2022-D Ely S. Parker, NIFC

Denver's 1,400,000-piece run is the fourteenth Native American reverse and the eleventh year of Not Intended For Circulation distribution, the Mint-set-and-bag-only model that has governed the program since the December 2011 announcement. The reverse, designed by Donna Weaver and sculpted by Joseph F. Menna, depicts Ely Samuel Parker (1828 to 1895), Hasanoanda then Donehogawa of the Tonawanda Band of Seneca, seated and writing the surrender document at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865. Inscriptions read ELY S. PARKER, HA-SA-NO-AN-DA, DONEHOGAWA, and SENECA SACHEM, with UNITED STATES OF AMERICA and $1 anchoring the legend. Parker, a trained civil engineer and lawyer, served as Brigadier General Ulysses S. Grant's military secretary and drafted the surrender terms in his own hand at the McLean House the day Robert E. Lee laid down arms; four years later President Grant appointed him the first Native American Commissioner of Indian Affairs, a post he held from 1869 to 1871. Glenna Goodacre's Sacagawea portrait remains on the obverse with edge lettering carrying date, D mintmark, and E PLURIBUS UNUM.

Strike characteristics on a fresh-die 2022-D are clean, with the surrender-document scroll and the seated Parker figure rendering crisply, but late-die-state coins flatten the document edges and the central facial detail first. Bag-handling marks on the open obverse cheek and forehead remain the routine condition cap as on every NIFC-era issue, since the Denver coins ship in Mint-sealed twenty-five-coin rolls and one-hundred-coin bags rather than crossing commercial channels. The manganese-brass surface is softer than copper-nickel clad and shows fingerprint and spotting issues readily, which is the second factor worth checking before submission.

The 2022-D is a Regular classification piece. Population reports at the Professional Coin Grading Service and Numismatic Guaranty Company show abundant MS66 and ready MS67 supply, with MS68 the realistic upgrade ceiling on a search through original rolls. Original Mint-sealed rolls and bags are the most efficient acquisition path for raw collectors building a date-and-mint set; certified MS67 examples trade at modest premiums tied more to slab and label than to genuine scarcity. For the Native American $1 Coin Act of 2007, the 2012 NIFC transition, and the rotating-reverse program structure, see the Sacagawea Dollar series history.