Put Trump on a dollar coin

Start a new dollar coin tradition.

Every new President should be inaugurated simultaneously with the release of $1 coins bearing his portrait.

This idea is already all but impossible to implement.

The inauguration is Jan. 20, 2017.

Creating a coin bearing a portrait of Donald J. Trump in time would be a crash-course featuring all the problems of coin manufacturing.

There is also the not-so-little matter of congressional passage of authorizing legislation to contend with as well.

I have long thought that the limitations placed on the current Presidential dollar series cripples its appeal.

By not honoring the living ex-Presidents as well as the incumbent, the set is forever incomplete.

The current set begun in 2007 should be filled out as soon as practicable, but with the added stipulation that every new occupant of the Oval Office gets his dollar coin immediately.

The set would then be complete at all times.

It would be a living historical tutorial for anyone who assembles a set and keeps it current.

Imagine how popular a new Trump dollar would be. Millions of his supporters would eagerly buy it.

Far better for the Presidential series if it were to ride on the shoulders of partisanship every four or eight years with the addition of a new President than to leave it in the non-circulating shadows it currently occupies.

Harnessing the forces of partisanship might even push the new coins to actually circulate.

It might become a sign of support to spend the coins with the portrait of the new President.

Imagine a Coin and Chronicles Set.

The current Reagan set has sales of 36,946.

I would bet a Trump set would sell many multiples of that number.

It would be huge.

Better act fast. An opportunity like this comes around only once every four years.

Buzz blogger Dave Harper has twice won the Numismatic Literary Guild Award for Best Blog and is editor of the weekly newspaper "Numismatic News."

• Like this blog? Read more by subscribing to Numismatic News.