The New Presidential Dollar?

The New Presidential Dollar? Do I want to spend it or collect it as a souvenir?

I am a coin collector. As a teenager, I began with Indian Cents and Lincoln Cents. I always admired those Barber Silver Dollars with Lady Liberty on the obverse, but I did not earn enough on my paper route to collect much more than pennies. One day, when delivering the Detroit News, a man asked me to get off my Schwinn bicycle and come to talk. He knew I was a numismatist. He had pulled out of his own treasure box a Lincoln cent, a 1914D. Oh, how I had yearned for that rare coin! No matter how many thousands of pennies I took home from the local banks I examined, the 1914D was elusive. I’d gone to bed many nights dreaming of the day I would get one. And he gave it to me as a gift? I guess the guy liked kids. Well, that’s my only explanation. What a thrilling moment!

In 1914, Lady Liberty deserved to find her face on the dollar coin. By concluding the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln had earned a place in history. This warrants his profile on the penny. Now, I ask: should the 47th president of the United States join the coin club with Lady Liberty and Abraham Lincoln on a New Presidential Dollar? Well, he certainly thinks so.

The US Treasury Department is considering a New Presidential Dollar with the visage of the current president. According to Politico, “The draft design of the coin, which was overseen by the Office of the U.S. Treasurer Brandon Beach, features Trump’s profile on one side of the coin. The opposite side depicts Trump with a clenched fist in front of an American flag alongside the words ‘FIGHT, FIGHT, FIGHT’.”

Whereas President Lincoln ended a civil war, the current president is starting one by sending US troops into Portland and Chicago and other cities. I wonder if we should wait to see how he ends the war he is starting. Then, if we have a country left, we can mint the New Presidential Dollar.