THE SUBLIME, THE HEARTWARMING, AND (LAMENTABLY) THE RIDICULOUS PART 2

YESTERDAY WE CELEBRATED FRANCE MINTING TWO NEW COINS heralding Notre-Dame’s reopening. There was also a Notre-Dame wedding of one of its artisans and his bride. Alas, today in Part 2, we home in on the U.S. and its embarrassingly narcissistic president.

Meanwhile, at the U.S. Mint: the Ridiculous. Dan Barry discusses “A Two-Headed Coin That Always Comes Up ‘Trump,’ ” The New York Times, November 9, 2025. Barry recounts, “Nearly a century ago, the United States paused its 1920s roar to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the country’s birth. There were speeches, a Philadelphia flop of a World’s Fair, more speeches and a commemorative coin mostly remembered now as a numismatic misfire.”

A 1926 coin featured then-President Calvin Coolidge with George Washington. Image from Collectors Alliance via The New York Times. 

The Washington-Coolidge half-dollar is the only American coin to feature a sitting president,” Barry notes. “But not for long.” 

The Double-Headed Trump Dollar. Barry writes, “The Treasury Department recently announced plans to celebrate the country’s 250th anniversary in 2026 with a one-dollar coin depicting President Trump. In a draft rendering, he appears twice, and alone: on the obverse, in a profile partly eclipsing the word LIBERTY; and on the reverse, his fist raised below the words FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT.” 

The proposed Trump dollar. Images from the U.S. Treasury.

“The very idea of such a coin,” Barry observes, “reflects the national divide over the Trump presidency. Is depicting the current president on money a pitch-perfect way to celebrate the Declaration of Independence, the world-altering denunciation of royal tyranny? Or is it a tone-deaf overreach with an unabashed ‘L’état, c’est moi’ vibe?”

It didn’t take me long to confirm my view.

Trump has already broken so many precedents that this particular one is just another example of his narcissistic nature.

In 2005, Congress authorized commemorative dollar coins honoring each president, but stipulated that none “bear the image of a living former or current president.” 

Ha. The Queens Felon ignores Congress, yet again.

He even flaunts the numismatic tradition of an image appearing on both sides of the coin; the reverse often showing a significant government building or official seal. 

Barry quotes Beth Deisher, former editor of Coin World: She noted that the two-headed Trump coin “would be a nightmare to strike because the deepest parts of the coin would be opposite each other. The rendering of the Trump coin tells me they don’t know anything about coinage.”

Not the first time that officials of the Trump administration came up lacking.

“The Treasury Department,” Barry writes, “declined to say who first suggested featuring Mr. Trump on a coin, or to explain how having two Trumps on one coin would be legal.” 

My Least Fav Coinage (So Far). Barry also cites another rare image of a living person depicted on a coin: “Carter Glass, a Virginia senator and devout segregationist, who was featured on a 1936 half-dollar recalling the incorporation of Lynchburg, Va.” 

Image from Numista.

Hmm…. “devout segregationist.” “Lynchburg.” “1936.”  

How far we’ve come. Or maybe not?

 A Closing Note. Barry observes, “How posterity would judge an American coin featuring a sitting president remains an open question. But if the Washington/Coolidge coin of 1926 is any measure, the answer is: Not well.”

He concludes, “The U.S. Mint struck a million of the half-dollars featuring the first and 30th presidents. Nearly 860,000 of them were returned and melted.” ds 

© Dennis Simanaitis, SimanaitisSays.com, 2025