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Message:: [QUOTE="Troodon, post: 26575062, member: 4626"]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.[/QUOTE]