Innovation Dollars (2018–2032)

A Dollar Series Designed from the Outset for Collectors

Public Law 115-197, the American Innovation $1 Coin Act, was signed July 20, 2018, authorizing the Secretary of the Treasury to mint dollar coins honoring significant innovations and pioneering efforts from each of the fifty states, the District of Columbia, and the five inhabited territories of the republic. The legislation specified that coins be issued in the order states ratified the Constitution or were admitted to the Union, with DC and the territories following all fifty states. Four coins per year were authorized for 2019 through 2032, with a single introductory coin in 2018, yielding a program of 57 total designs. The Presidential and Native American dollars had been struck only for collectors since 2012; the Innovation dollar was set up that way from the start, with every coin treated as a numismatic item and mintages set from the Mint's forecast of collector demand. No coins were shipped to Federal Reserve banks for distribution into commerce. The Eisenhower, Susan B. Anthony, Sacagawea, and Presidential dollars that came before the Innovation dollar had all failed to win wide use in everyday transactions.¹

One Obverse Design, With a Reverse for Each of 56 Jurisdictions

The common obverse, designed by Justin Kunz of the Mint's Artistic Infusion Program and sculpted by Mint sculptor-engraver Phebe Hemphill, depicts the Statue of Liberty in dramatic profile facing left, emerging from the coin's rim. The inscriptions IN GOD WE TRUST and $1 appear on the obverse; LIBERTY does not, the image of the Statue of Liberty being treated as a sufficient representation of the concept. Beginning with the 2019 issues, a stylized gear privy mark, representing industry and innovation, appears on the obverse of each coin; the 2018 introductory coin does not carry this mark. The edge carries the year, mintmark, E PLURIBUS UNUM, and 13 five-pointed stars, incused, in the same format established by the Presidential dollar. The obverse design and edge format are otherwise the same on every coin in the series from both Philadelphia and Denver, except that the 2026 issues set a Liberty Bell bearing the numerals 250 over the gear for the semiquincentennial.²

Each reverse design is unique to its state, DC, or territory and depicts an innovation, innovator, or group of innovators that the jurisdiction's governor or chief executive, in consultation with the Mint, proposes as emblematic. The Mint's design review process passes proposals through the Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee and the Commission of Fine Arts before submission to the Secretary of the Treasury for final selection. UNITED STATES OF AMERICA and the name of the jurisdiction are required reverse inscriptions. The reverses issued so far range from the Hubble Space Telescope to snowboarding to bluegrass music; the Act requires each subject to honor a significant innovation or pioneering effort from the jurisdiction, and it bars head-and-shoulders portraits, busts, and portraits of living persons.³

The 2018 Introductory Coin Honors the First U.S. Patent

The single 2018 introductory coin does not represent any specific state. Its reverse carries a representation of George Washington's signature as it appeared on the first United States patent, issued July 31, 1790, to inventor Samuel Hopkins for a process of making potash and pearl ash. The Hopkins patent was the first granted under the Patent Act of April 10, 1790, the statute through which Congress put into effect its power under Article I, Section 8 to promote the progress of science and useful arts by securing exclusive rights to inventors. By taking the first patent as its subject, instead of a single invention, inventor, or state, the introductory coin ties the series to the federal patent system itself and leaves particular achievements to the 56 jurisdictional coins that follow.⁴

Building the Set

A type set requires one coin. A complete set by design requires 57 coins: the 2018 introductory coin plus all 56 jurisdictional reverses issued 2019 through 2032. A complete set by date, mintmark, and finish is considerably larger, as each design released so far has been issued in Philadelphia uncirculated, Denver uncirculated, San Francisco Proof, and San Francisco Reverse Proof versions. Most issues sell for a few dollars in Mint State and somewhat more in Proof; there are no key dates in the conventional sense, because the Mint sets each mintage from its forecast of collector demand. The series is current and ongoing; by April 2026 the program had reached Wisconsin, admitted in 1848, and it is scheduled to end with the territories in 2032. The primary references for current mintage data and design details are the U.S. Mint's official program documentation and the current annual edition of R.S. Yeoman, A Guide Book of United States Coins, edited by Jeff Garrett (Whitman Publishing, updated annually).⁵