coin approved by the Commission of Fine Arts in January.
However, neither the $1 coin nor the gold coin have received approval from the Citizens’ Coinage Advisory Council, a non-partisan group created by Congress to advise the Treasury on coin design. That committee refused to review both coins, alleging that they were contrary to the country’s founding principles.
CCAC Chairman Donald Scarinci described both proposals as “abhorrent to the Declaration of Independence” and said that celebrating the country’s separation from the British monarchy with presidential coins was a “great irony”.
“If you issue a coin with a picture of a sitting president, it will send the 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 to be “monarchist”. Only one US president – Calvin Coolidge – had his image printed on currency during his lifetime. He was depicted with Washington on the controversial half dollar of 1926 for the sesquicentennial. The coin was not popular, and most of the pieces were melted down by the Mint.
If created, Trump coins would join a growing list of buildings and items emblazoned with the president’s name and image, including national park passes, banners outside government buildings and the recently named Trump-Kennedy Center for the Arts.
Are the coins legal tender?
Unlike the $1 coin, which will circulate as currency, the gold coin is designed solely as a collectible item. A 1935 law prohibiting the use of gold currency for commerce in the United States
Because it will not circulate, the gold coin faces less legal repercussions than the $1 coin.
Scarinci, who has served on the CCAC since 2005, said Congress must authorize the creation of the new currency, but since the commemorative coins are gold, the agency does not need approval.
The Treasury has argued that its authority for the $1 coin comes from a 2020 law that allows the 250th piece of the coin to be pressed.
But Democratic lawmakers, led by Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nevada, urged the agency earlier this year to stop producing the $1 Trump coin. They allege that this is illegal.
They say the issue is past legislation, including an 1886 act that mandated showing “only the portrait of the deceased” on currency and securities.
The Mint did not immediately respond to requests for comment about the status of the $1 coin. Cortez Masto’s office stated that Treasury intends to continue the project.
“The White House’s decision to move forward with a gold coin featuring President Trump is shameful and goes against our nation’s core values,” the senator said in a statement.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Despite objections, US Mint’s 24k gold Trump coin design approved
Reporting by Karissa Wadick, USA TODAY/USA TODAY
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