Why Trump’s $1 coin is the exception
A centuries-old U.S. law forbids the image of any living person from appearing on the nation’s currency.
I don't think that's correct. The 1866 law passed by Congress that is referred to in the video only stipulated that no portrait or likeness of a living person could appear on “
bonds, securities, notes, fractional or postal currency of the United States”. It doesn’t mention
coins.
In 1921, the US released a commemorative coin to mark Alabama’s centennial, featuring side views of William Bibb, the state’s first governor, and Thomas Kilby, its governor during the centennial. According to the Mint’s website: “
This coin was the first ever created by the Mint to carry a living person’s portrait.”
Then, in 1926 during the nation’s sesquicentennial celebration, Congress authorised the minting of a commemorative coin featuring joint portraits of George Washington and Calvin Coolidge, who was the living president during the sesquicentennial. The coin proved unpopular and, of a million half dollars that were minted, more than 850,000 were returned to the Mint to be melted down.
The Mint also created a congressionally authorised coin to commemorate the 1995 Special Olympics World Games. Congress didn’t dictate the design, but it featured Eunice Kennedy Shriver, who founded the Special Olympics for people with intellectual disabilities. Shriver was alive at the time (she died in 2009).
In 2016, the Mint released a congressionally authorised coin for former President Ronald Reagan and former First Lady Nancy Reagan, tied to the late president’s 105th birthday. Nancy was alive at the time she was portrayed on the coin (she died a month later).
In recent times there have been multiple pieces of coinage legislation banning living people from being portrayed on US-minted coins, but with
specific wording relating to particular coinage series. For example, the 2007 series honouring every president was authorised on the basis that no coin
in that series may “
bear the image of a living former or current president, or of any deceased former president during the two-year period following the date of the death of that president”.
The legislation concerning the series the Trump administration is considering for the nation’s 250th anniversary comes from the 'Circulating Collectible Coin Redesign Act of 2020' which Trump himself signed into law in January 2021 (unanimously passed by both chambers of Congress). It authorises the redesigns of quarters, half dollars and $1 coins in several sequential series, one of which is a 250th anniversary series to be launched in 2026. The law refers specifically to the
reverse of the coin: “
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 any coin”
in the series, but it doesn’t rule out a portrait on the obverse of the coin.
So, there is no barrier to Trump having his likeness on the reverse and, even for him to be on both sides (or obverse only), authorisation would only involve administration officials over which the president maintains direct control. Even if the courts were inclined to block the proposal, a lawsuit would need to be filed citing “
direct harm” (of what?), and “
It’s unclear who would have standing to sue here,” according to Gabriel Mathy, an associate professor of economics at American University in Washington, DC, who has studied the coinage legislation issues.
