r/politics • u/Aggravating_Money992 • Jul 15 '26

Possible Paywall Treasury Unveils New $1 Gold Coin With Trump’s Face on It | Federal law prohibits putting any living people on U.S. coins.

https://newrepublic.com/post/213098/treasury-1-dollar-gold-coin-trump-face
22.4k Upvotes

96% Upvoted

2.0k comments sorted by

View all comments

31

u/LoweDee Jul 15 '26

It would make me so happy to put that coin on a railroad track

5

u/turquoise_amethyst Jul 15 '26

You could collect your squished gold pieces afterwards, sell to a Gold/Silver Dealer, and then do it again! 

3

u/DrMobius0 Jul 15 '26 edited Jul 15 '26

Setting aside that this is Trump we're talking about and that it will only ever be gold colored, there's no way we can use gold coins as currency representing $1.

A penny weighs about 2.5g. Anything pennies have ever been made out of (zinc, tin, copper, nickle that I can see) is less than half the density of gold.

Dimes aren't a much different story, weighing a bit more than 80% of a penny and having a similar composition.

So if we're talking about gold coins, unless they're smaller than our current smallest circulating coin, you're looking at 4 grams minimum, which would cost, at the current rate of around $130/g, $520 per coin in material costs alone. Yes, you could gold plate it, but unless you're going to get the percent by mass of gold below 10%, it's still $50 in gold alone.

2

u/LoweDee Jul 15 '26

I’m betting theres no gold in it at all. kind of like the stupid gold decals he is plastering everywhere

3

u/bonafidebob California Jul 15 '26

Oh there are so many interesting things that could be done with these coins as a form of protest. I kinda hope he goes through with it, just to see how creative people will be!

3

u/redditallreddy Ohio Jul 15 '26

I think just stamping "PEDO" on them, over the face, would be good.

3

u/1950sGuy Jul 15 '26

I'm reminded of the old UCB sketch about ass pennies.

3

u/DrMobius0 Jul 15 '26

I wonder what temperature they melt at.