(CNN) — The next signs of the nation’s political divide might be jingling in your pocket next year.

• The administration plans to issue a $1 coin with President Donald Trump’s likeness on it next year, despite a century-old precedent of not honoring sitting, or even living former, presidents on coins.
• Instead of quarters honoring the abolition of slavery, granting women the right to vote and the Civil Rights movement, the Treasury will instead issue historical quarters featuring white men from the 18th and 19th centuries who were already well represented on currency and in historical tributes.

The new coins, coming after the administration stopped issuing new pennies earlier this year, underscore Trump’s drive to put his own stamp on the presidency far beyond the confines of the White House – whether it’s by putting his own face and name on US institutions or by pulling back on diversity efforts to reframe the story of America itself.

The US Mint on Thursday released the final coin designs for historical quarters celebrating the country’s 250th birthday next year. Rather than the fight against slavery or to give women the vote, the designs primarily honored a more homogeneous view of US history: George Washington for the Revolutionary War, Thomas Jefferson and the Declaration of Independence, James Madison and the Constitution, Abraham Lincoln and the Gettysburg Address, as well as pilgrims to celebrate the Mayflower compact.

“The designs on these historic coins depict the story of America’s journey toward a ‘more perfect union,’ and celebrate America’s defining ideals of liberty,” said Kristie McNally, the acting director of the Mint, in a statement. “We hope to offer each American the opportunity to hold our nation’s storied 250 years of history in the palms of their hands as we connect America through coins.”

The Mint did not say why it decided to drop the previously recommended tribute quarters on abolition, suffrage and the Civil Rights movement. Neither the Treasury Department, which has final approval over coin designs, nor the US Mint responded to questions about the change from CNN.

Trump, however, has regularly attacked museums and other institutions for being too negative about America and its history.

He issued an executive order in March to reverse exhibits at federal properties such as the Smithsonian that he claimed wrongly portrayed the “nation’s unparalleled legacy of advancing liberty, individual rights, and human happiness.” The order was widely seen as part of the administration’s overall efforts to pull back diversity initiatives.

What was on rejected coins

The abolition of slavery, women’s suffrage and Civil Rights coins had never been approved by the Treasury Department to honor America’s 250th birthday. But those themes were recommended last year by the Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee, a bipartisan government body, according to meeting notes reviewed by CNN.

The panel recommended an abolition of slavery coin featuring Fredrick Douglass, a leading abolitionist and Civil Rights leader of the 19th century, on the front. A hand and arm breaking free of chains were on the back.

The women’s suffrage coin would have shown a woman carrying a banner calling for “Votes for Women.”

And the Civil Rights coin would have shown Ruby Bridges as a six-year-old girl, carrying her schoolbooks close to her chest as she integrated an elementary school in New Orleans in 1960. She and three other Black schoolmates were accompanied to class by federal marshals. The back of the coin showed Civil Rights marchers locked arm-in-arm.

The panel’s designs, developed over years, stemmed from legislation that Trump himself signed his final week of his first term in 2021.

That law, which said the US could release up to five quarters in 2026 to celebrate America’s 250th anniversary, noted that one design should be “emblematic of a woman’s or women’s contribution to the birth of the nation or the Declaration of Independence or any other monumental moments in American history.”

The Trump dollar

The controversial Trump dollar coin is also part of Treasury’s plan to mark America’s 250th birthday.

The US Mint issued three different proposed coins Thursday with different likenesses of Trump, including one resembling his famous mug shot from 2023. Designs for the back include different versions of the American eagle.

A previously released version of coin would have also featured Trump on the back, raising his fist after an assassination attempt last year. However, a law that prohibits images of living people on the backs of coins. There is no such restriction on the fronts, though it’s been US law since 1866 that living people can’t be on paper currency.

Still, Trump’s coin will only be the second time a US coin features a living president. The first was a half-dollar coin of George Washington and then-President Calvin Coolidge together issued in 1926 to mark the country’s 150th anniversary.

Wildy unpopular, of the 1 million coins minted, nearly 860,000 were returned to the Mint and melted down, according to the American Numismatic Association.

Ironically, as part of the commemoration of the nation’s 250th birthday, the Mint plans to issue a limited number of pennies once again next year, marking the years 1776-2026 on them.

Otherwise the pennies will be identical to regular pennies – which the Mint just discontinued.

The-CNN-Wire
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