Episode 195
Susan B. Anthony dollar
Thu, 2017-Nov-16 00:40 UTC
Length - 3:25
Direct Link
Welcome to featured Wiki of the Day where we read the summary of the featured Wikipedia article every day.
The featured article for Thursday, 16 November 2017 is Susan B. Anthony dollar.
The Susan B. Anthony dollar is a United States dollar coin minted from 1979 to 1981, when the series was suspended due to poor public acceptance, and then again in 1999. Proposed as a smaller replacement for the cumbersome Eisenhower dollar, several shapes and compositions were tested, but all were opposed by the vending machine industry, a powerful lobby affecting coin legislation. Finally, a round planchet with an eleven-sided inner border was chosen for the smaller dollar.
The original design for the smaller dollar coin depicted an allegorical representation of Liberty on the obverse but organizations and individuals in Congress called for the coin to depict a real woman. Several proposals were submitted, and social reformer Susan B. Anthony was selected as the design subject. The reverse design of the Eisenhower dollar was retained. Both sides of the coin were designed by Frank Gasparro, the Chief Engraver of the United States Mint.
The Mint struck 500 million coins in anticipation of considerable public demand, but the Susan B. Anthony dollar was poorly received, in part because of confusion caused by its similarity in size and metallic composition to the quarter. Despite its poor reception, the coins eventually began seeing use in vending machines and mass transit systems, gradually depleting the surplus. In 1997, Congress passed a law authorizing the mintage of a new gold-colored one dollar coin depicting Sacagawea, but production could not begin quickly enough to meet demand. As a stopgap measure, until the new Sacagawea dollar coin could be issued, the Susan B. Anthony dollar was struck again in 1999 after an eighteen year hiatus; the series was retired the following year.
Special coins for sale to collectors were struck in proof finish through the run of the Susan B. Anthony dollar, and some minting variations are valuable to collectors. However, most circulation strikes remained in government stockpiles for several years after minting, so many of the coins are available in uncirculated grades, and the premium over face value is minimal.
This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 00:40 UTC on Thursday, 16 November 2017.
For the full current version of the article, go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susan_B._Anthony_dollar.
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