Political battles in Washington are now being waged not over millions, but over pocket change.
The Treasury Department is preparing to printPresident Donald Trump'sface on a $1 coin commemorating the250th anniversaryof the Declaration of Independence. Quarters honoring national heroes from the abolitionist, suffragette and civil rights eras have been scrapped and will be replaced by the nation's early white pioneers and revolutionaries.
Congressional Democrats are criticizing the move, which they say shouldn't valorize a living president and should reflect the full scope of American history.
Like many policies under the Trump administration, the United States Mint's decision last year to feature the president's face on currency broke the longstanding tradition set by President George Washington of not showcasing a living president on currency.
Now, some lawmakers arequestioning the legalityof the Trump coin and broader moves by the Mint, including its decision last year to nix commemorative quarters honoring abolitionists, civil rights figures and suffragettes.
In a Jan. 26 letter, five Democratic Senators and Independent Maine Sen. Angus King urged Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to cease creation of the Trump design and reinstate the previously axed quarters.
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"Placing the bust of a living president on a coin celebrating the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence would send a message to America and the world that contradicts who we are as a nation," they wrote in the letter.
Yet, a representative for the Mint said the Treasury found the Trump coin did not "violate any laws" at a Jan. 22 meeting of the Commission of Fine Arts, the federal agency that reviews designs for monuments, memorials, coins and buildings in the nation's capital.
Is a Trump coin in the nation's future?
Members of the Commission of Fine Arts, all of whom were recently appointed by Trump, weighed three classical designs featuring the president's face at their Jan. 22 meeting, despite legal questions looming over the coinage.
They voted to recommend a side profile of Trump, so long as the president approves. One of the commissioners noted it had "a statesman-like quality to the quaff of the hair."
More:A yearlong birthday party. Inside America's 250th anniversary plans
But as of now, it's unclear whether the design will move forward.
In their letter, Democratic members of Congress argue the Trump $1 coin violates an 1886 law requiring "only the portrait of a deceased individual" appear on currency and securities.
"While the bust of living monarchs and dictators have appeared on circulating world coins, a living President has never appeared on a circulating United States Coin," they write, referring to Washington's precedent.
The first president refused to have his image printed on currency during his lifetime, believing it was "monarchical" and ran counter to the country's fight for independence from Great Britain."
But according to the American Numismatic Association, which deals with artifacts related to money, one other living president did appear on a coin: Calvin Coolidge. In 1926, a half-dollar for the Sesquicentennial, or 150thanniversary, featured Coolidge and Washington.
If the coin is minted, it will follow a slew of other recent efforts byTrump to name national symbols after himself, from the Kennedy Center to the Institute of Peace.
The Mint did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the legality of the Trump coin. During the Commission of Fine Arts meeting, Megan Sullivan, acting chief of the agency's Office of Design Management, said Treasury lawyers found the Trump coin was legal under theCirculating Collectible Coin Redesign Act.
A controversy over quarters?
The 2020 act authorized the Mint to create up to five different quarter-dollar designs in honor of the 250thanniversary and required at least one of those designs be "emblematic of a woman's or women's contribution" to the country. It also allowed the Mint to create a new $1 coin "emblematic of the United States semiquincentennial."
A long design process has ensued in the years since, including focus groups, public input, review of the coin designs by the Commission of Fine Arts and the Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee, a body created by Congress to advise the Treasury on coin design.
Ultimately, in Oct. 2024, the committees recommended five coins to the Treasury Department, then under the Biden Administration. One featured Frederick Douglass in honor of abolition; one showcased the 19thAmendment that gave women suffrage; one civil rights coin showed Ruby Bridges, who helped desegregate her Louisiana school at age 6; and one that celebrated the Declaration of Independence and U.S. Constitution.
But those were not the coins released in late 2025. Bessent, who is allowed by law to make the final decision on coin designs, opted to replace the abolition, suffrage and Civil Rights Movement coins with ones depicting the Mayflower Compact, the American Revolution and the Gettysburg Address.
The change in coin designs came after Trump signed anexecutive orderfocused on how history is presented, urging institutions to tell an uplifting story of American history – a move that was criticized by historians as an attempt to "whitewash" the nation's past.
The Democratic members of Congress in their Jan. 26 letter are urging Bessent to restore the abolition, suffrage and civil rights coins. They, and some members of the coin advisory committee, allege the new designs did not go through the proper review required by law.
"Without proof that the legal processes were followed, you must reject the U.S. Mint's announcement and choose from the original, appropriately approved designs," wrote the group of Senators.
Rather than showcasing the country's 250-year history, they allege the designs "only cover the first 87 years of the USA as a nation."
Donald Scarinci, a member of the coinage advisory committee, acknowledged to USA TODAY that the dispute seemed like "a mere disagreement" over coin designs. But Scarinci said via e-mail that he viewed the changes more broadly: "It is about the rule of law."
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:A $1 Trump coin? Inside the currency controversy.
Political battles in Washington are now being waged not over millions, but over pocket change. The Treasury Depa...
