A planned set of quarters marking America's 250th birthday will look different than originally envisioned. An earlier proposal to spotlight the abolition of slavery, women's suffrage, and the Civil Rights Movement has been shelved by the Trump administration in favor of designs centered on the Mayflower Compact, the Revolutionary War, and the Gettysburg Address, reports the Wall Street Journal. The 2026 quarters will also feature George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Abraham Lincoln, and the Pilgrims—replacing draft concepts that would have depicted former slave and abolitionist Frederick Douglass, a women's suffrage marcher, and Ruby Bridges integrating a New Orleans school.
The shift follows a multiyear process in which the Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee—made up of coin experts, artists, and political appointees—worked with historians and institutions to craft themes "emblematic" of the semiquincentennial, as authorized by a 2021 law signed by Trump. That panel had endorsed five topics: the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, abolition, suffrage, and civil rights. Those recommendations, and a separate set from the now-dismissed Commission of Fine Arts, were ultimately bypassed. The Journal notes that the arts panel "must be consulted on new coin designs," but that "Trump fired all of its members this year and no members are currently listed on its website."
Treasury officials say the revised coins better reflect America's ideals. The designs "depict the story of America's journey toward a 'more perfect union,' and celebrate ... liberty," acting Mint chief Kristie McNally said. US Treasurer Brandon Beach argued that the prior concepts were overly influenced by diversity and "critical race theory." Looming over the quarter debate is an even more contentious idea: a $1 coin bearing Trump's image. Draft designs posted by the Mint include three portraits of the former president and eight eagle-themed reverse sides.
There's one 1926 precedent for a sitting president—Calvin Coolidge—appearing on a commemorative half-dollar, but for most of US history, the practice has been avoided, reflecting George Washington's view that putting living leaders on coins felt too close to monarchy. Two Democratic senators have introduced legislation to bar living presidents from US currency, calling a Trump coin inappropriate. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has final say on all the designs, but no decision on the Trump dollar has been announced. "The American story didn't stop at the Pilgrims and Founding Fathers, and ignoring anything that has happened in this country in the last 162 years is just another attempt by President Trump to rewrite our history," Dem Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto said in a statement, per the AP.
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