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Mint Puts Coin Into Circulation
The U.S. Mint in Philadelphia began selling $1 gold-colored coins featuring President Donald Trump’s face as a commemoration of the country’s 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, and the currency was put into circulation on Wednesday.
“On Wednesday, the currency was put into circulation”
The coin’s heads side features Trump’s face alongside inscriptions of "LIBERTY," "IN GOD WE TRUST" and "1776 ~ 2026," while the tails design shows the Presidential Seal inscribed with "250."
A bag of 100 coins is priced on the U.S. Mint website at $154.50, and rolls of 25 coins are available for $61, with the U.S. Mint limiting purchases to two orders per household for the first 24 hours of the sale.
The Mint said randomly interspersed in the coin collections for sale are 250,000 specialty coins with a stamp to show that they were minted in Philadelphia on July 4th, and the coins will not feature a mint mark.
The U.S. Mint website also says the dollar appears to be gold but has no actual gold in it and is mostly made up of copper, along with zinc (6%), manganese (3.5%) and nickel (2%).
Traffic, Waiting Room, Limits
Hours after the sale began at noon Wednesday, the U.S. Mint website placed visitors on a waiting list with a virtual waiting room, and Newsweek reported an initial wait time of around 20 minutes that later rose to an hour.
Newsweek said the U.S. Mint page read, "Due to extraordinarily high traffic, we are using a virtual waiting room," while also advising visitors they would have 10 minutes to complete a purchase once admitted.
CNN reported that just after 12:30 p.m., visitors to the mint’s website were placed in a waiting area for an estimated time of 1 hour, and that there was a limit of two purchases per household until 2:00 p.m. on Thursday.
CNN also said the mint warned, "Product availability is not guaranteed," and that the coins are in circulation so buyers should check their pocket change.
CNN further reported that the 25-coin roll was listed as unavailable shortly after 3 p.m., while the 100-coin bag was listed as unavailable, with the mint website stating, "Additional inventory is being made."
Legal Debate and Oversight
The coin’s legality has been questioned because federal law bars the depiction of a living president on U.S. currency, and the Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee deemed the coins illegal because it was not consulted for an official review.
“deemed the coins illegal because it was not consulted for an official review”
PhillyVoice reported that the Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee deemed the coins illegal because it was not consulted for an official review, while the U.S. Mint argued it was not beholden to the committee's approval because the group declined to consider the coin.
ABC News said the Treasury pushed back on the criticism, stating the committee was offered "multiple reasonable opportunities to review proposed designs" but that it declined, and it quoted a statement that "Accordingly, the Mint’s statutory obligation to seek CCAC review has been fulfilled."
CNN said Congress passed the Circulating Collectible Coin Redesign Act, and it quoted the law’s restriction that "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 specified coins."
CNN reported that the portrait of Trump is featured on the front side of the coin, not the reverse, and that the only other time a living president was featured on a coin was in 1926, when Calvin Coolidge was put on a half dollar for the 150th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.