2022-S Ely S. Parker Proof

San Francisco struck 863,886 cameo proof Sacagawea dollars in 2022, the fourteenth proof of the rotating Native American reverse program and a slight decline from 2021's 880,396. The coin shipped in the standard United States Mint Proof Set, the Silver Proof Set, and the dedicated Native American $1 Coin Proof Set. The reverse, designed by Donna Weaver and sculpted by Joseph F. Menna, depicts Ely Samuel Parker (1828 to 1895), Hasanoanda and later the Seneca sachem Donehogawa, seated at the McLean House parlor table 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, anchored by UNITED STATES OF AMERICA and $1. Parker drafted the surrender terms in his own handwriting that day as Grant's military secretary, and four years later became the first Native American Commissioner of Indian Affairs under President Grant, holding the post from 1869 to 1871. Goodacre's Sacagawea portrait remains on the obverse, with edge lettering placing date, S mintmark, and E PLURIBUS UNUM.

Strike characteristics on the 2022-S follow the pattern proof collectors expect from the post-2011 program. Cameo, the visual contrast between mirrored fields and frosted devices, appears on essentially every certified example, and Deep Cameo (DCAM, where the frost is dense enough to make the mirror fields read as black glass) carries the bulk of the higher-grade certified population. Parker's seated figure and the surrender-scroll detail frost cleanly when dies are fresh; late-die-state proofs show first softening on the scroll edges and facial relief. Hairlines from improper handling are the standard deduction since the manganese-brass alloy is softer than the silver and copper-nickel proofs more commonly handled.

The 2022-S proof is a Regular classification entry. Original sealed Mint Proof Sets, Silver Proof Sets, and Native American $1 Coin Proof Sets carry the lowest premium over face plus packaging cost. Certified PR69 DCAM examples trade for modest sums, with PR70 DCAM the realistic upgrade target rather than a scarcity given the 863,886 mintage. The figure sits at the lower end of the program's 2020-onward proof band, but not low enough to anchor scarcity claims on its own. 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.