Killing the penny was just the start
Trump is rewriting the rules on America’s coins
The next signs of the nation’s political divide might be jingling in your pocket next year.
The administration plans to issue a $1 coin featuring President Donald Trump’s likeness next year, despite a century-old precedent against honoring sitting or even living former presidents on coins.
Instead of quarters honoring the abolition of slavery, the granting of women the right to vote, and the Civil Rights movement, the Treasury will issue historical quarters featuring white men from the 18th and 19th centuries who were already well represented on currency and in historical tributes.
The new coins, coming after the administration stopped issuing new pennies earlier this year, underscore Trump’s drive to put his own stamp on the presidency far beyond the confines of the White House – whether it’s by putting his own face and name on US institutions or by pulling back on diversity efforts to reframe the story of America itself.
The US Mint on Thursday released the final coin designs for historical quarters celebrating the country’s 250th birthday next year. Rather than the fight against slavery or giving women the vote, the designs primarily honored a more homogeneous view of US history: George Washington for the Revolutionary War, Thomas Jefferson and the Declaration of Independence, James Madison and the Constitution, Abraham Lincoln and the Gettysburg Address, as well as pilgrims to celebrate the Mayflower Compact.
“The designs on these historic coins depict the story of America’s journey toward a ‘more perfect union,’ and celebrate America’s defining ideals of liberty,” said Kristie McNally, the acting director of the Mint, in a statement.
The US Mint told CNN that, instead of the previously recommended tribute quarters honoring abolition, suffrage, and the Civil Rights movement, the new designs celebrate “American history and the founding of our great nation.”
“While the Biden administration and (then-Treasury) Secretary (Janet) Yellen remained focused on DEI and Critical Race Theory policies, the Trump administration is dedicated to fostering prosperity and patriotism,” Treasurer Brandon Beach said in a statement.
Trump has regularly attacked museums and other institutions for being too negative about America and its history.
He issued an executive order in March to remove exhibits at federal properties, such as the Smithsonian, that he claimed wrongly portrayed the “nation’s unparalleled legacy of advancing liberty, individual rights, and human happiness.” The order was widely seen as part of the administration’s overall efforts to pull back diversity initiatives.
What was on rejected coins: The abolition of slavery, women’s suffrage and Civil Rights coins had never been approved by the Treasury Department to honor America’s 250th birthday. But those themes were recommended last year by the Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee, a bipartisan government body, according to meeting notes reviewed by CNN.
The panel recommended an abolition of slavery coin featuring Fredrick Douglass, a leading 19th-century abolitionist and Civil Rights leader, on the front. A hand and arm breaking free of chains were on the back.
The women’s suffrage coin would have depicted a woman carrying a banner reading “Votes for Women.”
And the Civil Rights coin would have shown Ruby Bridges as a six-year-old girl, carrying her schoolbooks close to her chest as she integrated an elementary school in New Orleans in 1960. She and three other Black schoolmates were accompanied to class by federal marshals. The back of the coin showed Civil Rights marchers locked arm in arm.
The panel’s designs, developed over the years, stemmed from legislation that Trump himself signed the final week of his first term in 2021.
That law, which said the US could release up to five quarters in 2026 to celebrate America’s 250th anniversary, noted that one design should be “emblematic of a woman’s or women’s contribution to the birth of the nation or the Declaration of Independence or any other monumental moments in American history.”
The Mint told CNN that the Mayflower Compact quarter, which features a woman on the front, fulfills this requirement.
The Trump dollar: The controversial Trump dollar coin is also part of the Treasury’s plan to mark America’s 250th birthday.
The US Mint issued three different proposed coins last month with different likenesses of Trump, including one resembling his famous mug shot from 2023. Designs for the back include different versions of the American eagle.
A previously released version of the coin would have also featured Trump on the back, raising his fist after an assassination attempt last year. However, US law prohibits images of living people on the backs of coins. The US Mint told CNN there is no such restriction on the front of coins, though it’s been US law since 1866 that living people can’t be on paper currency.
Still, Trump’s coin will only be the second time a US coin features a living president. The first was a half-dollar coin with both George Washington and then-President Calvin Coolidge issued in 1926 to mark the country’s 150th anniversary.
Wildly unpopular, of the 1 million coins minted, nearly 860,000 were returned to the Mint and melted down, according to the American Numismatic Association.
Ironically, as part of the nation’s 250th birthday commemoration, the Mint plans to reissue a limited number of pennies next year, marking the years 1776-2026 on them.
Otherwise, the pennies will be identical to regular pennies, which the Mint just discontinued.
By Chris Isidore, CNN via The-CNN-Wire™ & © 2025 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.
The Gayly online. 01/10/2026 @ 6:34 p.m. CST.