JAKARTA - The United States government has begun producing 1 dollar nominal coins featuring President Donald Trump. The coin is scheduled to be released in the fall, but its legality is questionable because it features an incumbent president.
USA Today, quoted Thursday, July 16, said US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced the production of the coin on July 15. The United States Mint produces it in Philadelphia.
Bessent also uploaded a recent photo of the coin on social media. He said the coin celebrates the strength of American values and the promise of a country committed to preserving freedom for all.
Although it looks like gold, the coin does not contain precious metal. The US Department of the Treasury said the surface only has a colored layer like gold.
USA Today also said the $1 coin is expected to be the first of a number of Trump-themed currency designs that the Treasury Department is planning.
The agency also designed a $250 banknote and a 24-karat gold commemorative coin featuring Trump's portrait.
The plan has drawn criticism from a number of Democratic Party members in Congress as well as numismatists or observers and collectors of coins.
They pointed to a federal law that only allows portraits of deceased people to be featured on U.S. currency and securities.
The Ministry of Finance has a different view. The institution stated that the authority to print the coin came from a 2020 law that allowed the printing of commemorative coins for the 250th anniversary of the United States.
On the 150th anniversary of the United States, a half-dollar coin was issued with images of President Calvin Coolidge and George Washington.
The latest design also differs from a previous design approved by an advisory board.
The photo released by Bessent shows a portrait of Trump on the front and the state shield on the back.
In January, the Commission of Fine Arts unanimously approved a design that featured Trump's face from the side. The advisory board, whose members were appointed by Trump, had also expressed interest in the design chosen by the President.
The Ministry of Finance has not responded to a request for an explanation of the reason for the change in the portrait and the origin of the image used.
The 1-dollar coin and the 24-karat gold commemorative coin also did not receive approval from the Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee because the committee refused to review it.
The nonpartisan committee formed by Congress to provide input on the design of the coin assessed the placement of the president who is still in office on the currency contrary to the basic principles of the state.
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