Gary's 20th Century Type Set
$1 ANTHONY (1979-99)

Owner Comments:

Still desiring to make a circulating dollar coin work after the failure of the Eisenhower Dollar, the US Mint started coining the much smaller Susan B Anthony Dollar in 1979. However, with a size similar to that of a quarter, the public confused the SBA Dollar with the Washington Quarter and rejected it. Consequently, minting of the SBA Dollar stopped after 1981 and resumed for one year in 1999 to meet the needs of vending machines before the Sacagawea Dollar replaced it in 2000. The original concept for a smaller dollar by designer Frank Gasparro was to feature a “Liberty Cap” design on the coin's obverse. However, due to political considerations, President Jimmy Carter chose to memorialize Susan B Anthony as the first non-idealized female depiction on our circulating coinage. Thus, the SBA Dollar became the fourth coin issued in the 20th century to memorialize a person who died in the 20th century. The obverse of this MS-68, 1999-D Susan B Anthony Dollar features a bust of civil rights and women’s suffrage leader, Susan B Anthony. Though she did not live to see it, Susan B Anthony’s tireless determination led to the passing of the 19th Amendment on August 18, 1920, giving women the right to vote. As a collector who loves classic designs, I would have loved to have had a “Liberty Cap” Dollar in 1979. Nevertheless, I am encouraged by the words of US Mint Director Edmund C Moy concerning the current Ultra High Relief St Gaudens Double Eagle, “I hope the world will look back and declare the 21st century the unsurpassed neo-renaissance of American coin and medal design”. It is most appropriate that the 1999 SBA Dollar should close out a 20th century marked by numismatic change and diversity. My hope for the 21st century is that the words of Edmund C Moy are a prophetic sign of things to come.