AP Congress Changes Sacagawea Dollar Tuesday September 4, 4:01 pm ET By Jim Abrams, Associated Press Writer Congress Approves New Look for Sacagawea Dollar With Aim of Increasing Its Use WASHINGTON (AP) -- Congress on Tuesday approved a redesign of the Sacagawea dollar in hopes of enticing consumer and business use of the gold-colored dollar. Under legislation passed by voice vote in the House and sent to President Bush for his signature, new editions of the coin honoring the young Shoshone who helped Lewis and Clark on their trek to the Pacific Ocean more than 200 years ago will come out in 2009. The new coins will continue to depict Sacagawea and her child, but they will feature scenes on the reverse side, changed annually, commemorating the achievements of other Native Americans and Indian tribes. "These designs will take the American people to a journey of different experiences of native people by exposing them to their unique histories while preserving the memories of Sacagawea," said Rep. Dale Kildee, D-Mich., sponsor of the bill. The Sacagawea dollar was first minted in 2000 to replace the Susan B. Anthony dollar coin. But like its predecessor, it failed to win public acceptance and today is produced only for sale to collectors. The U.S. Mint this year has produced about 7.5 million Sacagawea coins. By comparison, through July this year the Mint has made about 775 million of the new presidential $1 coins. Those coins depict U.S. presidents, starting with George Washington, with a new coin coming out every three months. The bill requires that the newly designed Sacagawea coins comprise at least 20 percent of all $1 coins minted each year and instructs the Treasury Department to carry out an aggressive campaign to encourage commercial enterprises to accept and dispense the coins. The designs will be decided by the secretary of the Treasury in consultation with Congress, the National Congress of American Indians, the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts and the Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee. Among design suggestions are the Cherokee written language, the Iroquois Confederacy, the World War II codetalkers and Olympic athlete Jim Thorpe. Currently, the reverse of the coin shows an eagle with 17 stars representing the states at the time of the 1804 Lewis and Clark expedition.
Wow...sometimes you just have to laugh. The government thinks they're doing a great thing by honoring Native Americans on the reverse of the Sac dollar. While I think its nice that they're recognizing the achievments of the American Indian they're going about it in a backwards manner. While depicting a very few of the highlights in Native American history on the reverse of the coin ,they're, at the same time, depicting the beginning of the demise of the American Indian on the obverse, Sacagawea. Who led Lewis & Clark on their expedition to make way for settlers to go west, hence the meaning of the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, MO. I honestly support honoring the Native Americans but this coin contradicts itself. I believe it could have been done better.
This is a waste of the taxpayer's money and an insult to numastmitists Look, if you want to get the damn thing used -- don't change the frigging design all the time. Get rid of the dollar bill and FORCE people to use the coin. Everyone knows that, this will do nothing less than get fewer coins, which BTW aren't put into circulation anymore, out there. This is pandering to a minority group. Period, and I hope Bush vetoes this stupid bill.
Is there some sort of group, or non-profit, or PAC that is actively campaigning to remove the $1 bill from circulation? If so how do I contact them? If not, should I start one? Who's with me!
I think they're starting to spread themselves pretty thin. I finally got to see the new presidential dollar coins a few weeks ago (I'm not exactly what you'd call an early adopter) and it reminded me of a video game token. Has the impression of being a rough draft for a coin. I used a few at the farmer's market a few days ago and the vendors looked disappointed after their initial surprise. One of my main worries is with so many changes, the resulting coins won't look that great. If a new design can't win against the current design, don't change it merely for the sake of changing it. Changing the design every year seems to work well for the Australian bullion coins (as well as those from other countries), but those aren't circulated. The state quarters program seems to have worked well, too, but I doubt that those design changes made people use more quarters. More got hoarded, probably, but if that's the goal, start minting silver coins again ericl is right - the federal reserve note is the default, and changing peoples' habits is difficult to do. Sorry for the rant - I just got my 2007 proof sets and they reinforced my impression that the quality of the coinage has declined over the last 15 years or so. Makes me appreciate the older coins, though!
The sad part is even if Bush vetoes this, I think they can still go ahead and do this program........
Only if congress then votes on the bill again and passes it with a 66% of the votes to override his veto.
Just hope the Mint does not lead the coin collecting hobby down the same road as the sports card companies did 15 years ago
