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Sacagawea Dollar
2000 - Present
Click for Sacagawea Dollar Pricing Guide
In December 1997, the President signed into law the United States Dollar Coin Act of 1997, requiring the Treasury Department to place into circulation a new one dollar coin, similar in size to the Susan B. Anthony one dollar coin. The legislation required that the Secretary of the Treasury, in consultation with Congress, select the designs for the obverse and reverse of the new one dollar coin. The reverse of the coin was required by statute to depict an eagle; the design of the obverse was left to the discretion of the Secretary.
It took many individuals to
help decide on the design for the new dollar coin. In April 1998, Secretary
Robert E. Rubin created the Dollar Coin Design Advisory Committee (DCDAC) to
consider design concepts for the obverse of the new dollar coin, and to
recommend to the Secretary a single such design concept. The committee's
membership included a member of Congress, a university president, the President
of the American Numismatic Society, the Undersecretary of the Smithsonian
Institute, a sculptor, and an architect. U.S. Mint Director Philip N. Diehl
chaired the committee in a non-voting capacity.
What exactly was supposed to go on the coin? Secretary Rubin gave design
parameters regarding the new coin to the committee. He asked that the design be
of one or more women, that it not depict a living person, and that the design
maintain a dignity befitting the Nation's coinage. In June 1998, the DCDAC met
in Philadelphia and listened to 17 design concept presentations from members of
the public. Many additional suggestions arrived via mail, phone calls to
individual committee members, and e-mail messages to the U.S. Mint Web site. The
next day, the committee deliberated in public session and considered six
finalist design concepts selected from the dozens of suggestions.
On June 9, 1998, the committee recommended that the new dollar coin bear a
design representing Sacagawea, the Native American woman whose presence was
essential to the success of the Lewis and Clark expedition. This raised
tremendous public interest, and some controversy surrounding the spelling of the
young Shoshone woman's name. On July 9, 1998, Secretary Rubin accepted the
Committee's recommendation and authorized the Mint to move forward with the
actual design of both the obverse and the reverse of the new dollar coin. The
decision to create a design inspired by Sacagawea reflects a long numismatic
tradition of placing symbolic and allegorical images of women and Native
Americans on U.S. coinage as a means of communicating our nation's history and
values.
In August 1998, the Mint wrote to a variety of organizations and individuals
requesting recommendations and information about artists who would be good
candidates to submit coin designs for this project. The Mint specifically sought
out artists with knowledge of Native American culture and history. After
reviewing the responses, the Mint invited 23 artists, including Mint sculptors
and engravers, to submit obverse and reverse designs for the new coin. The
artists were requested to be sensitive to cultural authenticity and to
specifically avoid creating a representation of a classical European face in
Native American headdress. The artists were also requested to create reverse
eagle designs that reflect peace and freedom, and, if submitting both obverse
and reverse designs, to attempt to create complementary designs. The Mint
received 121 designs.
In November and December, the Mint invited representatives of the Native
American community, numismatists, artists, educators, historians, Members of
Congress, US Mint and Treasury officers and employees, and other members of the
public to review and offer comment on all designs received. Using these comments
as a guide, the Mint narrowed the field to six obverse and seven reverse
designs.
From the final 13 designs, the field was narrowed down to seven designs (three
obverse, four reverse). On Thursday, December 17, the U.S. Commission on Fine
Arts recommended one obverse and one reverse to Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin.
The final design was announced on May 4, 1999, at an historic White House event.
At the same time, the event was broadcast live across the Internet via a
simultaneous Webcast.
The obverse design, by Glenna Goodacre, depicts the young Shoshone woman,
Sacagawea, portrayed in three-quarter profile. In the Shoshone verbal legend,
Sacagawea is described as having large dark eyes, a feature included in this
portrait relief. On her back, Sacagawea carries her infant son Jean Baptiste,
who she carried and cared for on her entire 3,000-mile portion of the expedition
with Lewis and Clark. Goodacre designed the obverse using a 22-year-old
Shoshone college student as her model. Goodacre, who is best known for her
sculpture honoring women at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial site, told The
Washington Post, "It's amazing to me to think that I'll have a small piece
of sculpture in people's pockets for years."
The reverse design, by Thomas D. Rogers, Sr., presents a soaring American bald eagle, our nation's symbol, encircled by 17 stars - symbolizing the states of the union at the time of the Lewis and Clark expedition in 1804.
The coin will be golden in
color, not silver toned. It will also have a "distinctive edge," which
means that it will not display the reeded edge as seen on the quarter or the
Susan B. Anthony dollar coin. However, it will be the same size as the Susan B.
Anthony dollar coin, which is 26.5 mm (1.043 inches) in diameter. The new coin
will have similar metallic, anti-counterfeiting properties as current
circulating U.S. coins.
Coins for general circulation will be minted at the Philadelphia and Denver Mint
facilities. Proof coins will be minted at the San Francisco mint.
First-strike ceremonies for the Sacagawea Dollars were held on November 18, 1999 at the Philadelphia Mint.
Although the new Sacagawea Dollars were not slated for release until March 1, 2000, a single example from the Philadelphia Mint was reportedly found in a Mint-sewn bag of 1999 Connecticut Quarter Dollars early in December 1999 (when Coin World staffers attended the first strike ceremonies at Philadelphia, they noted that "...Connecticut State quarters were being struck on high-speed presses, counted and placed inside Mint bags and sewn shut, and palletized less than 25 feet away from where 2000 [dated] Sacagawea dollars were being struck on similar presses and placed into hoppers for counting and bagging"). This coin was offered on eBay by Jared Burbank of J&J Coins of Pueblo, Colorado but the sale was closed prematurely on December 22, 1999 at a high bid of $1,136., pending an investigation by the Secret Service. Coincidentally, the coin was certified by Independent Coin Grading and graded MS-65 on December 21, 1999. The holder label identifies the certification date, thus assuring that this coin will always be recognized as the first one to leave the Mint, unofficially or otherwise. As of February 21, 2000, J&J Coins' website indicated that the Secret Service had cleared the coin for sale and that bids were being accepted for it.
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