Susan B Anthony Dollar

The Susan B. Anthony Dollar was the first time a woman appeared on a circulating United States coin.

Specifications

 * Designer: Frank Gasparro
 * Obverse Design:
 * Reverse Design:
 * Edge: Reeded
 * Weight: 8.1 grams
 * Diameter: 26.50 millimeters
 * Composition:  Outer layers, (±75% Copper) (±25% Nickel), Center (100% Copper)
 * Dates Minted: 1978-1999

Background
Someday, a leading psychologist may weigh in on one of the perplexing questions of our time: if the American public was constantly confusing the Susan B. Anthony dollar with the roughly similar-sized quarter, how come they weren’t also constantly confusing the $20 bill with the identical-sized $1 bill?

Yet that is the stated reason for the failure of the Susan B. Anthony dollar: it looked and felt too much like the quarter coin. As a result, the Susan B. Anthony was one of the biggest coin busts of all time for the U.S. Mint, second only perhaps to the Twenty-Cent Piece of 1875-78 (which was ALSO often confused with the quarter coin)!

Ironically, in the years leading up to the creation of the Susan B. Anthony dollar coin, the powers-that-be were determined to create a dollar coin that would NOT be rejected due to size! But by eliminating one size problem, they created another. You see, a few years earlier, the U.S. Mint had given up on its previous dollar coin, the Eisenhower dollar. Struck from 1971 through 1978, the Eisenhower dollar was initially popular as a curiosity (our nation’s first dollar coin since 1935), but soon, the public saw it as a bland-looking coin, and even worse, too large and bulky to be a convenience. A few big and heavy “Ike dollars” simply weighed down the pocket quite a bit.

THIS time, U.S. Treasury and Mint officials decided, they would create a much smaller, lighter dollar coin. THIS dollar coin would be much more convenient to carry around, thus, the American public would finally accept a dollar coin for circulation – hopefully, for the first time in history! But early on, there must have been SOME reservations about the size of the new proposed dollar coin being so close to that of the quarter. No problem– the new dollar coin, by virtue of its new design (yet to be decided) and innovative eleven-sided rim border on the obverse and reverse (never before used on a U.S. coin), would easily be distinguished from the quarter.

History
In 1977, various designs for the new dollar coin were proposed, one depicted Martha Washington on the obverse, another depicted a striking flowing-hair bust of Miss Liberty (many collectors today remember this pattern piece and weep that it was not used). But this was the era of the women’s movement, of the push for an Equal Rights Amendment for women. There was a big push from women’s rights lobbyists for a noted woman to be on the face of the new dollar coin.

In the end, it was officially legislated, in July of 1978, that Susan B. Anthony, the 19th century leader of the women’s suffrage movement in the United States, would be the new face of America’s new dollar coin.

In 1978, engraver Frank Gasparro designed the new dollar coin. The obverse featured a rather stern-faced bust of Susan B. Anthony surrounded by stars. The reverse featured the same Apollo 11-inspired “eagle has landed” design used on the reverse of the previous Eisenhower dollar. And true to the initial proposals, the new dollar coin was just 26.5 mm. in diameter, much smaller than the 38.5 mm. Eisenhower dollar of previous years. Also, the new coin did indeed feature an eleven-sided rim border on the obverse and reverse. The coin was made of copper-nickel.

The new coin was an instant... non-success. At once the American public complained about the not-very-eye-appealing bust of Susan B. Anthony. To be fair to engraver Frank Gasparro, he could only work with the historical personage he was given. But it was not so much the unattractive design that doomed the Susan B. Anthony dollar to failure: it was the size AND the coin’s edge! Yes, with the U.S. quarter being 24.3 mm. in size, and the new Susan B. dollar being just a bit larger at 26.5 mm., many U.S. citizens felt the two coins were too close in size. Also not to be discounted is the color of the coins– both the quarter and the new dollar were gleaming white when brand new, perhaps blinding the user to the distinctive designs of each coin. But the final nail in the coffin for the Susan B. Anthony dollar was the edge: like the quarter, it had a reeded edge, so it even FELT like a quarter when you were fishing around in your pocket through your change.

So apparently, American citizens, right and left, were paying for 50-cent candy bars with two Susan B. Anthony dollars! Or cashiers, when breaking dollar bills down into four quarter coins, were handing their customers four dollar coins instead! Apparently. The question is this: was the American public truly baffled and inconvenienced by the new dollar coin, or were they just simply too lazy and pampered to take the trouble and look at their small change? You decide.

Whatever the reason, the coin was widely rejected, and was struck for circulation only in 1979 and 1980. In 1981, Susan B. Anthony dollars were only struck for mint and proof sets, not for circulation. After 1981, the Susan B. Anthony dollar was taken to the back of the barn and put out of its misery for good– or at least that’s what most people THOUGHT!

For years, huge stockpiles of unused and unwanted 1979-81 Susan B. Anthony dollars sat in mint and bank storage houses. It was believed they would still be there, centuries later! The U.S. Mint would not destroy them– as long as they existed, they counted as “money” to be counted on the books, since their face value exceeded the amount of money used to coin them!

Then, the unexpected happened. Over the years, the Susan B. Anthony dollar stockpiles started to diminish.. and diminish. It seems, especially, that the big city transit systems needed the Susan B. coins for their vending machines! By the late 1990's it became clear to the U.S. Treasury that demand for the dollar coin was soon going to exceed supply! But the Treasury officials were in a tricky situation, because around 1998, when the Susan B. Anthony dollar shortage problem was becoming acute, a NEW dollar coin was in the works, but it would not be ready for another couple of years. Postal and transit authorities, meanwhile, were clamoring for dollar coins (what Treasury officials would have given for that demand back in 1979 and 1980)!

What to do? This: the old Susan B. Anthony dollar dies were brought out of retirement in the Fall of 1999! So for a few months at the end of 1999, Susan B. Anthony dollars were struck for circulation once again– for the first time in 19 years! That’s a long slumber, perhaps the longest ever for a U.S. circulation coin! But when the new GOLD-colored dollar coin appeared in 2000, the Sacagawea dollar, the Susan B. Anthony dollar was TRULY retired for good.

Collecting
When it comes to retail value, it’s not even worth talking about unless your Susan B. Anthony is in at least brilliant uncirculated condition. Even then, due to low collector demand (and the many millions minted) prices are low. The 1979-P,D and S, as well as the 1980-P,D, and S all retail just $2 in MS-63. And even with a brief minting period in the Fall of 1999, the 1999-P and D both retail just under $2 in MS-63. Still, I like the potential of the 1999 Susan B. Anthony dollars --one, they were minted just for a few months (albeit in the millions), two, they are the last dollar coins of the 20th century, and three, many folks simply forget that they were even struck due to all the hype over the new Sacagawea dollar of 2000.

There are a few costly varieties in the Susan B. Anthony series. The 1979-P “near date” retails $12 in MS-63. The 1979-S and 19891-S Proof Type 1 coins retail $8, while the 1981-S Proof Type II retails $230! The Type II pieces have clearer mintmarks than the Type I pieces.

Mints

 * Philadelphia Mint (No mintmark)
 * Denver Mint (D mintmark)
 * San Francisco Mint (S mintmark)