Collecting Friends: Different Kinds of American Innovation

Different Kinds of American Innovation

Dennis: Steve, our recent conversation about state-related coins makes me curious about your opinion on the American Innovation dollars—specifically, how to define “innovation.”

These coins share a common obverse motif (a nice view of the Statue of Liberty, designed by Artistic Infusion Program artist Justin Kunz and sculpted by Mint engraver Phebe Hemphill; image courtesy U.S. Mint). Reverse designs vary, one for each state in the order they ratified the Constitution or joined the Union, followed by the District of Columbia and each of the five U.S. territories. Per their authorizing legislation, the coins “symbolize quintessentially American traits—the willingness to explore, to discover, and to create one’s own destiny.”

 In 2018 the series kicked off with an inaugural coin representing the overall program. It shows interlocking gears and cogs symbolizing American industry, along with George Washington’s signature and SIGNED FIRST PATENT. Washington authorized the first-ever U.S. patent on July 31, 1790.

Since 2019, the Mint has issued four new American Innovation dollars per year.

In my opinion, this series is one of the most fascinating and historically significant in modern U.S. coinage. One downside is the coins don’t circulate as pocket change. They’re like all of our dollar coins minted after 2011—produced only for numismatic sales, as opposed to being bought by the Federal Reserve to ship to banks and distribute as spending money. This restricts their potential as teaching tools, but what can you do? That’s just the reality of modern U.S. commerce. Dollar coins aren’t part of our day-to-day business.

Back to the definition of innovation: Something I argued during my time on the Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee is that “American innovation” isn’t always about physical invention, as the inaugural 2018 coin might suggest with its focus on machinery and patents. Rather, innovation can be intangible, like philosophical or religious innovation, or cultural, artistic, linguistic, musical, social, or other creative innovations. It’s not limited to the invention of products or scientific achievement. Examples of social innovations would be American Sign Language and jazz music. 

Image: Some American Innovations dollars showcase science, technology, and engineering —like Mississippi’s, depicting the first human lung transplant, while other coins in the series celebrate cultural innovations, like Ohio and the Underground Railroad. [Images courtesy U.S. Mint.]

Each state defines innovation on its own terms—its governor provides the coin’s themes to the Mint, and the Mint develops design portfolios.

So far the program is weighted toward physical inventions and scientific innovation. We’ve had the polio vaccine (Pennsylvania) and the light bulb (New Jersey), the Gerber variable scale (Connecticut), the telephone (Massachusetts), the Hubble space telescope (Maryland), the steel plow (Illinois), and many other inventions.

But we’ve also had a number of social innovations. Among them: Septima Clark’s activism for education and literacy as tools for civil rights (South Carolina); the nation’s first public institution of higher learning (North Carolina); the sport of snowboarding (Vermont); bluegrass music (Kentucky); and the Underground Railroad (Ohio).

Another member of the CCAC argued just as passionately that the dollar coins should focus purely on American innovations in technology. Donald Scarinci compared the program to South Africa’s “South African Inventions” coin series launched in 2016. That series does focus entirely on inventors and inventions, and has given the South African Mint the opportunity to publicize the nation’s breakwater technology (dolos), heart-transplant surgery, computed tomography (CT) scan, polymer putty, and retinal cryoprobe.

Steve, what are your thoughts on the American Innovation dollars?

Steve: Dennis, you are much more familiar with the designs on small-sized dollars than I am, for sure! Even living on the East Coast where I’m often in cities with major public transportation systems that still use dollar-sized coins, I rarely encounter the denomination except when looking at new products from the U.S. Mint. In visiting its website, it defines the program as follows: “Our American Innovation® $1 Coin Program symbolizes quintessentially American traits — the willingness to explore, discover, and create your own destiny.” That’s quite a broad directive. 

Image: Some American Innovations dollars showcase science, technology, and engineering —like Mississippi’s, depicting the first human lung transplant, while other coins in the series celebrate cultural innovations, like Ohio and the Underground Railroad. [Images courtesy U.S. Mint.]

In reviewing the legislation that established the program, it contains a recent “innovation” that helps facilitate good coin designs: the use of edge inscriptions for E PLURIBUS UNUM to crate space for design elements on the reverse that help convey the innovation celebrated on the coin. The legislation also places the date on the edge, which is reasonable for these numismatic products issued as single-year types. The Mint mark on the edge seems like it could make it hard to distinguish Uncirculated Philadelphia and Denver issues once they are in albums or holders that conceal the edge, however. 

The attempt to legislate good taste in coin design, beyond technical requirements, is more subjective. Perhaps expecting that some state governors may push boundaries, the legislation clearly states: “Because it is important that the Nation’s coinage and currency bear dignified designs of which the citizens of the United States can be proud, the Secretary shall not select any frivolous or inappropriate design for any $1 coin minted under this subsection.” Further limitations prohibit the use of head and shoulder portrait busts of individuals or the depiction of a living person. 

Be on the lookout for another installment of Collecting Friends next month or subscribe here and never miss a post! In the meantime, explore beautiful coins from the ANA's Edward C. Rochette Money Museum Virtual Exhibits.

About the Collecting Friends Blog

Hello! And welcome to the ANA’s blog series, “Collecting Friends.”

We decided to approach this much like a conversation between friends. One of us starts with a topic, then the other responds. Simple as that. Along those lines, we’ll keep the tone conversational as much as possible. 

We both write about coins professionally, and will keep our relative style guides in our writing. For Dennis, Publisher at Whitman Publishing, that means capitalizing “Proof” and italicizing Red Book and never saying anything bad about Ken Bressett, who’s awesome anyway. 

For Steve, who’s written with Coin World for 15 years, it means Winged Liberty Head dime instead of “Mercury” dime, and similar nuances and oddities. And, it means writing A Guide Book of United States Coins (better known as the “Red Book”). 

Both of us started collecting when we were little, introduced to coins by a chance encounter with an old coin that sparked our curiosity. One of Steve’s interests is coin valuation, and he gravitates towards the intersection of art and coins. Dennis enjoys medals and world coins, and studying modern U.S. coins in the context of older series, what came before.

We met in 2012 at the American Numismatic Association World’s Fair of Money in Philadelphia at an event hosted by the Austrian Mint where there was both a Ben Franklin and a Betsy Ross impersonator. We’ve become great friends in the past decade. We even were appointed together to sit on the Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee starting in 2016, but Steve resigned soon after he was appointed to accept a full-time job at the Treasury Department while Dennis was re-appointed in 2020.

We taught a course together on numismatic publishing and writing a few years ago at the Summer Seminar, and while life has gotten in the way of us teaching another class, we jumped at our friend Caleb’s suggestion that we write a column. We hope you enjoy it! 

About the American Numismatic Association

The American Numismatic Association is a nonprofit organization dedicated to educating and encouraging people to study and collect coins and related items. The Association serves collectors, the general public, and academic communities with an interest in numismatics.

The ANA helps all people discover and explore the world of money through its vast array of educational programs including its museum, library, publications, conventions and numismatic seminars.