The U.S. Mint Puts $1 Coins Bearing Trump's Face Into Circulation - the First Living President on Circulating U.S. Coinage in 100 Years

The U.S. Mint announced on Sept. 2, 2026 that $1 coins bearing President Trump's portrait have entered circulation and are for sale on its website, struck at the Philadelphia Mint in gold-colored manganese brass with the inscriptions "1776 ~ 2026," "LIBERTY" and "IN GOD WE TRUST." Rolls of 25 sell for $61 and bags of 100 for $154.50 - markups well above face value - with a two-item household limit. The Mint said 250,000 coins carry a special "July 4th" marking. It is the first time a living president has appeared on coinage struck by the Mint since Calvin Coolidge on the 1926 Sesquicentennial half dollar.

Living presidents are generally barred from U.S. currency. The administration relies on the Circulating Collectible Coin Redesign Act of 2020, which authorizes semiquincentennial designs and bars any person from the reverse of a coin but not, on the administration's reading, the obverse.

Members of the Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee, the bipartisan body Congress created to review designs, say Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent did not submit the coin for review. Treasury says the committee was offered "multiple reasonable opportunities" and declined, and that the statutory obligation was met.