Gold Dollar Piece With Indian Lady With Baby on One Side and Man in Field on Other Side

Sacagawea Golden Dollar Coin

Background

The U.S. Mint issued the Sacagawea Golden Dollar from 2000 to 2008. Information technology was the offset dollar made with an outer layer of manganese brass, giving it a gilt colour. The obverse design features Sacagawea and the reverse depicts a soaring eagle. In 2009, the dollar transitioned to the Native American $1 Money Program using the Sacagawea obverse paired with dissimilar reverse designs each year.

The Life of Sacagawea

Sacagawea was the Shoshone Indian who assisted the historic Lewis and Clark trek. From 1804-1806, while still a teenager, she guided the adventurers from the Northern Not bad Plains to the Pacific Bounding main and back. Her husband and their son, who was born during the trip, also accompanied the group.

At almost the age of xi, Sacagawea was captured by a Hidatsa raiding political party and taken from her Shoshone tribe. She was later sold into slavery with the Missouri River Mandans. They then sold her (or gave her away in a bet) to Toussaint Charbonneau, a French-Canadian fur trader, who made her his wife.

Hired by Lewis and Clark

Charbonneau was hired by Captains Lewis and Clark primarily because of the skills his married woman, Sacagawea, possessed. Sacagawea was merely 15 years sometime at the time and already six months meaning. Despite these possible limitations for such an arduous journey, she knew several Indian languages, and beingness Shoshone, could assist Lewis and Clark make contact with her people and acquire horses that were crucial to the success of the mission.

Her contribution far exceeded anything Lewis and Clark had expected. She provided crucial knowledge of the topography of some of the near rugged country of Due north America and taught the explorers how to discover edible roots and plants previously unknown to European-Americans. With her infant son bound to her back, she single-handedly rescued Helm Clark's journals from the Missouri whitewater when their boat capsized. If she had non, much of the record of the get-go year of the expedition would have been lost to history.

Virtually crucially, however, Sacagawea and her infant served as a "white flag" of peace for the trek. They entered potentially hostile territory well-armed just undermanned compared to the Native American tribes they met. Because no war party was ever accompanied past a woman and babe, the response of the Native Americans was curiosity, non assailment. They talked first, and Sacagawea oftentimes served as the translator. Non a single member of the party was lost to hostile action.

After the Expedition

It is non surprising that subsequently their trip ended, the adventurers felt a lifelong debt to Sacagawea. In fact, Clark wrote to Charbonneau that Sacagawea deserved a greater advantage than what the expedition gave her. His sense of indebtedness to Sacagawea is reflected a few years later when Clark accepted responsibility for educating Sacagawea's son and, after Sacagawea's death at the age of 25, for a daughter as well. Sacagawea's grave is in Lander, Wyoming.

The Coin Design Choice Procedure

The public played a unique and historic role in picking a blueprint concept for the dollar. In June 1998, the Dollar Coin Design Advisory Committee (DCDAC) convened in Philadelphia to determine on a blueprint concept in a public session. The committee included a member of Congress, a university president, the president of the American Numismatic Lodge, the under secretary of the Smithsonian Plant, a sculptor, and an architect. U.S. Mint Managing director Philip Due north. Diehl chaired the committee in a non-voting chapters.

The DCDAC listened to 17 design concept presentations from members of the public, as well as to numerous messages submitted by the public. The committee recommended that the dollar coin bear the paradigm of Sacagawea.

The Public Reviews the Designs

The Mint invited 23 artists to submit designs with an image of Sacagawea for the obverse and complimentary reverse eagle designs reflecting peace and freedom. The Mint then invited representatives of the Native American community, numismatists, artists, educators, historians, members of Congress, Mint and Treasury employees, and other members of the public to review and comment on all designs received. In add-on, historians advised the United States Mint on the historical merits of each finalist pattern.

Using these comments as a guide, the Mint narrowed the designs to seven and submitted them to the Commission of Fine Arts in December 1998.

Choosing the Last Design

The Commission of Fine Arts provided its recommendation to the Mint. After much review of all the input received to engagement, the Mint presented the final designs to the Secretarial assistant of the Treasury. On May 4, 1999, the Mint unveiled the selected design by sculptor Glenna Goodacre at the White Business firm.

The Mint consulted with historians and Native American representatives on several aspects of the design. Historical records utilise conflicting spellings of Sacagawea's name. Based on several highly regarded gimmicky works, the Mint decided to use the "Sacagawea" spelling. The issue of how Sacagawea would have carried her infant is also one that the Mint spent a neat bargain of fourth dimension examining. Consultants concluded that it is reasonable to assume that at some signal on her journey, Sacagawea carried her son on her dorsum in Hidatsa custom instead of a Shoshone cradleboard.

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Characteristics

Obverse Design

The Gilt Dollar's obverse, or heads, has Sacagawea portrayed in three-quarter profile. In a divergence from numismatic tradition, she looks straight at the holder. Glenna Goodacre, the artist of the obverse, included the big, nighttime eyes attributed to Sacagawea in Shoshone legends. Goodacre used a present-twenty-four hours Shoshone college student, Randy'Fifty He-dow Teton, as her model.

On her back, Sacagawea carries Jean Baptiste, her infant son. Six months pregnant when she joined the Lewis and Clark expedition, Sacagawea gave birth to Jean Baptiste early in the journeying.

Reverse Design

Designed to complement the obverse, the selected reverse features a soaring eagle encircled by 17 stars. The 17 stars represent each state in the Union at the time of the 1804 Lewis and Clark expedition.

Obverse Inscriptions

• Liberty
• IN GOD WE TRUST
• Year

Reverse Inscriptions

• United states of america
• E PLURIBUS UNUM
• ONE DOLLAR

Mint and Mint Marking

• Denver
• Philadelphia
• San Francisco

Specifications

The dollar coin features distinguishing traits, including: a gold color, actress-wide border, polish edge, and specially designed alloy. The Golden Dollar is: 8.1 grams in weight, 2 mm thick, and 26.5 mm in diameter.

The coin'due south physical makeup is a iii-layer clad construction - pure copper sandwiched betwixt outer layers of manganese contumely. Like whatsoever brass, its color somewhen becomes darker, giving the coins an antique end. If the coins are handled frequently, the darker "patina" may wear off the high points, leaving brighter highlights that give depth to Sacagawea confronting the darker background.

Manganese brass composition:

• 77% copper
• 12% zinc
• seven% manganese
• 4% nickel

Golden Dollar's overall composition:

• 88.5% copper
• half-dozen% zinc
• 3.5% manganese
• two% nickel

Creative person Information

Obverse

• Designer: Glenna Goodacre

Reverse

• Designer: Thomas Rogers

Content final reviewed February 22, 2021

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Source: https://www.usmint.gov/coins/coin-medal-programs/circulating-coins/sacagawea-golden-dollar