American Innovation Dollars 2018 to Date

The American Innovation $1 Coin Act, Public Law 115-197, was approved on July 20, 2018. It called for a golden dollar honoring an innovation, an innovator or a group of innovators from every state, the District of Columbia and the five territories, four designs a year over 14 years starting in 2019. The states come in the order they ratified the Constitution or joined the Union, followed by the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, the U.S. Virgin Islands and the Northern Mariana Islands, so the last coins are due in 2032.

The Treasury Secretary picks each state's subject after consulting its governor, and the Commission of Fine Arts and the Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee review the designs. The law also allowed an introductory coin in 2018, released on December 14, 2018, with George Washington's signature from the first U.S. patent.

None of these coins were made for circulation. Dollar coins have not been paid out since 2011, and the Mint sells American Innovation dollars only as collector products: rolls and bags of Philadelphia and Denver coins, and San Francisco proofs and reverse proofs in sets. The Native American dollar continues alongside, as the law requires. The program followed the Presidential dollars, and like them it uses the Statue of Liberty and an edge-lettered golden coin.

Every coin shares an obverse: the Statue of Liberty in profile with IN GOD WE TRUST and "$1", designed by Justin Kunz of the Artistic Infusion Program and sculpted by Phebe Hemphill. Each reverse names its state or territory. Where two names are given below, the first created the reverse and the second sculpted it.

2018

The introductory coin: Washington's signature on the first patent, granted in 1790 for a way of making potash (search), with stylized gears and an eagle on a shield, by Donna Weaver and Renata Gordon.

2019

Delaware (astronomer Annie Jump Cannon against a starry sky, by Donna Weaver and Joseph Menna), Pennsylvania (the poliovirus at three magnifications for the 1953 polio vaccine, by Richard Masters and Joseph Menna), New Jersey (an Edison light bulb, by Paul C. Balan and Phebe Hemphill) and Georgia (a hand planting seeds in the Trustees' Garden, by Emily Damstra and Michael Gaudioso).

2020

Connecticut (the Gerber Variable Scale, by Richard Masters and Renata Gordon), Massachusetts (an early telephone dial, by Emily Damstra and Eric David Custer), Maryland (the Hubble Space Telescope, by Joseph Menna) and South Carolina (educator Septima Clark walking with students, by Justin Kunz and Phebe Hemphill).

2021

New Hampshire (Ralph Baer's first home video game, by Christina Hess and Eric David Custer), Virginia (a cutaway of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel, by Matt Swaim and John P. McGraw), New York (a packet boat on the Erie Canal, by Ronald D. Sanders and Phebe Hemphill) and North Carolina (the first public university, by Ronald D. Sanders and Joseph Menna).

2022

Rhode Island (the yacht Reliance, by Dennis Friel and Phebe Hemphill), Vermont (a snowboarder, by Justin Kunz and Craig Campbell), Kentucky (a banjo for bluegrass music, by Christina Hess and Renata Gordon) and Tennessee (the Tennessee Valley Authority, by Matt Swaim and Joseph Menna).

2023

Ohio (clasped hands and a broken chain for the Underground Railroad, by Beth Zaiken and Stephen Layne), Louisiana (a Higgins boat with its ramp down, by Dennis Friel and John P. McGraw), Indiana (three generations of cars, by Ron Sanders and Phebe Hemphill) and Mississippi (the first human lung transplant, by Katelyn Arquette and Craig A. Campbell).

2024

Illinois (the steel plow, credited by the Mint to Beth Zaiken and Renata Gordon), Alabama (a Saturn V liftoff, by Craig A. Campbell), Maine (Dr. Bernard Lown and his direct current defibrillator, by Phebe Hemphill) and Missouri (George Washington Carver in his laboratory, by Eric David Custer).

2025

Arkansas (naval engineer Raye Montague and an Oliver Hazard Perry-class frigate, by Elana Hagler and Eric David Custer), Michigan (a 1930s assembly line, by Ron Sanders and John P. McGraw), Florida (a Space Shuttle launch, by Ron Sanders and Eric David Custer) and Texas (a spacewalk at the International Space Station, honoring Mission Control, by Ron Sanders and John P. McGraw).

2026

Iowa (Norman Borlaug with a sheaf of wheat, by Don Everhart and Eric David Custer), Wisconsin (the Cray-1 supercomputer from above, by Paul Romano and John P. McGraw), California (Steve Jobs before oak-covered hills, by Elana Hagler and Phebe Hemphill) and Minnesota (a 1940s truck with a mobile refrigeration unit, by Beth Zaiken and Joseph V. Noorigian).

Reverse. The subject and the state or territory name identify the design; there is no date on either face.

Privy mark. From 2019 a small gear sits on the obverse below IN GOD WE TRUST, and its shape changes slightly each year, so it dates the obverse. The 2018 coin has no privy mark. In 2026 the gear takes in a Liberty Bell with the number 250 for the Semiquincentennial.

Edge. The edge is stamped with the year, the mint mark and E PLURIBUS UNUM. Because the lettering can run either way up, PCGS labels coins Position A or Position B, as it does Presidential dollars (search).

Mint and finish. P and D coins are uncirculated, sold in 25-coin rolls and 100-coin bags. S coins are proofs, with mirror fields and frosted designs, or reverse proofs, with the finish swapped (search); both come from San Francisco in the Mint's proof and reverse proof sets.

Mintages. For 2021 through 2025, Wikipedia and USA Coin Book give between about 380,000 and 590,000 coins of each design at each of Philadelphia and Denver. For 2018 through 2020 they disagree: Wikipedia gives 2,143,925 Philadelphia introductory coins and USA Coin Book 862,475.

Edge lettering is the place to look first. It is added in a separate step after striking, and on the Presidential dollars that step produced coins with no lettering at all and coins lettered twice. NGC also lists Native American dollars of 2009 and 2010 with missing edge lettering. A coin without lettering has no date or mint mark, since both live on the edge.

Position A and Position B coins are not errors: the lettering simply ran one way or the other, and both are normal products of minting.

• Metal: manganese brass, 88.5% copper, 6% zinc, 3.5% manganese and 2% nickel overall, with golden outer layers over a copper core. There is no gold or silver.
• Weight: 8.1 grams
• Diameter: 26.49 mm
• Edge: lettered, with the year, mint mark and E PLURIBUS UNUM

The same alloy and size are used for the Sacagawea and Native American dollars and were used for the Presidential dollars. Proofs and reverse proofs are struck in the same metal.