Trump is the first sitting president in a century to appear on a U.S. coin, reviving questions about whether the practice is legal.

President Donald Trump is the first sitting president in a century to appear on a U.S. coin, reviving questions about whether the practice is legal.

    • FreshParsnip@lemmy.ca
      6·
      22 hours ago

      Legality only matters if there are consequences. There are laws I obey without agreeing with them because I don’t want the consequences of breaking them. That’s why I didn’t use marijuana before it became legal in Canada

      • hoppeduponcoffee@lemmy.zip
        2·
        8 hours ago

        Beyond that, there are just certain laws I respect, because they’re congruent with kindness, compassion and empathy. I don’t need a law that tells me not to murder, steal or rape people. Likewise, perpetrate sexual abuse on children, like the pedo-in-chief.

        Of course, we need laws against greed and corruption, because the desire to hoard resources in the human animal is so strong - it’s a vestigial evolutionary holdover we share with chimps who kill each other to have domain over the fruit or nut grove. This manifests in the hoarding of property at the expense of the working poor, developing nations and of the livability of the plane.

        In fact, I would say most of the preventable injustice in the world results from greed.

        As a species, we’re lousy at regulating and controlling it, hence the allure of socialism to enforce a mentality of collective well-being, rather than a destructive individualistic one. It’s a return to a more primordial precivilized state where we ensured the survival of all within the tribe, although we’d disqualify outgroups. Socialism is just a slight modification of that to benefit everyone beyond our own families and communities.

        But there are certain people, like Bernie, AOC and Mamdani who take the office of a public servant seriously and just do what’s right regardless of laws, because that’s the kind of people they are.

        It’s unfortunate we need so many laws, due to the number of shit people in the world.

  • MinnesotaGoddam@lemmy.worldEnglish
    5·
    1 day ago

    begins? i’ve seen these in “antique” stores and estate sales from people whose grands got bilked, trying to get a fraction of what they paid or maybe face value. i have ideas for recasting, but i ain’t a sculptor.

    first one i distinctly recall seeing was june this year (they were asking 11/coin for the set or 75 cents each for a single. it’d been a week and no takers. not surprising for a small liberal west coast beach community. i told them they should list the metal content on a sign and drop the price to 60 cents a coin, they’d be gone in a day (i have a small amount of experience in secondhand stores))

    i don’t know if vending machines will take them. i’d be surprised if they do.

    • A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.worldEnglish
      13·
      1 day ago

      Those were “memorial” coins, which generally arent curency and have lax regulation.

      This current one is a 1 dollar for circulation as currency coin, and there is explicit law against putting a living president on a 1 dollar coin.

      • MinnesotaGoddam@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2·
        1 day ago

        i needed to look that one up, since i know we have a few coin series - they’re obviously putting him on that coin series illegally to break a law for fun, but like i am not a currency lawyer. if they made it a quarter or halfdollar it might be legal. all i can say is that it would not break that specific law.

        • A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.worldEnglish
          3·
          1 day ago

          No, it wouldnt be legal, because it’d still be in violation of the general law of putting living people on currency.

          Its just there is extra special DONT PUT LIVING FUCKING PRESIDENTS ON 1 DOLLAR COINS law on top of it.

          • MinnesotaGoddam@lemmy.worldEnglish
            1·
            1 day ago

            wait hold on you said a specific word i just caught. memorial. do you know specifics on that coin line? i searched [trump memorial coin] and got the one in the article discussed. it took me like ten minutes just to get to the shitcoins i found below but phone search bad

            i found these on scamazon so like, some are being called commemmorative [sic] and some memorial.

            now let’s put on our tinfoil hats and get out our corkboards and yarn. remember all those absolutely real assassination attempts? when did the memorial coin get started being called a “memorial” coin?

            • A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.worldEnglish
              2·
              1 day ago

              Uh… I think wires are crossed here.

              I’m talking about coins minted by the US mint. I’m not talking about every chudware coin thats churned out for “collectable” markets by private non-currency coin shaped item makers

              They’ve always been called memorial coins. They memorialize an event. Like, in 1921 Alabama had a Memorial half dollar celebrating its 100 years as a state, and it had the first and the current living governor at the time on the coin together, and while technically a currency coin, it was also a memorial coin for the 100 years so thats why it had a still living person on it.

    • cloudshouter@lemmy.zip
      2·
      1 day ago

      The last thing I saw on a Trump gold coin (not this one) was that it basically had less gold in it than sea water. The value really depends on scrap price. I know some of the official Trump brand coins are “high quality, rust and damage resistant iron alloy” so maybe 4¢ a lb. Any brass ones would be a couple bucks a pound if a place would take that particular alloy.

      Vending machines would have to be sized and programmed for them.

    • 3abas@lemmy.world
      533·
      2 days ago

      You’re rich enough to refuse money? Good for you.

      It’ll be in circulation, in vending machines, in cashier’s registers, everywhere soon enough. And when all the morons that paid over $1 for it realize it’s not a collectible item, their life savings will enter circulation as well.

      • ExtremeDullard@piefed.socialOPEnglish
        24·
        2 days ago

        You’re rich enough to refuse money? Good for you.

        You can refuse by saying you’d prefer quarters, or a $1 bill instead.

        • 3abas@lemmy.world
          417·
          1 day ago

          And if that’s all they have, you’ll still refuse it? If a machine gives it to you, you’ll throw it away? You’ll go to a bank and wait in line to exchange it with a bill?

          I get where you’re coming from, it’s disgusting, you may be able to personally avoid it, but it’s going into circulation and the general public will use it, and simply refusing it isn’t an option or a stupid costly one for a lot of people.

          • modus@lemmy.world
            61·
            6 hours ago

            If it’s only a dollar and I actually can’t give it back I’d probably just destroy it out of principle. No, I’m not rich with “fuck you” levels of money, but I do have principles.

          • MinnesotaGoddam@lemmy.worldEnglish
            3·
            1 day ago

            You’ll go to a bank and wait in line to exchange it with a bill?

            that one. but my credit union is on the way home for me, so i might be a special situation. it’s like two minutes out of the way.

            at places i have owned and operated or managed, we had a daily or weekly bank run. i would have it be part of that (get rid of all the funny money as part of replenishing the petit cash).

            i agree, it’s legal tender. we don’t have the luxury of turning our nose up at people who may have just been given the damn coins and are just trying to get rid of them as fast as they can, same as us. i’m just mad i ain’t stretched enough to turn these into double ass dollars

              • WolvenSpectre@lemmy.caEnglish
                1·
                20 hours ago

                Well, unless you are using the barter system you exchange money for goods, so if you refuse to sell the goods for a certain type of money or a person using a certain type of money, or just a person you don’t like.

                As for the Wedding Cake thing, a gay couple took a RWNJ baker that refused to sell them a cake because they were gay, and the Supreme Court said they had the right to refuse them service. The thing is that cuts both ways. If you make and/or sell a good you can now legally refuse to serve someone that good, even if the only problem you have with them is they are using the Trump Pedo-dollar.

                • 3abas@lemmy.world
                  2·
                  14 hours ago

                  You only accept money in return for goods? You don’t labor?

                  Weird flex, or you’re just not thinking this through, even though I spelt out a few different scenarios.

                  Put yourself in the shoes of an average person. You go to a gas station and pay cash, your change is $1.23 and they give you a Trump coin and tell you that’s all in the register, what do you? You let the company keep your change? You take it and drive to a bank to exchange it?

                  You buy a water from a vending machine on a hot day, you put in a $5 bill and the machine gives you a couple Trump coins back, you throw them away? You give them back to the machine?

                  You may be able to avoid it, I don’t ever use USD cash, I’ll be able to avoid it, but the general public will be using it. If it proves unpopular like the 150 year anniversary coin that similarly carried a portrait of the sitting president, it’ll be removed from circulation and actually become a collectable that some moron will pay thousands for. If not, it’ll be used like any other coin.

                  It’s already in circulation, arguing with facts because you don’t like them is dumb, just as dumb as someone suggesting they’ll destroy their own money “on principal”. This is burning your own shoes or destroying your own beer level stupid, since you like referencing dumb conservatives.

          • Bakkoda@lemmy.world
            62·
            1 day ago

            I have never ever ever ever received one of the current in circulation 1 dollar coins. Never.

            It’s not gonna circulate.

              • dirthawker0@lemmy.world
                2·
                18 hours ago

                Not sure if they’re still doing it but the post office used to use Susan B’s and I think sometimes Sacajaweas for change in their vending machines. I also seem to recall the ticket machines for the LIRR dispensing Sacajaweas for change.

                • MinnesotaGoddam@lemmy.worldEnglish
                  1·
                  15 hours ago

                  I got a few on the DC metro, but those are the only I encountered in circulation. And since it was that long ago, memory is unreliable.

            • 3abas@lemmy.world
              24·
              1 day ago

              you may be able to personally avoid it, but it’s going into circulation and the general public will use it

              • MinnesotaGoddam@lemmy.worldEnglish
                2·
                1 day ago

                i think their point is remember the susan b anthony and sacajawea dollars? people collected those, they didn’t spend them

    • Quantumantics@fedia.io
      6·
      2 days ago

      I’m so glad they didn’t get these ready in time for the annual mint sets. I’m curious whether they will appear in the proof set yet to release this year, though.

  • Eldritch@piefed.worldEnglish
    78·
    2 days ago

    Legal, illegal. What does it matter. As long as there’s no meaningful punishment for it everything is legal. In a highly centralized state or government. Legal is what they allow the peasants to get away with. Legal has no relationship to the standards they hold themselves to.

      • CharlesDarwin@lemmy.worldEnglish
        3·
        1 day ago

        “own the libs”

        That’s cool, because we can put anti-donnie stuff on every bit of paper currency that passes through our hands, but nearly for free.

        Oh, and while you are at it, cross out that anti-American bullshit about trusting in their god. :)

      • Thebeardedsinglemalt@lemmy.world
        14·
        2 days ago

        The kind of person who would buy them already has a closet full of scam shit they’ve already fallen for but are convinced this one is the real deal

  • Arghblarg@lemmy.ca
    15·
    2 days ago

    Hopefully soon they’ll all be melted down and made into urinals or something more fitting.

    • z3rOR0ne@lemmy.ml
      14·
      2 days ago

      As long as they keep his face on the point where urine is going to hit directly, I’m for that.

      • NABDad@lemmy.worldEnglish
        4·
        1 day ago

        Honestly, that might be the only reason to spend the money to get them. Epoxy them to the inside of urinals.