The United States Department of the Treasury has developed, to the brink of production, a dollar coin that features the face and likeness of President Donald Trump, according to a source within the Treasury who spoke with Defector, and as first reported by Fox Business. The die, a stamp that presses the design onto the coin, was circulated within the Bureau of Engraving and Printing of the U.S. Mint this week. The source told Defector that workers at the Mint had been ordered to begin striking what are called "set-up coins," the final step before production, as of Thursday afternoon.
The rendering of the coin shows Trump in profile on the front, or obverse, side. On the reverse is an image of Trump raising a fist, with an American flag waving in the background, beneath the words "FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT." The pose seems to invoke the scene of July 13, 2024, when Trump, then a candidate, was shot in the ear at a political rally in Pennsylvania:
The minting of this coin, while Trump is alive, appears to be illegal. The Thayer amendment, added by a Republican representative to a federal appropriations bill in 1866, states explicitly that "no portrait or likeness of any living person shall be engraved or placed upon any of the bonds, securities, notes, or postal currency of the United States." A resource page on the website of the U.S. Treasury Department once confirmed this law, near the top of a section of frequently asked questions about portraits and designs:
That resource page has been deleted from the Treasury website at some point since it was last saved to the Internet Archive in 2022.
It bears noting that this president's first administration reversed and effectively killed a Treasury initiative to replace the image of Andrew Jackson on the $20 bill with that of abolitionist Harriet Tubman. As a candidate in 2016, Trump criticized the initiative as "pure political correctness" and praised the "great history" of Jackson, who was a slaveholder and perpetrator of ethnic cleansing. In 2019, during Trump's first presidential term, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin announced that any design changes to the bill would not happen before 2028. Another bill was introduced in March 2025, but has not advanced out of committee and stands no realistic chance of being passed into law while Trump remains president.
Earlier this year, the Trump administration quietly updated the Mint's website to delete the bronze duplicates of the Congressional Gold Medals given to four police officers for protecting the U.S. Capitol during the violent right-wing insurrection of Jan. 6, 2021. Those duplicate medals have since returned to the Mint's website, after their removal was flagged by NBC News in February.
The Trump dollar coin is not presently shown among the coin programs in the U.S. Mint's Coin and Medal Image Library. The Mint does not traditionally strike dollar coins for circulation. The only dollar coins on the current list are commemorative. Commemorative coins are considered numismatic products, and are intended for collection rather than to serve as long-term currency. Commemorative coins are legal tender, but they are not minted for general circulation, and must be ordered directly from the Mint. The Mint has not yet posted any of its 2026 programs to either its online Image Gallery or its online shop; the 2025 program for U.S. commemorative coins also does not include the Trump dollar coin. While living persons can get the face treatment on minted medals—Trump himself is featured on the Donald J. Trump Bronze Medal—the law says they cannot go onto currency.
The Treasury source told Defector that the administration "moved fast" on this, ordering dies and striking the "set-up coins" on a condensed timeline. The process usually begins with a request for artwork, then a product design specialist creates a three-dimensional model, or "render," and finally engravers turn the render into dies and coins. Before a proposed coin advances into the production of dies, it is normally submitted for review to the Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee. At the most recent CCAC meeting, held Sept. 16, the public was given a chance to review submissions to the Congressional Gold Medal program and something called the Comic Art Coin and Medal program, with no mention of a Trump dollar coin. Dollar coin designs were last reviewed during a CCAC meeting in February, for the American Innovation series. None of these designs featured Trump's likeness.
The entire render-to-coins process, when run efficiently, usually takes two to three weeks, per the Treasury source. In this case, the Trump dollar coin went from render submission to struck coins within, at most, four days—from Sept. 29 to Oct. 2. Commemorative coins are supposed to be produced "pursuant to an act of Congress," per an overview on the subject posted to the Congress website. That also did not happen in this case.
According to the Treasury source, the Trump dollar initiative would not have originated at a Mint production facility; it would have come from Washington, D.C. While there is a non-zero chance that someone at the Treasury has reason to expect Donald Trump to die soon, the much likelier explanation is that someone ordered this coin either not knowing or not caring that it appears to be against the law. "It's entirely possible that this is just some toady trying to score brownie points," said the source.
Defector submitted a list of questions to an email address for the Treasury Department on Thursday, and followed up on Friday, but has not heard back. On Friday afternoon, the coin was confirmed in a tweet by U.S. Treasurer Brandon Beach.
The FOIA portal for the Treasury Department is presently malfunctioning: Attempts to log in to the service redirect endlessly back to the login page. A statement posted in a banner warns that the department's website will be only "sporadically updated" during the ongoing government shutdown, which it blames on "the radical left" pursuing a path of "reckless spending and obstructionism."
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