Owner Comments:
In my Avians: The Dinosaurs Among Us Custom Set, I included a coin in a Collector's Society slab as I feel that it was a piece of NGC history. With my Babies set, I desired to do the same, so I included this 2004-S Sacagawea Dollar in a NGC 25th Anniversary Black Retro Slab.
The Sacagawea Dollar is a historic coin as it is the first U.S. coin struck for circulation which depicts an infant. The infant on this coin is Jean-Baptiste Charbonneau, the infant son of Sacagawea. While Jean-Baptiste would live for 61 years and go on to have a life filled with adventure, I want to focus on him as an infant for the purposes of this set.
Jean-Baptiste was born on February 11, 1805, during the Lewis and Clark Expedition. He was a very well-traveled baby for those times as he traveled from his birthplace in North Dakota all the way to the Pacific Ocean on his mother's back, which was the way that Shoshone women carried their infants in those times. Jean-Baptiste's presence served a very important purpose for the Expedition. The presence of an infant and his mother helped reassure people that the Lewis and Clark Expedition was a peaceful party with good intentions as a war party would not have an infant with them. Therefore, little Jean-Baptiste influenced the outcome of a major event in history as an infant just by being there.
As I said before, Jean-Baptiste had an interesting adult life as well, and I suggest reading about it. But I don't want to overshadow his earliest contribution to history by including that here. Jean-Baptiste also shows that even the smallest and newest among us can make history.