The U.S. Is So Over World Peace It Erased the Olive Branch from the Dime

Since 1946, every U.S. dime has been the same, with Franklin D. Roosevelt on the head and a torch centered between an oak branch and an olive branch—the international symbol of peace and diplomacy—on the back. But in the nation’s latest move to shrug off peace or diplomacy of any kind, within the world, with its states, or with its own citizens, we’ve apparently decided we don’t need a pesky olive branch anymore!

In one of the dumbest, most needless aesthetic decisions to come out of Trump’s anti-DEI crusade, the nation’s newest dime replaces the torch with a bald eagle holding arrows in its left talon and gets rid of the olive branch altogether. The design was announced with little fanfare in December, and has been circulating since the beginning of the year—which I hadn’t noticed until reading this op-ed in Fortune on Thursday. 

For a nation whose founding symbols were carefully engineered around the balance of peace and war, that omission is hard to read as accidental.

Dropping the olive branch from the dime isn’t just a design choice: it’s a cultural signal. The Founders spent six years perfecting the balance between peace and war on the Great Seal. Erasing half of that equation, on a coin meant to celebrate their legacy and especially 250 years after they fought for “Liberty over Tyranny,” says something about which half the country currently feels like.

Which is some real nickel-and-dime BS. The U.S. has had the “Great Seal” since 1782, which depicts an eagle holding 13 arrows in one claw and an olive branch in another, with its head deliberately turned towards the branch, as a gesture of its dedication to using diplomatic politics before getting aggressive as a last resort. As Fortune writes, Charles Thomson—a Founding Father and one of the seal’s original designers, who died in 1824—said the head positioning was deliberate, and a direct nod to the Olive Branch Petition, when Congress made its independence-winning appeal to Britain in 1775.

“The new Semiquincentennial Quarter designs will celebrate American history and the founding of our great nation,” a U.S. Treasurer spokesperson told Fox News when the designs were first unveiled in December. “While the Biden administration and Secretary Yellen remained focused on DEI and Critical Race Theory policies, the Trump administration is dedicated to fostering prosperity and patriotism. We have no doubt these new designs will be wildly popular with the American people.” 

Ah, yes, the DEI and CRT policies that didn’t make removing a symbol of peace from our money a top priority. The horror. The new dime will include the inscription “Liberty over Tyranny,” a new addition alongside the typical “E pluribus unum.” While I obviously think this is so stupid, I’m at least thankful that we’ve somehow been spared from the even more stupid $1 Trump coin. 

Along with the new dimes, the U.S. unveiled five new quarters meant to represent five points of American history, including the signing of the Mayflower Compact; the Revolutionary War; the signing of the Declaration of Independence; and Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. “The designs on these historic coins depict the story of America’s journey toward a ‘more perfect union,’ and celebrate America’s defining ideals of liberty,” Mint Acting Director Kristie McNally announced in December. “We hope to offer each American the opportunity to hold our nation’s storied 250 years of history in the palms of their hands.” 

I’ve yet to see any of these dimes in the flesh, and now that pretty much everywhere is contactless, I doubt I ever will. I will be waiting for George W.Bush’s two cents on this, though.

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