The newly launched Donald Trump coin, a special edition marking the 250th anniversary of the United States, is worth one dollar but sells for considerably more than that.
The United States Mint's website now sells rolls of 25 coins for $61 and bags of 100 coins for $154.50. They can also be purchased at the agency's store in Washington, D.C., for $5 each.
The legality of it all has been questioned by both Republicans and Democrats, according to The Washington Post.
The US Treasury Department claims that the coin is completely legal - both as a collector's item and a means of payment - citing a 2020 law that allows the production of coins "symbolic of the 250th anniversary of the United States" in 2026.
Trump everywhere
But according to federal law and tradition in the United States, living people are not allowed to grace the nation's currency. The only president to do so is Calvin Coolidge, who put his face on a coin commemorating the nation's 150th birthday in 1926.
Donald Trump's face has popped up in countless places during his second term: on passports, national park passes, and banners draped over government buildings. It's drawing criticism. Putting your own name on "everything" is what autocrats around the world have done for centuries, history professor Ruth Ben-Ghiat noted on NPR in March.
That the leader must be everywhere, his face must be everywhere, his name must be everywhere, and his aesthetics, his taste must be reflected in buildings, in the people around him. The autocrat wants to recreate the world in his own image, she said.
"This self-aggrandizement, unprecedented in the history of the presidency, puts him in the company of conquerors and dictators," read an analysis in The New York Times last year.
Bibles and shoes
The bill is paid by taxpayers, claims Democratic Senator Adam Schiff.
"Not only a terrible waste of the American people’s hard-earned dollars, but also an illegal use of public funds," he wrote on X in July.
The proceeds from the coins go to the treasury, not to Trump himself. However, the profits from a range of cryptocurrencies and commercial products - including Bibles and golden shoes - that the Trump family has put their name on in recent years do.
The president's business dealings are controversial to say the least, as he enriches himself in industries that his own government shapes and regulates. Critics say it is a clear abuse of the presidency.
During his current term in office, Donald Trump has earned large sums of money from products with the president's name and face on them: everything from Bibles, clothes and guitars to perfumes, watches and shoes, according to Business Insider.
The Trump family has also launched a mobile phone, but it appears to have gone up in smoke. Most of the approximately 590,000 Americans who paid a total of nearly $60 million in deposits over a year ago are still waiting, according to The Verge and BBC.
Trump has also made billions in cryptocurrencies through the family company World Liberty Financial (WLF) and so-called memcoin in his and his wife's names.
Last year, the president withdrew $1.2 billion - around 11.5 billion Swedish kronor - from cryptocurrency-related activities, according to official documents reported by the AP news agency, for example.
