2015-S Mohawk Iron Workers Proof

San Francisco's 2015 proof carries the Mohawk Iron Workers reverse, the annual Native American design honoring the Kahnawake and Akwesasne Mohawk crews who built much of New York's twentieth-century high-steel skyline. Ronald D. Sanders designed the scene and Phebe Hemphill sculpted it: a Mohawk ironworker connecting beams atop a high-rise frame, with the inscription MOHAWK IRON WORKERS along the lower field. San Francisco struck the proof issue at 1,180,681 pieces, distributed through the standard Proof Set, the Silver Proof Set, and the dedicated Native American $1 Coin Proof Set. Glenna Goodacre's Sacagawea portrait remains on the obverse, with date, S mintmark, and E PLURIBUS UNUM rendered cleanly into the incused edge lettering used since 2009.

Proof execution is the standard San Francisco template for the Native American series: deeply mirrored fields with frosted devices, the contrast collectors call Cameo, and on early die strikes the heavier frost that earns the Deep Cameo (DCAM) designation from the Professional Coin Grading Service or the Ultra Cameo (UCAM) designation from the Numismatic Guaranty Company. The Mohawk reverse rewards strong frost: the rivet detail on the worker's belt, the cross-bracing in the background tower, and the textured steel beam all bloom under proper die preparation. Dies polished too aggressively can strip frost from the worker's helmet rim and the upper torso first, dropping a candidate from DCAM to plain Cameo at certification.

The 2015-S Mohawk Iron Workers proof is a regular Native American $1 proof entry rather than a key-date piece, and the broad mintage along with proof-only distribution puts it well within reach of date-set collectors at modest cost. Proof 69 Deep Cameo holds population at both major grading services run thick, and Proof 70 DCAM, while genuinely scarce against the proof mintage, trades at a fraction of what comparable late-twentieth-century proof Sacagawea dollars command. For original-set collectors, the 2015 U.S. Mint Proof Set or Silver Proof Set housing remains the cleanest acquisition path. For the Native American $1 Coin Act of 2007 and the rotating-reverse program structure, see the Sacagawea Dollar series history.