SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
President Lincoln is the face of the penny. President Jefferson is on the nickel. FDR is on the dime. George Washington is on the quarter. And as of last week, the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts unanimously approved the design for an official U.S. Mint-produced commemorative coin depicting President Trump. The vote is perhaps unsurprising, since Trump fired the entire commission last year and installed his own slate. Also perhaps unsurprising, the coin will be made of 24-karat gold. Joining me now to talk about this is Caroline Turco. She is a curator at the Money Museum, which is run by the American Numismatic Association. Welcome to ALL THINGS CONSIDERED.
CAROLINE TURCO: Thanks for having me.
DETROW: Let's start here. What's the best way to think about this? How unusual is it for a living U.S. president to appear on a coin?
TURCO: It would be unprecedented. It has happened once before, in 1926 when Calvin Coolidge, celebrating the 150th anniversary of our independence, placed himself beside Washington. But at that time, it was not illegal. The legality of putting a living person on a coin did not occur until 1982. So if we're thinking about it in terms of an illegally minted coin, it would certainly be a first.
DETROW: So the Trump administration, I should say, has argued that it's found legal loopholes to do this. But I think the broader point that you and many other experts have said is this just goes wildly against 250 years of norms in this country.
TURCO: Absolutely. You know, when we first looked at coinage - 1792 when the U.S. Mint was first established - they went to George and said, we're ready for you. We need your portrait. You've got to be on our coins. And he said, to paraphrase, over my dead body. You know, he said, we just fought a war against monarchy. Why on Earth would we replicate how monarchs put themselves on coins?
DETROW: For people who haven't seen this design, can you describe the coin and what you make of it just as a coin, the image they're presenting, what you think this is trying to say?
TURCO: You know, artistically, I think it's very strong. And I mean that both in terms of design and in terms of the emotions it's presenting. But the obverse, or the front, of the coin features President Trump. And he is very aggressively standing, you know, before his desk with clenched fists. His very chiseled face is angry, I might argue. It certainly is a powerful image. It's an aggressive image. On the...
DETROW: And it's head-on. It's not the typical side view that you get.
TURCO: And it's head-on, yes. That is very unusual, but it certainly is a question of whether or not that's an intentional, I'm looking directly at you...
DETROW: Yeah.
TURCO: ...Sort of statement.
DETROW: And am I right that it's not just living presidents? There has been a precedent of don't put living people on the coin?
TURCO: It is. It is living people. Yes.
DETROW: Yeah. It just is a very clear-cut, like, we want a clear view of who this person is before we put them on a coin. That's the reason, generally speaking, for this law, right?
TURCO: It's kind of the reason. I think it's more about who has control of the narrative, because if you're putting an active political person on there, then they have control of that narrative. Coins have been used as propaganda and as political messaging since the very beginning.
DETROW: And that's been a lot of the concern, but in 2026, you know, like, so many people just don't come into contact with cash and coins these days. Is this of limited propaganda value, if that is a concern and partially part of the thinking?
TURCO: The majority of the American cash-based money that's used is used abroad. So domestically, I think you have something there, that, like, the - it would be very limited. Also, if it's on a 24-karat gold commemorative coin, the average human being is not ever going to see this. Have you seen the price of gold recently? But internationally, our coinage, and if we were to continue in this direction and end up putting presidents on circulating coins, that would become a significant messaging platform.
DETROW: Yeah, and it's worth noting there's this whole separate proposal for a $1 coin with Trump's face. It's not clear when or whether that would be minted as well. But I want to go back to the start of this. This is a coin commemorating the 250th anniversary of the United States. If it were up to you, like, what to you is a coin that best signifies the history of America? Which would you put forward at this moment?
TURCO: It were up to me, it would have to be an image of Lady Liberty. We have used the concept of liberty, the allegory of liberty since the very beginning of our coinage when we first made it in 1792, and we did that on purpose. We did that to avoid putting our leadership on coins. So liberty has represented our republic instead of rulers from the beginning. So that would be the most continuity, I think, that we could find in something for the 250th.
DETROW: That is Caroline Turco, a curator with the Money Museum in Colorado Springs. Thank you so much.
TURCO: You're so welcome. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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