America doesn’t need a Trump coin — or any other presidential currency

George Washington refused to allow his image on the nation’s coins because it would be too “monarchical.”

But will the Trump administration rise above that old superstition with a new dollar coin featuring two portraits of President Trump?

Congress passed a law five years ago calling for $1 coins “emblematic of the United States semiquincentennial” to circulate next year.

And nothing is more emblematic of our nation’s history and achievements than Donald Trump’s visage.

“Under the historic leadership of President Donald J. Trump, our nation is entering its 250th anniversary stronger, more prosperous, and better than ever before,” the Treasury Department said this month.

It released a preliminary design for the Trump coin that “reflects well the enduring spirit of our country and democracy.”

On the front of the coin, a large Trump portrait partially obscures the word “LIBERTY.” That’s just a typo, right? Below Trump’s face are the words “IN GOD WE TRUST.” 

At least there’s no arrow pointing from “GOD” to Trump. If devout Trump fans seek mementos, the dollar coin will be much cheaper than the official Donald Trump “God Bless the USA Bibles” he sells for $59.99.

The coin’s back side was inspired by last year’s assassination attempt, showing Trump with a clenched fist in front of an American flag with “FIGHT, FIGHT, FIGHT” above him.

That’s an iconic image, but. . .

The Trump coin may violate an 1866 law that prohibits living people on American coinage.

That law was sparked by the National Currency Bureau superintendent scandalously creating 5¢ notes featuring his own picture.

That was around the time the Treasury Department was denounced on Capitol Hill as a “house for orgies and bacchanals.”

That 1866 law was violated once before with doleful political and numismatic consequences.

In 1926, a half-dollar commemorative for the nation’s 150th birthday featured George Washington and President Calvin Coolidge.

Some critics denounced the coin, but The New York Times predicted it would boost Coolidge’s re-election chances.

Yet Silent Cal was a no-show in 1928. Americans refused to pay $1 for the special 50¢ pieces, and most of the coins went unsold and were melted down in 1934.

A Trump dollar coin would be less vexing to Americans than the trillion-dollar coin the Obama and Biden administrations considered minting to magically pay off federal budget deficits.

Almost all the internal documents on that coin have been effectively designated as state secrets, according to a recent massively redacted Freedom of Information Act response.

A trillion-dollar coin would be the ultimate religious relic for Modern Monetary Theory maniacs.

Unfortunately, a Trump coin would dovetail with the Treasury Department’s perversion of American political thinking.

Our coins nowadays are little more than paeans to dead politicians — from Lincoln (1¢), Jefferson (5¢), Roosevelt (10¢), Washington (25¢) to Kennedy (50¢).

The Coinage Act of 1792 required that all United States coins have an “impression emblematic of liberty.”

The US Mint last year stated federal law still requires “coins to represent the concept of liberty, but instead of a mythical figure, the presidents became that depiction.”

That statement was under a head-jolting subhead: “Presidents as Liberty.” 

Call me a relic, but I prefer how the Bill of Rights defines liberty.

The “Presidents as Liberty” reduces freedom to nothing more than foisting coins with lame designs and rapidly vanishing value onto hapless citizens.

The US dollar has lost 95% of its purchasing power in the last century.  

Instead of either Trump or Trillion-Dollar Token Travesties, we should return to what the United States did best.

One hundred years ago, America had some of the world’s most beautiful coinage, including a $20 gold piece designed by famous sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens.

That coin showed Lady Liberty striding confidently forward holding symbols of peace and enlightenment, with a majestic eagle adorning the reverse side.

(Unfortunately for American liberty and coinage, President Franklin Roosevelt outlawed private ownership of gold in 1933).

The quarter and half dollars in the 1920s, as well as the Peace Silver Dollar, also showed idealized ladies symbolizing liberty.

Flash back two centuries, and the 1804 Silver Dollar and other early coin designs remain as glorious as ever.

To properly celebrate the nation’s 250th birthday, our coinage should be recast with beautiful designs that incarnate the American creed that no man has a right to be enshrined above anyone else.

A republic should idealize its liberty, not its leaders.

Neither Trump nor any other American president, living or dead, represents America’s highest value.

We need the numismatic version of George Washington’s 1796 Farewell Address, heeding his warning against monarchical symbols that breed docility to perfidious politicians.  

James Bovard is the author of 11 books, including “Lost Rights: The Destruction of American Liberty,” and a former member of the American Numismatic Association.