WASHINGTON — Utah Sen. John Curtis is pushing the U.S. Treasury to mint special edition coins commemorating the upcoming Olympics in Los Angeles and Salt Lake City under a new bill being introduced on Monday.
The legislation directs the Treasury secretary to issue the commemorative coins for the 2028 Summer Games in Los Angeles and the 2034 Winter Games in Salt Lake City. The 2028 L.A. Games will be first time the Olympics have been held in the United States since Utah’s 2002 Winter Games.
Curtis introduced the bill with California Sen. Alex Padilla.
“The 2034 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games will showcase Utah’s pioneer spirit, community strength, and commitment to excellence,” Curtis told the Deseret News in a statement. “These commemorative coins honor not just the athletes, but the values that built our state and the legacy we’ll pass on to future generations.”
The bill orders four different commemorative coins, all of which would be legal tender. It directs the Treasury to mint a $5 gold coin, a $1 silver coin, a half-dollar clad coin, and a proof silver $1 coin. Each would carry a surcharge, ranging from $5 to $50.
While the coins are historically used to commemorate the Games by celebrating the host city’s culture, they’re also used to raise money to help cover the costs of hosting one of the world’s largest international sporting events.
Utah’s Olympic organizers expect to spend $4 billion to put on the state’s second Winter Games, all the money coming from private sources, largely the sales of broadcast rights, sponsorships and tickets.
The federal government’s coin program is anticipated to contribute more than $5.4 million.
“The Olympic coin program is a great commemorative way to celebrate the hosting of the Games. I look forward to buying mine,” said Fraser Bullock, president and executive chair of the Organizing Committee for the 2034 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games.
“It is also an important fundraising activity for us,” Bullock said, given the projected revenues shared with the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee. Overall, the Games licensing program that also includes t-shirts and other merchandise accounts for $200 million in the budget.
Two years before the 2002 Winter Games, Congress authorized the minting of 80,000 $5 gold coins and 400,000 silver dollars that were expected to generate nearly $4 million. The collectable coins bore Games’ emblems, the Olympic rings and the Salt Lake skyline.
The bill requires the coins to contain inscriptions of the words ‘‘Liberty,’’ ‘‘In God We Trust,’’ ‘‘United States of America,’’ and ‘‘E Pluribus Unum," with the final design chosen by the Treasury secretary in consultation with Games organizers, and panels on the fine arts and coins.
The 2034 coins would be available starting Jan. 1, 2034, and be available for a year.
The coins will also commemorate the Paralympics for athletes with disabilities that follow the Olympics to “increase awareness and create more inclusivity for people with disabilities with the creation of a single, unifying coin to commemorate the Games,” according to the legislation.
A similar bill was introduced in 2023 by then-Utah Sen. Mitt Romney, who led Utah’s first Olympics. Bullock expressed gratitude to Romney’s successor, calling Curtis “a great friend to the Olympic and Paralympic movement.”