The United States Mint recently unveiled the unique design that will appear on the reverse of next year’s 2017-dated Native American Dollar Coin.
Chosen from 13 candidates, the winning design honours Sequoyah, who was the inventor of the written characters for the Cherokee language.
Native American Dollar Coins honour the important contributions made by tribes as well as individual Native Americans. The obverse design features Sacagawea while the reverse design changes each year. Previous design themes include:
- 2009: Three Sisters Agriculture;
- 2010: Great Tree of Peace and the Iroquois Confederacy;
- 2011: Great Wampanoag Nation;
- 2012: Trade Routes;
- 2013: Treaty with the Delawares;
- 2014: Native Hospitality Ensured the Success of the Lewis and Clark Expedition;
- 2015: Contributions of the Kahnawake Mohawk and Mohawk Akwesasne communities to “high iron” construction work; and
- 2016: Contributions of the Native American Code Talkers in the First World War and Second World War.
The U.S. Mint’s Native American Dollar Coins have been issued each year since 2009.
DESIGN DETAILS
Like the U.S. Mint’s Presidential Dollar Coins, the Native American Dollar Coins have a distinctive edge and are golden in colour. Each year, the unique reverse designs are selected by the Secretary of the Treasury after consulting with the U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, the Congressional Native American Caucus of the U.S. House of Representatives, the Commission of Fine Arts and the National Congress of American Indians, and after public review by the Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee.
The Native American Dollar Coins are composed in 88.5 per cent copper, six per cent zinc, 3.5 per cent manganese and two per cent nickel. They weigh 8.1 grams, have a diameter of 26.49 mm and a thickness of two mm.
For more information about the U.S. Mint’s Native American Dollar Coins, click here.