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What Is the CCAC? How America's Coin Designs Get Chosen

Posted by NumisdexDealer· 0 replies

The Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee: America's Design Advisors

Every U.S. coin design you've ever held in your hand passed through a process that most Americans know nothing about. Before a design reaches the die, before the die strikes the blank, before the blank lands in your pocket — a committee of eleven citizens reviewed it, scored it, debated it, and sent a recommendation to the Treasury Secretary. That committee is the Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee, or CCAC.

Understanding the CCAC is essential for any serious numismatist who wants to follow upcoming coin programs, track design decisions, or simply understand why coins look the way they do. This post explains who the CCAC is, how it works, and how you — as a collector — can engage with the process.

Origins: Public Law 108-15

The CCAC was established by Public Law 108-15, the American 5-Cent Coin Design Continuity Act of 2003. Despite its name, this law did much more than address the nickel — it created a permanent advisory body to provide public input on all U.S. coin and medal designs. The CCAC replaced a more informal advisory structure and gave the design review process a statutory foundation.

Before the CCAC's creation, coin design advisory input came from various ad hoc sources. The new law formalized the process, specified the committee's composition, defined its mandate, and required that its recommendations be recorded and made public.

Committee Composition: Eleven Members

The CCAC has eleven members, appointed by different principals to ensure a diversity of perspectives:

  • 4 members appointed by the President of the United States — these include one member with expertise in American history, one with expertise in medallic art or sculpture, one representing the interests of the general public, and one who is a numismatist
  • 3 members appointed by the Speaker of the House of Representatives
  • 3 members appointed by the President pro tempore of the Senate
  • 1 member appointed by the Secretary of the Treasury — a numismatist representing the interests of coin collectors

Members serve four-year terms and may be reappointed once, for a maximum of eight years of consecutive service. This term structure ensures regular turnover while allowing for institutional continuity.

The CCAC's Mandate

The CCAC advises the Secretary of the Treasury on:

  • Themes and design concepts for U.S. coins and medals
  • Proposed designs submitted by the U.S. Mint
  • The overall quality and artistic merit of coin designs

The key word is "advises." The CCAC does not make final decisions — that authority rests with the Secretary of the Treasury. The CCAC's recommendations are formal and public, and the Secretary typically follows them, but is not legally bound to do so.

The Scoring System

When the CCAC reviews candidate designs for a coin program, it uses a scored voting methodology:

  • Each member scores each design candidate on a scale that typically allows up to 3 points per design per member
  • With 11 members fully present, the maximum theoretical score is 33 points
  • The number of voting members present at any given meeting affects the maximum score — sessions sometimes have fewer than 11 members, which is why scores like "23 out of 27" appear in meeting minutes (27 = 9 members × 3 points)
  • Designs are ranked by total score
  • When two designs tie, the committee conducts a roll-call voice vote to determine the final recommendation

This system produces clear, comparable data across all candidates in a session. A score of 28/33 represents near-consensus enthusiasm; a score of 12/24 with 6 abstentions signals that the committee found the subject matter difficult to render rather than objectionable.

The Commission of Fine Arts: A Parallel Review

The CCAC is not the only body that reviews U.S. coin designs. The Commission of Fine Arts (CFA) — a separate federal advisory body established in 1910 — also reviews coin designs as part of its broader mandate to evaluate the aesthetic quality of federal art, architecture, and design.

The CFA and CCAC serve complementary but distinct roles:

  • The CCAC scores designs numerically, includes numismatists and members of the public, and focuses on whether a design best serves the coin's purpose and program mandate
  • The CFA evaluates aesthetic quality from a fine arts and design perspective, with members who are typically architects, artists, and landscape architects

Neither body's recommendations are binding. Both bodies' recommendations go to the Secretary of the Treasury, who has final authority.

The Secretary of the Treasury Makes the Final Decision

This is perhaps the most important fact for collectors to understand: neither the CCAC nor the CFA makes the final call. The Secretary of the Treasury is the ultimate decision-maker on all U.S. coin designs. In practice, Secretaries typically follow the CCAC's recommendations — but not always, and the degree to which a given Secretary engages with the advisory process varies by administration.

For collectors tracking upcoming coin programs, this means that a CCAC recommendation is a strong signal of what a coin will look like — but not a guarantee until the Secretary's letter of approval is issued.

Public Access: Meetings, Minutes, and Design Portfolios

All CCAC meetings are open to the public. Meetings are held in Washington, D.C. (typically at the U.S. Mint headquarters or a nearby federal facility), and they are also streamed and archived for remote access. Meeting agendas, minutes, and the full design portfolios — including all candidate designs, not just the winners — are published on the CCAC's official website at ccac.gov.

This level of transparency is genuinely unusual for a federal advisory body. The coin design process is one of the most publicly accessible design review processes in the U.S. government. Collectors who want to see every candidate design for a coin program — including the designs that were rejected — can find them in the CCAC's public records.

How Collectors Can Participate

There are several ways for numismatists and members of the public to engage with the CCAC process:

  • Attend public meetings: CCAC meetings are open. You can attend in person or watch the livestream. The schedule is posted on ccac.gov.
  • Submit written comments: During active design review periods, the public can submit written comments to the CCAC for consideration. Comment instructions are typically posted with the meeting agenda.
  • Review design portfolios: After each meeting, the full design portfolio — including all candidates and their scores — is published. This is valuable primary source material for collectors interested in the design history of specific coin programs.
  • Follow Secretary letters: The Secretary of the Treasury's formal design approval letters are public documents and mark the point at which a design is officially selected.

Recent CCAC Activity and This Post Series

The CCAC has been particularly active in 2026, reviewing designs for a range of new programs. NumisDex has covered several of these in detail:

Each of these posts demonstrates a different aspect of the CCAC design review process in action — from the scored voting mechanics and roll-call tiebreakers to the specific modification recommendations (like the Molten basketball on the Paralympic Half Dollar) that reflect the committee's detailed engagement with each design.

For collectors who want to follow the CCAC process in real time, bookmarking ccac.gov and checking it ahead of each meeting is the most direct way to stay current. NumisDex will continue covering significant CCAC meeting outcomes as new coin programs progress through the design review pipeline.

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