President Donald Trump's administration is weathering criticism after it removed an important detail from the new U.S. dime that is being released this year.
The Emerging Liberty Dime, introduced late last year, replaces the long-standing image of Franklin D. Roosevelt that traditionally appeared on the front of the dime. It also removes the familiar reverse imagery of a torch flanked by an olive branch and an oak branch.
The dime is one of several coins issued for the country’s United States Semiquincentennial, with designs meant to mark 250 years of American liberty and highlight key moments in the nation’s history, according to the U.S. Mint.
In the updated design, Lady Liberty faces right, her hair swept forward by the wind. On the reverse side, a flying eagle grips arrows in one talon while glancing toward its other foot, which is empty. The U.S. Mint says the eagle with arrows is meant to evoke the American Revolution and the colonists’ struggle for independence.
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Although the design was revealed months ago, it drew renewed attention after Fortune published an analysis arguing that the absence of an olive branch—commonly interpreted as a symbol of peace—could be read as a meaningful cultural signal. The discussion has surfaced even as Trump has repeatedly referred to himself as the “president of peace" despite launching a war with Iran.
The imagery partly draws from the Great Seal of the United States, where an eagle traditionally holds both arrows and an olive branch. In 1782, Charles Thomson, who helped design the seal with William Barton, wrote that the symbols represented the nation’s powers of both “peace and war,” which are vested in Congress.
The removal of this very telling detail—coming at a time when the Trump administration is tearing apart longstanding alliances—sparked criticism.
Legislation authorizing the commemorative coins was signed in 2021 by Trump near the end of his first term. While the design process spanned several years—continuing through the presidency of Joe Biden—the final approval rested with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, according to reporting by The Washington Post.
The Treasury Department also reportedly reshaped the broader commemorative program, discarding three of five quarter designs previously recommended by the Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee in 2024.
Those proposals referenced abolition, women’s suffrage, and the civil rights movement. In their place, the United States Mint chose themes centered on Pilgrims, the Revolutionary War, and the Gettysburg Address.
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