Trump dollar coins snapped up from US Mint within hours, already on back order

THE ALASKA STORY

Sept. 2, 2026 – One-dollar coins bearing President Donald Trump’s image were snapped up within hours of their release Wednesday, quickly exhausting the US Mint’s inventory.

The 2026 Semiquincentennial President Donald J. Trump $1 coin went on sale at noon Eastern time as part of the celebration of America’s 250th anniversary.

By early Wednesday afternoon, the Mint’s online store listed the coins as “currently on backorder,” meaning they could still be ordered but were no longer in stock. The Mint said additional inventory was being produced.

The coins were offered in 25-coin rolls for $61 and 100-coin bags for $154.50. The Mint set a product limit of 150,000 rolls and 50,000 bags, although it did not establish an overall mintage limit.

A household limit of two rolls or bags was imposed for the initial sale and was scheduled to remain in effect until 2 p.m. Eastern time Thursday. The Mint commonly uses household limits during high-demand releases to give more buyers an opportunity to place orders.

The gold-colored coins are not made of gold. They are composed primarily of copper, along with zinc, manganese and nickel—the same type of alloy that gives other modern U.S. dollar coins their distinctive golden appearance.

The front of the coin features a portrait of Trump accompanied by the inscriptions “LIBERTY,” “IN GOD WE TRUST” and “1776 ~ 2026.” The design was created by U.S. Mint Chief Engraver Joseph Menna and was inspired by an official White House photograph taken by Daniel Torok.

The reverse carries the Presidential Seal, including an eagle holding an olive branch and a bundle of arrows. The eagle’s shield contains the number “250,” commemorating the nation’s semiquincentennial, while the surrounding inscriptions read “UNITED STATES OF AMERICA” and “ONE DOLLAR.”

The Philadelphia Mint produced the coins with a circulating finish, but the rolls and bags offered to collectors contain coins that have never been placed into circulation. They nevertheless remain legal tender and may be spent at their $1 face value.

Some buyers may discover a considerably rarer version in their orders. The Mint struck 250,000 Trump dollars at the Philadelphia facility on July 4 with a special “July 4th” privy mark. Those coins were randomly mixed into the rolls and bags instead of being sold separately, adding a treasure-hunt element to the release.

The coins weigh 8.1 grams, measure 26.49 millimeters in diameter and have a plain edge. Although they were struck in Philadelphia, they carry no mint mark.

Congress authorized the Treasury secretary to issue a special $1 coin during 2026 under the Circulating Collectible Coin Redesign Act of 2020, which provided for one-year-only coin designs celebrating the nation’s 250th anniversary. Trump signed the legislation into law in January 2021, near the end of his first term.

Trump’s appearance on the coin is historically unusual. The best-known precedent is the 1926 Sesquicentennial half dollar, which depicted then-President Calvin Coolidge alongside George Washington while Coolidge was still in office. Living Americans have appeared on a few other U.S. commemorative coins, including Special Olympics founder Eunice Kennedy Shriver in 1995.

Critics have questioned whether a sitting president should appear on American money, but the Treasury Department maintains that the 2020 law gives the secretary authority to approve the special semiquincentennial design. The statute expressly restricts portraits and depictions of living people on the reverse of the special coins; Trump’s portrait appears on the obverse.

Whatever the political debate, collectors rendered an immediate verdict. The first available supply disappeared in a matter of hours, leaving the Mint working to produce more.