U.S. — In January 2026, commissioners of the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts recommended designs for a circulating $1 coin featuring Donald Trump’s head. The commission also recommended a different portrayal of Donald Trump for a 24-karat gold commemorative coin. Production delays at the U.S. Mint have delayed the release of the Trump coins originally scheduled for July 4, 2026.

In March 2026, the U.S. Department of the Treasury announced that the president’s signature would appear on newly printed paper dollars. The Treasury Department claims it already has the legal authority to mint coins featuring Donald Trump.

In April 2026, the Treasury Department reassigned Patricia Solimene, the director of its Bureau of Engraving and Printing, after she refused to advance a $250 bill with Trump’s face on it. Solimene wrote in a goodbye email to colleagues, "The buck stopped here."

In May 2026, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent publicly displayed a $250 bill design featuring Donald Trump. Bessent said he does not "think that there’s anything untoward" about putting President Trump on U.S. currency. Bessent acknowledged that new bills featuring a living person cannot be printed until Congress changes the 160-year-old law against depicting living persons on U.S. paper currency. The Donald J. Trump $250 Bill Act is awaiting further congressional action in the House Committee on Financial Services.

Democratic Sen. Jeff Merkley said, "President Trump’s self-celebrating maneuvers are authoritarian actions worthy of dictators like North Korea’s Kim Jong Un." The "No Kings" protest movement has mobilized Americans to march in opposition to what they perceive as Trump’s monarchical ambitions.

The only previous instance of a sitting U.S. president appearing on a coin was a 1926 commemorative half-dollar showing President Calvin Coolidge alongside George Washington. Jacques Hymans analyzed nearly 1,000 coins from 165 independent countries using Coin & Mint News’ Directory of Circulating Coins and found that 22 countries, about 13% of the total, have circulating coins featuring their sitting head of state as of 2024.

Hymans found that 21 out of 34 hereditary monarchies in his database, about 62%, feature their reigning king or queen on circulating coins. He found that 130 out of 131 non-monarchy countries in his database, 99%, do not feature their sitting head of state on circulating coins.

Samoa is the only non-monarchy country in the database that features its sitting head of state on circulating coins, which were issued in 2011. Samoa’s head of state is titled “His Highness” and is traditionally chosen from among the country’s four paramount chieftains.

Hymans created a database of circulating banknotes newly designed and issued between 2019 and 2024 using Bank Note Museum and The Banknote Book. He found that 84 independent countries issued 340 new regular circulating banknotes between 2019 and 2024. All but one of the 13 countries that issued new banknotes depicting their sitting head of state between 2019 and 2024 are hereditary monarchies.

Botswana is the only non-monarchy country that traditionally features the sitting president’s portrait on its 10 pula banknote denomination. Duma Boko has been the president of Botswana since late 2024.

The effort to feature a sitting president on U.S. currency breaks with a 160-year legal prohibition and decades of numismatic tradition in non-monarchical states. The reassignment of a senior Treasury official for refusing to advance the designs and the introduction of specific legislation reflect the administrative and legislative steps involved in the initiative. International comparisons show that while hereditary monarchies commonly depict reigning heads of state on currency, the practice is rare among republics and democracies.