July 15 (Reuters) - The U.S. Mint will begin producing $1 coins with President Donald Trump's face on the front as part of its commemoration of the nation's 250th anniversary, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Wednesday.
The design, which also features the words "Liberty," "In God We Trust" and "1776-2026" on the front and an image of the bald eagle from the presidential seal on the back was a revision from a draft made public in October. The rear face of that design showed Trump holding a raised
clenched fist framed with the words "fight, fight, fight," a reference to the 2024 assassination attempt against him.
Trump said he was "honored" by the coin.
"They gave me a coin," Trump said in an interview with Fox Business. "That's very unusual from what I understand."
Critics have raised questions about the design's legality. An 1866 U.S. law mandates that no living person's portrait can be used on U.S. currency, but that refers to paper money produced by the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. Coins are minted by the U.S. Mint.
Congress in 2020 passed a law allowing the Treasury Secretary to mint $1 coins to mark the 250th anniversary, but that law forbade designs portraying a living person.
In an interview with Fox News that aired Tuesday, Bessent noted that in commemoration of the 150th U.S. anniversary, then-President Calvin Coolidge was placed on a coin.
"So we can put living people's images on a coin," Bessent said.
The coin is in production and is being minted in Philadelphia, the Treasury Department said in a statement.
(Reporting by Christian Martinez; Editing by Stephen Coates and Cynthia Osterman)
