Trump puts his stamp on his coin
What’s big and shiny and gold and features President Donald Trump’s name splashed across the front? No, it’s not a new development on the West Side of Manhattan. It’s the redesigned presidential challenge coin.
A custom dating back 20 years, presidential challenge coins have been handed out to service members in commemoration of special achievements and milestones. Trump’s coin, which many people saw on Friday for the first time, is unmistakably different from its predecessors.
Gone is the national motto, the Latin phrase
meaning “out of many, one.” In its place appears the president’s campaign slogan, “Make America Great Again,” which appears on each side of on the coin and also has been used on official White House documents.
The presidential seal has been replaced by an eagle bearing the president’s signature. The eagle’s head faces right, not left, as on the seal. Instead of holding the customary 13 arrows representing the original states, or an olive branch, the eagle is perched behind a red-white-and-blue shield with 13 stars around its wings.
In addition to his signature, Trump’s name appears three times on the coin.
And forget the traditional subdued silver and copper: Trump’s coin, a White House aide marveled, is “very gold.”
The aide said the president, whose real estate properties are known for their gilded displays of wealth and status, was involved in redesigning the coin.
President Barack Obama’s coin, in contrast, had the presidential seal on the front and was smaller in both circumference and thickness. His name appeared on the back of the coin, above a depiction of the White House with his signature below it.
President George W. Bush’s coin had the presidential seal on the front and the White House on the flip side, with his name above it. It had no signature and was similar in size to Obama’s. London. The Philadelphia Orchestra also has cut ties with Dutoit, who was its chief conductor from 2008 to 2012.