ISLAMABAD (The Thursday Times) — The United States Mint put a $1 coin bearing President Donald Trump’s image into circulation on September 2, making him only the second sitting US president in history to appear on American currency, and the coins reportedly sold out within hours of going on sale.
The only prior instance came a century ago: a 1926 commemorative half-dollar silhouetted then-President Calvin Coolidge behind a bust of George Washington. The Mint produced a million of those coins at the time, and 860,000 were eventually returned and melted down due to low demand, a contrast to the apparent rush on this year’s release.
What the Coin Looks Like
The new coin’s obverse carries a portrait of Trump alongside the inscriptions “LIBERTY,” “IN GOD WE TRUST,” and “1776~2026,” marking the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, while the reverse features the Presidential Seal. Struck at the Philadelphia Mint, the coins are gold-colored but made mostly of copper, with small amounts of zinc, manganese, and nickel. A batch of 250,000 carries a special “July 4th” privy mark, having been struck on Independence Day and randomly distributed through the Mint’s rolls and bags.
| Entered circulation | 2 September 2026 |
| Struck at | Philadelphia Mint |
| Material | Copper core, zinc/manganese/nickel finish |
| Obverse inscriptions | “LIBERTY,” “IN GOD WE TRUST,” “1776~2026” |
| Reverse design | Presidential Seal |
| Last living president on coinage | Calvin Coolidge, 1926 |
The Mint has described the coins as being in active circulation, urging the public in a social media post to “check your pocket change.” One of the Mint’s own product pages, however, describes the coins as having “circulating finishes” that “have never been placed into circulation,” while still being usable as legal tender, a discrepancy in the Mint’s own messaging that leaves some ambiguity over how widely the coins will actually turn up in everyday transactions.∎
