2026-D Wisconsin

Denver struck the 2026 Wisconsin American Innovation Dollar in the second slot of the year's four-state release, tied to Wisconsin's May 29, 1848 admission as the thirtieth state. Per-design mintages had not been published at writing; the Mint released circulation rolls and bags on April 7, 2026. The reverse, designed by Artistic Infusion Program designer Paul Romano and sculpted by Mint Medallic Artist John P. McGraw, is a stylized aerial view of the Cray-1 supercomputer rendered so the cabinet outline reads as the letter C, doubling as a cue for "Cray" and "computer." Inscriptions read UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, WISCONSIN, and CRAY-1 SUPERCOMPUTER. The 2026 obverse continues the Justin Kunz Statue of Liberty sculpted by Phebe Hemphill, with a Liberty Bell privy mark inscribed 250 added across all 2026 issues to mark the Semiquincentennial.

The Cray-1 was built in Chippewa Falls by Cray Research, the company Seymour Cray founded in 1972 after leaving Control Data Corporation. Serial number one shipped to Los Alamos National Laboratory in 1976 at roughly 160 megaflops, fast enough to hold the world's-fastest commercial computer title through 1982. The cabinet's curve was a packaging answer to a physics problem: shorter wires meant faster signals, and the cylinder shape cut internal paths to about four feet. Inspection on the Denver issue centers on the cabinet curve, the board-slot grid inside the C, and the rim text. Manganese-brass clad takes fingerprints easily, so handled examples almost always show streaky toning across the background.

The 2026-D is a common-date for set assembly with no per-design figure published yet. It moves at small premiums over face inside original Mint rolls, certifies cheaply at MS66 and MS67, and like every Innovation Dollar through 2025 thins out at the MS68 and MS68+ ceiling where the prize is condition rather than mintage. Recommended raw inside an original Denver roll for date-set assembly and certified MS68 or higher for registry builders working the program toward its scheduled 2032 close. The one-year Liberty Bell 250 privy gives the 2026 Wisconsin coin a second collecting angle independent of the Cray-1 reverse. For the state-by-state rotation and program scope, see the American Innovation Dollar series history.