EXAMINING THE WORLD’S COINS
Putting the sitting president’s face on coins would be a dramatic departure from US tradition. The only previous such instance in the country’s history was a 1926 commemorative half-dollar showing then-President Calvin Coolidge alongside George Washington.
But what about other countries in the contemporary world? How normal is it for their sitting leaders to appear on their coins?
Using the most recent edition of Coin & Mint News’ Directory of Circulating Coins – a standard reference for coin professionals working at national mints and central banks – I counted the images of sitting state leaders on the circulating coins of the world as of 2024. (Note: This data has not yet gone through rigorous peer review.)
Analysing nearly 1,000 coins from 165 independent countries, I counted only 22 countries – about 13 per cent of the total – whose circulating coins feature their sitting head of state. This number includes coins depicting heads of state who were in office when the coin was originally issued, whether or not they were still there in 2024.
Almost all the sitting heads of state who appear on the circulating coins that I analysed are hereditary monarchs.
If a country is a hereditary monarchy, there is a high chance that its reigning king or queen is on its circulating coins. This is the case for about 62 per cent of the monarchies in my database, or 21 out of 34.
On the other hand, if a country is not a hereditary monarchy, its sitting head of state is almost certainly not on its circulating coins. This is the case for 99 per cent of the nonmonarchy countries in my database, or 130 out of 131.
The lone exception is Samoa, a parliamentary democracy whose circulating coins all feature the country’s head of state as of 2011, the coins’ original year of issuance. However, even Samoa is hardly an exception, as its political culture has many of the trappings of a monarchy: Its head of state is called “His Highness”, and he is traditionally chosen from among the country’s four paramount chieftains.
