Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee Meeting Recap (February 2026)
KellenCoin
Posts: 1,248 ✭✭✭✭✭
My name is Kellen Hoard, and I currently serve as one of the Representatives of the General Public on the Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee. I am an undergraduate student, and the youngest person to ever serve on the Committee. For those of you unfamiliar with the CCAC, it was established in 2003 by Congress to advise the Secretary of the Treasury on the themes and designs of all US coins and medals. The CCAC serves as an informed, experienced and impartial resource to the Secretary of the Treasury and represents the interests of American citizens and collectors.
This is the thirteenth installment of my updates about what the CCAC is doing at its meetings. I think it is critical that the collecting community have insight into and input to the CCAC, and will try to answer any questions you may have.
Here is my update for the CCAC meeting on February 24, 2026.
- Over the last several months, as you may have seen in the news, there have been a series of last-minute changes to coin designs for the semiquincentennial. This includes changes to the semiquincentennial quarters, the proposal of a $1 coin depicting the current president, and, most recently, the proposal of an additional gold coin featuring the current president. A number of these changes have raised concern among committee members for various reasons. For instance, the committee was never, as was required by law, allowed to review the new themes and designs for the quarters, and there were various legal/artistic/precedential questions raised by some members about circulating coins featuring any current, living president. However, there had not been a substantive opportunity to publicly ask any of these questions and seek clarity from the Mint prior to this meeting. Consequently, at the beginning of the meeting, I spent about 15 minutes asking the Mint about their decision-making processes on those coins, as well as, separately, recent changes to the pricing of Mint products. Afterwards, the New York Times wrote an article about some of the recent dynamics between the CCAC and the Treasury. The Mint has subsequently removed all recordings of CCAC meetings from the internet. However, I have personally posted a recording (at 1.8x speed) of this most recent meeting on Youtube, which you can watch here, if you would like.
- Candidate designs for the 2027 Working Dogs Commemorative Coin Program were considered in consultation with John Miller, President and CEO of America's VetDogs, and Allison Storck, Director of Marketing and Public Relations with America's VetDogs. The CCAC recommended the following gold (obverse and reverse), silver (obverse and reverse), and clad (obverse and reverse) designs. We recommended modifications to some elements of design WD-G-R-04A.
- Candidate designs for the Billie Jean King Congressional Gold Medal were considered in consultation with Billie Jean King herself and with Marjorie Gantman, Managing Director of Billie Jean King Enterprises. The CCAC recommended the following obverse and reverse designs.
- Candidate designs for the 2027 Paralympic Half Dollar were considered in consultation with Matthew Torres, Communications and Marketing Specialist for the National Wheelchair Basketball Association. The CCAC recommended the following reverse design, with some modifications to certain design elements.
- Candidate designs for the 2027 American Youth Sports Quarters - featuring baseball, golf, soccer, softball, and snowboarding - were considered. The CCAC recommended the following reverse designs.
- This was Dr. Harcourt Fuller's final meeting as a committee member, so he said his farewells as we wrapped up.
Let me know if you have any questions about the work done in this meeting; I will try to answer as well as I can, but there are contraints on what I am able to share publicly. Please remember that the CCAC does not make the final decision; instead, it makes its recommendation (alongside the Commission of Fine Arts) to the Secretary of the Treasury. If you would like to watch the February meeting in full in order to see all of the deliberations, it is available on Youtube here (at 1.8x speed, how I recorded it).
** Disclaimer: My comments are made in a personal capacity and do not necessarily reflect the position of the CCAC or Treasury Department. **
Fan of the Oxford Comma
CCAC Representative of the General Public
2021 Young Numismatist of the Year
Comments
Thank you for the fine report and for posting the recording.
I understand that the CFA was destroyed and replaced with a rubber stamp?
Thank you, Kellen, for the post.
The quote from the NYT struck home: “No nation on earth has issued coins with the image of a democratically elected leader during the time of their service”. IMAO, that is as it should be, regardless of political persuasion.
Thanks for the solid updates. This is concerning that standard established practices and entities are getting ignored, beyond the question of a sitting leader being featured on a coin...
All very depressing...
Regardless of the for/against positions surrounding the issue, I’ll point out that Coolidge appeared on the Sesquicentennial half in 1926.
The NYT is blatantly lying.
The 1926 sesquicentennial half dollar pictured sitting President Calvin Coolidge.
Really like the Working Dog, Paralympic, Baseball and Softball series. No favorites yet on those but will be looking them over.
Current legislation notwithstanding, any discussion on a commemorative sesquicentennial Gold 2.50 coin? Appreciate you posting this information.
Boom...we win.
i like the working dog idea but not to fond of the rest of it
I will give them the benefit of the doubt, blaming ignorance rather than lying.
And what about the 1921 Alabama half dollar? Was the current Governor of Alabama not an "elected leader?"
I don't think that the Arkansas and Virginia Senators qualify as the latter.
Of all the commems (new or old) I've never seen one for the zippo manufacturing? Just saying, they got a good history
Kellen, Thanks for this fine report. Greater thanks for your service to the numismatic community.
Just think of the opportunities for counter stamps if a coin featuring a current political figure were to be issued.
No discussion of a gold $2.50 at this particular meeting.
Fan of the Oxford Comma
CCAC Representative of the General Public
2021 Young Numismatist of the Year
the house bill wants circulating coins too
https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/5616/text
bear the image of allegorical liberty wielding the Declaration of Independence featured on the gold $2.50 Sesquicentennial Coin issued in 1926.
bear the image of Independence Hall featured on the gold $2.50 Sesquicentennial Coin issued in 1926.
it'll never make it through the senate as the coin counting machine companies will have a fit
Of the entity issuing the coin? No. Unless Alabama was the nation issuing the half dollar.
You're adding further conditions to try to validate their assertion.
The NYT claimed:
"No nation on earth has issued coins with the image of a democratically elected leader during the time of their service”.
That statement was already very narrowly crafted to try to eliminate examples where other living people, including living former foreign leaders, have been portrayed on coins. They got it flat out wrong in regard to Coolidge, and also with the Alabama governor because they didn't specify "the" leader of a "country".
I think it's implied that they mean the leader of the country issuing the coin. Not any elected leader of any entity.
They were pretty specific with their wording.
In any case, they were undeniably wrong with Coolidge. The Alabama governor was just icing on the cake.
The 1926 Sesquicentennial of American Independence Half Dollar was issued to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence and to help finance the Sesquicentennial Exposition in Philadelphia. Struck at the Philadelphia Mint with up to 1,000,000 pieces authorized, the coin was designed by John Sinnock. The obverse features the heads of George Washington and Calvin Coolidge facing right, while the reverse depicts the cracked Liberty Bell, surrounded by the inscription “Sesquicentennial of American Independence.”
Calvin Coolidge was the 30th president of the United States, serving from 1923 to 1929.
As for the proposed designs, BASE-01 has the catcher's mask on the kid entirely inappropriately as the first foul ball off the mask would break the kid's jaw and knock all his teeth out.
In honor of the memory of Cpl. Michael E. Thompson
If it’s two people talking around the water cooler, fine. Ignorance is ok. But anyone who works for a publication that supposedly cares about its reputation? Absolutely not! Every fact published is expected to be checked, even if it’s by the author. They don’t get a pass for ignorance and keep their job, if the publication cares about its reputation! Too often we see fact checking goes out the window if the point being made fits an agenda! They know that even if their lie is caught, they print a retraction buried in the back pages, but still succeeded in sharing the lie with thousands of people who buy it hook, line, and sinker!
Steve
My collecting “Pride & Joy” is my PCGS Registry Dansco 7070 Set:
https://www.pcgs.com/setregistry/type-sets/design-type-sets/complete-dansco-7070-modified-type-set-1796-date/publishedset/213996
Both the OP/CCAC, and the NYT claim to be "an informed, experienced and impartial resource"......
Aha - ahahahaha - haaa....
.
Hmm, wonder how easy that might easy to do. NOT
In regard to the NYT article, I am not able to read it because it is behind a pay wall.
Did the CCAC have any role or input in that article? 🤔
Kellen’s thread ain’t the thread for an argument about journalism.
Edit - grammar
I don't know if everyone who participated in that part of the debate was actually writing about journalism.
In honor of the memory of Cpl. Michael E. Thompson
Tom, you are correct as far as I know. Silent Cal in this context ain’t so silent, though. I quit reading.
Agreed.
I was able to find the designs that were not reviewed, and I am posting the link for anyone to see them. Please do not post political responses. Maybe they should only strike 1776 of them. If the mint wants more revenue, then 1776 UNC and 2026 Proof, and at those mintages a sellout would likely happen in under 5 minutes.
https://www.cfa.gov/system/files/meeting-materials/8-CFA-19MAR26-7-Mint-2026-Semiq-24K Trump coin-pres.pdf
Not quite like the other living President on a coin, Calvin Coolidge, who was a bit in the background of George Washington on the 1926 Sesqui half commem. I haven't quite located Washington on this new design yet, but I'm still looking.
I can't comment but would like to.
Was Coolidge included in the authorizing design legislation for the 1926 half? I can't find the original text.
The 2026 circulating designs are mostly ok. Some are nice. I like the dime but it would have been nicer if it didn't look like an initials billboard.
The commemorative coins of working dogs, whatever floats your boat. At least there are some decent designs there.
Youth sports on circulating quarters? Why can't we just have nice things. It's like they are trying too hard for the sake of doing something. Maybe it is time to stop messing with the quarters and go back to a standard design.
My thoughts on some of the designs:
Steve
My collecting “Pride & Joy” is my PCGS Registry Dansco 7070 Set:
https://www.pcgs.com/setregistry/type-sets/design-type-sets/complete-dansco-7070-modified-type-set-1796-date/publishedset/213996
There are seven people on these coins. Thus, for all practical purposes we should consider them as effectively having an equal number of boys and girls. (And frankly, I really cannot determine the identity of the snowboarder, so the ratio in 3:4 in any case, but not sure which way.
(And in a general comment, not directed at anyone, the 1926 coin is a commemorative, not a coin made expressly for circulation. Principle of charity people; don't forget the principle of charity. And yes, I'm agreeing w/ Creg and Tom D.)
Ed. S.
(EJS)
Oh, I now see the two catchers, but only because you pointed them out. For some reason (lol) my eyes focused on the main players (I’d be surprised if most viewers didn’t focus on the main players too, like me). Regarding the snowboarder, as noted I may be making a false assumption, but I see long hair, so right or wrong I chose to think of that athlete as female! Based on these two points, my count is still 3 out of the five coins appear to be represented by female athletes. As noted by my initial comment in my reply above, it really doesn’t matter. All I made was an observation on definite choices made by the people involved with the chosen designs, and I can do that.
Edit: I now see that one of the catchers might be thought of as female, due to the braid (noticed by me only after my third look). So counting the two catchers, it still appears to be a majority of females on these coins, which is ok, but my sense in real life, the sex of the majority of participants in these five sports might be far from the ratio shown on these quarters. As such, I’ll repeat - Or, maybe, just maybe, an “agenda” is being pushed to “check a box”?????
Steve
My collecting “Pride & Joy” is my PCGS Registry Dansco 7070 Set:
https://www.pcgs.com/setregistry/type-sets/design-type-sets/complete-dansco-7070-modified-type-set-1796-date/publishedset/213996
Steve, you may be correct, but emphasis on female athletics is ok by me, they’re playing catch up. As the grandfather of two youthful female athletes, I think it’s high time.
Back in 1981, my daughter was the second female in our (Baseball) Little League, so I’m good with that too.
But I believe your example, and my example here, have nothing to do with the ratio representation on these five quarters, when compared to the likely real life participant ratios in these depicted sports. That’s the observation I’m making. Chances are, two out of five would be closer to reality than 3 of 5. Would anyone be concerned (or notice) if the official choices were 2 of 5? But they chose 3 of 5, and as I indicated, that’s ok, but there’s nothing wrong with me making the observation that 3 of 5 is likely to be far from the current participation reality, and identifying a potential motivation for that decision. All I’m doing is making an observation of the reality, NOT complaining.
Steve
My collecting “Pride & Joy” is my PCGS Registry Dansco 7070 Set:
https://www.pcgs.com/setregistry/type-sets/design-type-sets/complete-dansco-7070-modified-type-set-1796-date/publishedset/213996
Steve, I agree that your math and understanding of reality are correct.
Spence