The Peace silver dollars came into circulation in 1921. The designer for the coin was Anthony de Francisci. De Francisci was an Italian immigrant who came to the US in 1905. He worked for a few noted coin designers. One of his mentors was James Earle Fraser, the designer of the Indian Head nickel, aka the Buffalo Nickel. Another mentor was Hermon Atkins MacNeil, the designer of the Standing Liberty Quarter. Another noted designer whom he worked with was Adolph Alexander Weinman, known for the Mercury dime and the Walking Liberty Half Dollar. De Francisci was one of eight sculptors asked to design a new silver dollar with the idea of commemorating the peace after the end of World War I. His design won and he got a $1500 prize.
The Peace dollars carry a stylized head of Liberty wearing a crown of rays. The reverse is a bald eagle perched with rays coming up from below. He is holding an olive branch for peace. The first run of coins, in 1921, were struck in high relief. This was causing problems with minting as well as stacking the coins. One million of these coins went out before the designers dealt with the problem. In 1922, the Mint started striking the coins with lower relief.
The Mint continued making the Peace silver dollars until 1928. At that point, there was little demand for the coins in circulation. They reappeared for limited runs in 1934 and 1935. The coins came out of the Philadelphia, Denver, and San Francisco mints. A limited number of proof coins were struck in 1921 and 1922. These proofs are extremely rare and bring high prices among coin collectors.
Some years and grades of Peace dollars command a higher price than others do. The coins minted in 1921 and 1928 came out in lower quantities than other years. Those coins minted in San Francisco in 1934 are also rarer than others are. However, the grade of the coin is significant. The coin must be in uncirculated condition to the highest prices. Coins minted in other years that are in the finest condition can also command a higher price.
Sacagawea Dollars were developed by the United States Mint as the next generation of dollar coins for general circulation. These coins were first issued in 2000. The idea was to eventually replace the $1 bill with these coins, since they would last much longer than paper bills. The government figured it could save $550 million every year in printing, storage, and shipping costs when they stopped printing the $1 bill. However, the government never found the willingness to stop producing the $1 bill. Today, the US mint continues to produce dollar coins, although circulation is limited.
The face design of the Sacagawea Dollar is that of the Shoshone woman, Sacagawea, with her infant son on her back. Sacagawea was part of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. She was the wife of a French trapper, Toussaint Charbonneau. A few months before she and Charbonneau left with Lewis and Clark, she gave birth to a son, Jean-Baptiste Charbonneau. That is the baby depicted on the coin. The Lewis and Clark Expedition picked up Charbonneau and his family in the spring of 1805. For the next year and a half, they traveled up the Missouri River, over the Rockies, and to the Pacific Coast, then back. They left the Charbonneau family in South Dakota at the end of the journey in August 1806.
There is no known portrait of the real Sacagawea. The designer of the Sacagawea Dollars, Glenna Goodacre, used a real Shoshone woman as a model to get a good approximation of Sacagawea’s possible face. The original design idea was to use Sacagawea as an ideal to recreate the early design of the Liberty Head gold dollar. However, the idea of using a more realistic portrait of the historical woman won out in the end.
In 2009, the US Mint began offering a redesigned reverse on Sacagawea dollars. The face remained the same. The reverse side now offers a scene to commemorate the contributions that Native American have had on the development of the United States. The design for 2009 Native American Dollar depicts a woman sowing squash, maize, and climbing beans, the three main crops of many Native tribes. These three also go by the name of the Three Sisters. The design for 2010 is the contributions made by the Iroquois Confederacy to the development of the United States government. All of these coins are available from the US Mint in uncirculated sets.
Susan B. Anthony Dollars were conceived with the purpose of creating a format for the denomination that would be readily used in commerce. Rather than using paper bills, which would wear out quickly, coins could last for decades saving the government money. It wasn’t that consumers were not amenable to the idea, but they found the new coins too easily confused with the quarter dollar.
Prior to the Anthony Dollar series, Eisenhower Dollars were struck for circulation for eight years. These coins had the same size as the classic silver dollar, although they were stuck in a composition of copper nickel clad. This series was often criticized for being too large and bulky for use in commerce. Outside of use in some casinos, not many were used in commercial transactions.
In 1979, the US Mint released the new Susan B. Anthony Dollars. These attempted to overcome the problems of the prior series. They were sized at 26.5 millimeters, smaller than the traditional 38.1 millimeters for the denomination. The inner rim was given thirteen sides, which would allow the coins to be differentiated by touch. A new design was used for the coins, with the portrait of the famous figure from the womens suffrage movement on the obverse. The reverse carried the same design as the prior series, based on the Apollo 11 mission insignia.
About 750 million of the new coins would be struck for the first year of issue at the mint facilities located at Philadelphia, Denver, and San Francisco. The large scale production was performed in anticipation of widespread public adoption. Despite some favorable publicity around the release, public sentiment quickly turned. People found the coins too difficult to differentiate from the quarter dollar, and even the half dollar. Confusion ensued and many merchants would not accept the coins.
Coining of the new denomination slowed in the following year, and by 1981 coins were only struck for collectors. The idea of a dollar coin fell out of favor until almost two decades later, when a new golden colored dollar coin was under development. It was at the same time that the supply of Susan B. Anthony Dollars finally ran dry. Although the coins were not widely used by the public, certain vending machines began to utilize the coins more readily. The Anthony Dollars were struck for one final year before being resigned to the history books.