2015-D Mohawk Iron Workers, NIFC

Denver's 2015 Sacagawea is the seventh annual Native American reverse and the fourth year of the Not Intended For Circulation era introduced in 2012. Ronald D. Sanders designed the reverse and Phebe Hemphill sculpted it: a Mohawk ironworker walking a steel beam high above the city, rivet bag at his hip, with another beam being swung into place behind him. The inscription MOHAWK IRON WORKERS anchors the design to the Kahnawake and Akwesasne Mohawk crews who built much of mid-century New York, including the Empire State Building, the Chrysler Building, the George Washington Bridge, and the original World Trade Center towers. Glenna Goodacre's Sacagawea portrait stays on the obverse, with date, D mintmark, and E PLURIBUS UNUM on the incused edge lettering used since 2009.

The 2,800,000-piece Denver run was struck for collector channels only: Mint bags, two-roll sets, and Mint Sets. None entered Federal Reserve circulation, which is the structural reality of every NIFC year and the reason high-grade survival rates run far above what the modest mintage figure would suggest for a circulating coin. Strike quality on the Mohawk reverse is generally clean when dies are fresh, but the fine vertical hatching on the structural steel and the rivet detail on the worker's belt are the first elements to soften as die life advances. Bag handling marks on Sacagawea's open obverse cheek and forehead remain the routine condition cap on Mint State 67 and 68 examples.

The 2015-D is a Regular classification piece, abundant in Mint State 65 through 67 from the original Mint product packaging. Population reports at the Professional Coin Grading Service and the Numismatic Guaranty Company show ample MS66, ready availability in MS67, and a thinning supply at MS68 that is the realistic high-grade ceiling for raw rolls. For Native American $1 program collectors building a one-each design set, paying TPG fees on a 2015-D rarely makes economic sense unless the example grades MS68 or carries a strong Cameo strike from a polished die pair. For program authority, the Native American $1 Coin Act of 2007, and the 2012 NIFC transition, see the Sacagawea Dollar series history.