Trump’s face could appear on gold coin as president’s ‘hand-picked’ panel set to vote

Donald Trump’s face could make its way onto US currency, and there’s about to be a vote on it.

Trump could soon find himself in the pockets of every American (metaphorically) – but only if a federal arts commission approves it.

Currently, they are deciding whether to depict Trump leaning on a desk with his fists clenched and the words, ‘In God We Trust’ written on the bottom of the 24-karat gold coin after the US Mint posted its proposal online.

The image pays homage to the very same portrait of the POTUS which hangs in the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery.

However, if the Commission of Fine Arts says no, then the proposal will have to be scrapped.

But one detail about the panel that you might not know is that it is composed entirely of Trump’s personal picks.

Donald Trump's face could end up on a gold coin (U.S. Treasury)

Although, the bipartisan Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee refused to even consider the coin.

This Committee is full of experts in coin collecting, historians, and more.

This includes Michael Moran, a Republican coin collector who said of the proposed Trump coin, per The Washington Post: “It’s wrong. It goes against American culture and the traditions that drive what we put on our coinage. I didn’t sign up for this.”

A former member named Abdul-Jabbar, also criticised the coin, explaining: “I’m not enthusiastic about memorializing Mr. Trump on a coin because he has done so much damage to our country. It takes a huge consensus to get agreement on something like this, and I’m not inclined to be supportive of the president’s request.”

However, it needs the approval of another panel to be recognised as a legal coin

While the consensus leans toward rejecting it for some people, the arts commission already approved one that was made in Trump’s likeness to circulate at some point in the future.

This one is just a $1 coin.

While it turns out that the coin could be made sans congressional authority because the Treasury Department could go ahead and do it, it wouldn’t be legal tender without congress’s say-so.

On this, Donald Scarinci, a Democrat who was recommended to the committee, said: “They can definitely make the coin without our review. But it would be an illegal coin. It’s not about Donald Trump. It’s about whoever the president is. It’s not something done in a democracy.”

“I think all of us feel the weight of responsibility here,” Scarinci said. “They may fire us all. They may replace us all to make this coin … but there’s a very high caliber of people on this committee, they know numismatics, and they know history, and they know this is wrong.”

Tyla reached out to the U.S. Mint and US Treasury Department for comment.