US coins depicting people still alive at the time

This is something I thought of back when the Trump dollar was proposed; I know there were other US coins depicting people, who at the time of their minting, were in fact still alive. Generally this is not supposed to happen according to certain laws, but exceptions tend to be made for commemorative coins.

These are the ones I know of, if I missed any let me know:
1. 1921 Alabama Centennial half dollar, depicts then Alabama governor Thomas Kilby, who died in 1943. The first ever US coin to depict someone still alive at the time of minting. Also, so far, this is the longest someone depicted on a coin while still alive, lived after being so depicted.

2. 1926 American Sesquicentennial half dollar, depicts then president Calvin Coolidge, who died in 1933. The first, and as of now the only, president to be on a US coin while is still alive(this may change if the proposed Trump dollar actually gets minted).

3. 1936 Lynchburg, Virginia, Sesquicentennial half dollar, depicts Senator Carter Glass, who died in 1946.

4. 1936 Arkansas Centennial half dollar, depicts Senator Joseph Robinson, who died in 1937.

5. 1995 Special Olympics silver dollar, depicts Eunice Shriver, who died in 2009.

6. 2016 Nancy Reagan first lady $10 gold coin, that depicts Nancy Reagan, who died on March 6, 2016... this one is kind of a technicality, because while she was still alive when the coin was designed and minted, she died before the coin was officially released to the public on July 1, 2016. To date, among people depicted on a coin while still alive, Nancy Reagan lived the shortest amount of time after being so depicted.

7. Even more of a technicality, and most people don't include this one on the list:
2019 Apollo 11 50th anniversary half dollar/silver dollar/$5 gold piece/5 oz. silver coin:
the design on the reverse is based on a photograph of Neil Armstrong on the moon, who died in 2012, but... Buzz Aldrin took the picture, and you can clearly see his shadow in the design, so it technically depicts Buzz Aldrin too, who as of time I write this is still alive (born in 1930, he is currently 95 years old).

I don't think I missed any (and I don't count medals minted by the US Mint, where there is no rule or guideline against depicting still living people, and such a thing is done very often. List of US medals depicting still living people would be WAY too long lol. Some of them are even currently for sale on the Mint's website). If there's any I missed let me know.

 

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All right, that's even too picky for me.

 

Lol... well, it is technically correct, which is the best kind of correct...

 

Were any of those coins intended for circulation? I know they're technically money but never used as such.

 

Did some further research, and took a good look at the reverse design of the Apollo 11 coin....

The photograph it's based on was actually taken by Neil Armstrong. But the composition of the photograph is a little strange, because of what you're looking at. It's zoomed in, but that's the helmet of Buzz Aldrin (so yes, Buzz Aldrin is in the picture, since he's wearing that helmet). The visor of the helmet shows the reflection... of Neil Armstrong. The shadow is Buzz Aldrin's (so I got that part right at least!). This is, btw, the only photograph we have of Neil Armstrong on the moon, since he never thought to hand the camera to Aldrin to get in any of the pictures, and it happened entirely on accident.

So this coin isn't as picky as I thought, though technically you can't see Buzz Aldrin's face in the reverse design. But the entire design is framed by Aldrin's helmet, and his head was in that helmet, so... it is still a depiction of Buzz Aldrin, so it counts! It is still really nitpicky lol just not for the reason I originally thought.

After all, the famous photograph of the raising of the flag on Iwo Jima, we still count the people in the picture whose faces we can't clearly see, as being in the picture. So by the same standard, Buzz Aldrin is in that picture, and on that coin.

 

None were intended to circulate (although in the classic commemorative days, sometimes they did anyway).

 

Intended for circulation is not really important in the context - I believe the law is supposed to apply to all legal tender.

Hence why each president gets a bronze medal, First Ladies, etc.

 

There was a good bit of paper money issued with pictures of living persons, including Salmon P. Chase, Lincoln's Secretary of the Treasury, on the Legal Tender $1 of 1862 (Fr. #4) and Lincoln himself on the $10 Demand Note of 1861 (FR. #2).

William P. Fessenden succeeded Chase in 1864 and got his picture on the Third issue 25-cent note.

F. E. Spinner, Treasurer of the U.S. from 1861-1875, not only got his picture on the Third Issue 50-cent note, he also signed it.


That all came to an end with this note, with the portrait of Spencer M. Clark, Superintendent of the National Currency Bureau (forerunner of the BEP), who put his own portrait on it. Congress was so mad they outlawed 5 cent bills and living persons on the money.

(Sorry about the wonky angle of the picture.)

 

Exceptions to laws are made all the time, and laws can be changed. For example, a design on a circulating coin is supposed to be in place for at least 25 years before it's changed... but many circulating coin designs lasted less than 25 years, like Standing Liberty quarters and Franklin half dollars.

The thing with commemorative coins is that each is typically authorized with a one-time piece of legislation. And that legislative act is essentially a one-time exception to many of the laws that otherwise apply to circulating coins, including the law that's supposed to otherwise prohibit still-living people from being depicted on coins.

The legislation that authorized the presidential dollars, as well as the first lady $10 gold coins, specified that it would only depict presidents that had been dead for at least 2 years. And it would depict their first ladies, if they had one, on the $10 gold coins (bronze medals would also be made for the first ladies). But nothing in that legislation said anything about the first ladies needing to not be living... hence why Nancy Reagan was on the $10 gold coin while still alive (although she died before the coins were released to the public).

Medals are an entirely different thing, and not subject to the same laws that apply to coins and currency. Still living people are put on medals all the time; why I didn't count any in the list.

 

Here's one that is technically NOT of a living person. The 1992 Olympic Silver Dollar features a baseball pitcher on the front that strongly resembled baseball legend Nolan Ryan on his 1991 Fleer card. The Mint denied that the image was that of Ryan.

 

Well that's technically correct, but...

 

I often wonder if there were several human landings on the moon. With all the new technology of today, why can't they get anyone there now? Think about it!

 

Of course we could. There’s just no real reason to put a human there when we can use rovers etc.

 

Money!

 

What do you believe happened instead?

"They" (we) certainly can get people there now. It's just that we're not as willing to put people in great danger without a pressing need - and, make no mistake, getting to the Moon and back put the astronauts in extreme danger. Putting people on the Moon with 1960s technology was more a stunt than a stepping-stone. And, of course, there's the colossal expense.

Space is hard, and getting there is expensive and messy, and we need economic or political justification to do more than we're already doing. I can think of lots of economic justifications, but I'm not really in a position to evaluate them against the risks and expense.

We do have individuals like Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Richard Branson pushing to get more people into space. Since I grew up on science fiction and the Apollo program, I'd like to see them succeed in those efforts. But I'm not sure their judgement on the issues is that much better than mine.