The United States Mint opened pre-sales for the 2026 Freedom 250 Race Medal at noon Eastern on August 21, priced at $60 against a mintage ceiling of 15,000 pieces. The timing is not incidental. Roughly a day after the ordering window opens, IndyCar drivers will take to a temporary street circuit laid out around the National Mall for the first auto race ever staged in the nation’s capital.
That sequencing gives the medal an unusual position within the Mint’s Semiquincentennial output. Most of the 2026 program looks backward, to 1776, to the Declaration, to the founding generation. This one documents an event that has not happened yet at the moment collectors are asked to order it.
The Freedom 250 Grand Prix Was Created by Executive Order
The Freedom 250 Grand Prix of Washington, D.C. exists because of a presidential directive rather than a promoter’s business case. President Trump signed an executive order on January 30, 2026, instructing the Departments of Transportation and the Interior to designate a race route through Washington and the National Mall for an NTT INDYCAR SERIES event tied to America’s 250th birthday.
What the agencies produced is a 1.7 mile temporary circuit with seven turns, running past the Washington Monument and the U.S. Capitol and taking in nearly half a mile of Pennsylvania Avenue as its longest straight. Organizers originally planned a 125 lap contest. That was extended to 147 laps, which brings the race distance to a marketable 250 miles, or 249.9 by INDYCAR’s official reckoning, in deliberate echo of the anniversary the whole weekend exists to mark.
The Mint’s release describes the event as taking place August 22 and 23. The two day motorsports program does run across both days, though the INDYCAR race itself is scheduled for Sunday, August 23.
Freedom 250 Race Medal Obverse: An Indy Car and the U.S. Capitol
The obverse places an Indy Car inscribed with USA in the foreground, with the United States Capitol rising behind it. The inscriptions UNITED STATES OF AMERICA and FREEDOM 250 complete the design.
The pairing does the work that a generic racing image could not. A car on its own would commemorate motorsport in the abstract, and the Mint has no shortage of ways to do that. The Capitol fixes the design to one weekend, one city, and one course. It is a design about place as much as speed.
That also makes it a notably contemporary subject for a U.S. Mint product. The bulk of American numismatics documents history at a distance of decades or centuries. Here the Mint is producing a record of an event while the event is still ahead of it.
Freedom 250 Race Medal Reverse: The Roger Penske Portrait
The reverse turns away from the machinery and toward a person. It carries a portrait of Roger Penske with the inscriptions MOTORSPORT PIONEER and ROGER PENSKE.
Penske’s career supports the description. He raced successfully as a young driver before stepping away from competition in 1965 to concentrate on business, founded the organization that became Team Penske in 1966, and entered the Indianapolis 500 for the first time in 1969 with Mark Donohue. Six decades on, the team’s record includes 20 Indianapolis 500 victories, more than any other in the history of the event.
Readers should note the other half of that résumé. Penske Entertainment owns both the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the NTT INDYCAR SERIES, which is to say that the figure on the reverse also owns the racing series competing on the obverse’s circuit this weekend. Mint Director Paul Hollis framed the medal as a combination of national pride, engineering advancement, and the legacy of American open wheel racing, and as a Semiquincentennial piece aimed at motorsport enthusiasts and collectors alike.
A U.S. Mint Medal Struck on a Half Dollar Planchet
For numismatists, the most interesting decision on this release is not a design choice at all. It is the blank.
The Philadelphia Mint is striking the Freedom 250 designs on a clad half dollar planchet. The resulting piece measures 30.61 mm and weighs 11.340 grams, with a composition of 8.33% nickel and the balance copper, a plain edge, and a matte finish. Those are the physical specifications of circulating American coinage, carrying designs that have nothing to do with circulating American coinage.
The distinction matters. This is a medal, not a coin. It carries no denomination, it is not legal tender, and it did not require the congressional authorization that governs commemorative coin programs. Despite the Philadelphia production, the piece carries no mint mark. The Mint established the $60 price through a Federal Register notice published August 21 under its authority at 31 U.S.C. 5111.
What collectors get, then, is the familiar heft and diameter of a half dollar in a format that is otherwise entirely free of the constraints a half dollar would impose.
At a glance
| Product | 2026 Freedom 250 Race Medal |
| Item number | 26DCRM |
| Price | $60.00 |
| Mintage limit | 15,000 |
| Product limit | 15,000 |
| Household order limit | None |
| Composition | 8.33% nickel, balance copper |
| Diameter | 1.205 inches (30.61 mm) |
| Weight | 11.340 g |
| Edge | Plain |
| Finish | Matte |
| Mint | Philadelphia |
| Mint mark | None |
| Pre-sale opens | August 21, 2026, 12:00 noon ET |
| Ordering window closes | September 4, 2026, 3:00 p.m. ET |
| Expected shipping | Beginning September 28, 2026 |
Freedom 250 Race Medal Mintage: 15,000 Is a Ceiling, Not a Total
The ordering structure deserves as much attention as the specifications. The window runs from noon Eastern on August 21 to 3:00 p.m. Eastern on September 4, with no household order limit currently listed.
Within that window, the Mint will produce the medal to demand. Orders received determine how many pieces are struck, subject to a hard ceiling of 15,000. The Mint has been explicit that no additional medals will follow once the window closes.
That creates a mintage figure nobody can quote yet. If demand falls short of the limit, the final population settles below 15,000 and stays there permanently. If it reaches the limit, the ceiling holds. Either way, the number that eventually appears in reference listings will be decided over the next two weeks by the collectors placing orders, not by a production schedule set in advance.
Each medal ships encapsulated in a black presentation box bearing the official United States Mint seal, with deliveries expected to begin September 28.
What the Freedom 250 Race Medal Actually Preserves
The Freedom 250 Race Medal sits at an odd intersection of modern American collecting. It is a Semiquincentennial product with no eighteenth century content, an official Mint issue that is not a coin, and a half dollar sized piece of Americana honoring a living businessman and a race that had never been run when the design was approved.
For collectors building the 2026 anniversary year in depth, that combination is the argument. Most commemoratives ask you to remember something. This one asks you to have been paying attention while it happened, and the two weeks between now and September 4 are the only window in which that will ever be possible.
Freedom 250 Race Medal FAQ
How much does the 2026 Freedom 250 Race Medal cost? The United States Mint set the price at $60.00. The figure was established by a Federal Register notice published August 21, 2026.
When does the Freedom 250 Race Medal pre-sale open and close? The ordering window opened at 12:00 noon Eastern on August 21, 2026 and closes at 3:00 p.m. Eastern on September 4, 2026.
What is the mintage of the Freedom 250 Race Medal? The mintage and product limits are both 15,000. The actual figure will be lower if orders fall short, because the Mint produces the medal to demand within the ordering window and will strike none afterward.
Is the Freedom 250 Race Medal a coin? No. It is a medal. It carries no denomination and is not legal tender, although it is struck on a clad half dollar planchet at the Philadelphia Mint.
What is pictured on the Freedom 250 Race Medal? The obverse shows an Indy Car inscribed USA with the United States Capitol behind it, along with UNITED STATES OF AMERICA and FREEDOM 250. The reverse carries a portrait of Roger Penske with MOTORSPORT PIONEER and ROGER PENSKE.
Why is Roger Penske on the medal? Penske founded the organization that became Team Penske in 1966 and has since built the winningest operation in Indianapolis 500 history, with 20 victories. Penske Entertainment also owns the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the NTT INDYCAR SERIES.
When does the Freedom 250 Race Medal ship? Shipping is expected to begin September 28, 2026. Each medal arrives encapsulated in a black presentation box with the official United States Mint seal.
Is there a household order limit? No household order limit is listed for item 26DCRM.
