“To Avoid The Appearance Of A Monarchy…”

US Treasurer Brandon Beach has confirmed this is happening. This is what Republicans are working on as the government is shut down. pic.twitter.com/BN6ilpeg3N

— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) October 3, 2025

I think they want Santa Claus to bring them one.

A federal law signed by Trump in January 2021 — just a week before his first term in office ended — allows the Treasury secretary to mint $1 coins "with designs emblematic of the United States semiquincentennial" during the year of the anniversary.

But that same law, under a heading on standards for circulating collectible coins, states, "No head and shoulders portrait or bust of any person, living or dead, and no portrait of a living person may be included in the design on the reverse of any coin under subsections (x), (y), and (z)."

Subsection Y refers to the rules about coins for the 250th anniversary.

That language appears in similar forms in other coin-related laws listed on the U.S. Mint's website.

The Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco notes, "To avoid the appearance of a monarchy, it was long-standing tradition to only feature portraits of deceased individuals on currency and coin."

"That tradition became law with an 1866 Act of Congress," the Fed bank added.

The Treasury Department did not provide a comment in response to CNBC's questions about the legality of the draft coin. 

Aside from the obvious objection: what the fuck does Trump have to do with the sesquicentennial?  Makes more sense to put Millard Fillmore on the dime.