Susan B. Anthony Dollars (1979–1999)

The Design Gasparro Preferred Was Rejected Before the First Coin Was Struck

By 1977 a Treasury-sponsored study had documented that the Eisenhower dollar was too large and heavy for everyday commerce and recommended a smaller dollar. Congress authorized a new small-diameter dollar coin by the Act of October 10, 1978. Chief Engraver Frank Gasparro prepared an allegorical Liberty head for the obverse, a design with the flowing-hair character of early coin traditions, and it was well regarded within the Mint. J. Carter Brown, chairman of the Commission of Fine Arts, praised it, but in 1978 it was set aside. Organizations and members of Congress pushed instead for the coin to depict a real woman, and Susan B. Anthony, the women's suffrage leader who died in 1906, was selected. Gasparro worked primarily from two surviving photographs of Anthony, one taken at about age 28 and one in old age, aiming to depict her at approximately 50 years of age in a high-necked blouse with her hair pulled back, though no photographs of her at that period are known to exist. Anthony's grand-niece objected that his first plaster model, based on the photograph of Anthony at 28, made her look too pretty, and Gasparro toughened the features for the final version. The resulting portrait shows a recognizable historical person, and the Anthony dollar was the first circulating coin of the republic to depict a named historical woman.¹

The reverse was adapted directly from Gasparro's Eisenhower dollar: the same Apollo 11 mission patch imagery of an eagle descending toward the lunar surface with an olive branch, Earth visible above, E PLURIBUS UNUM at top center, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA arcing above, ONE DOLLAR below. The obverse carries LIBERTY at the top, the date at the bottom, IN GOD WE TRUST to the right of the portrait, thirteen stars in all divided to either side of Anthony's head, and the P, D, or S mintmark above the portrait's right shoulder. The coin is 26.5 millimeters in diameter, just 2.2 millimeters larger than the Washington quarter. It is the same copper-nickel clad composition, the same silvery color, and has the same reeded edge.²

The Quarter Problem Was Identified Before Production and Ignored

The near-identity in size, color, and edge between the new dollar and the quarter was not a surprise discovered after the coin entered commerce. Before production began, experts had recommended a color and an edge different from the quarter's. The eleven-sided inner border visible on the coin's face, kept after vending-industry objections ended plans for an eleven-sided coin, was intended to aid identification by sight and by feel, especially for the visually impaired, but the outer edge remained round and reeded like the quarter. In everyday transactions the coins were routinely confused. Cashiers received them as quarters or gave them as quarters in change. The public associated the coin with the difficulties of the Carter administration, which added political weight to the practical objections, and within months of the July 1979 release it was clear the experiment had failed. Numismatic writers have often compared the Anthony dollar to the twenty-cent piece of 1875 to 1878, which was also too close in size to the quarter and was struck for circulation only in 1875 and 1876.³

Production continued in 1979 and 1980 at substantial mintages across Philadelphia, Denver, and San Francisco. By 1980, Philadelphia's mintage had fallen from 360 million coins to 27 million. The 1981 coins, at all three mints, were struck only for inclusion in collector Mint Sets and Proof Sets rather than for circulation, a formal acknowledgment that the coin was not going to circulate. At the close of initial production the Treasury held a surplus of approximately 520 million unsold coins in Federal Reserve vaults, a quantity that would take nearly two decades to deplete through the narrow channels where the coin actually found use.⁴

The Wide Rim Variety and the Mintmark Types Are the Collecting Focus of the Series

The 1979-P Wide Rim is the key business strike variety of the series. During 1979, after a large number of coins had already been struck ahead of the July release, the Mint widened the obverse rim, bringing the date noticeably closer to the coin's edge; relatively few of these Wide Rim coins were struck, and they are a small fraction of that year's Philadelphia production. The variety is identifiable at a glance by the compressed gap between the date and the rim. In circulated and lower Uncirculated grades it commands a modest premium; in Gem (Mint State 65 or finer) and above the premium becomes substantial, as few Wide Rim examples were saved in high condition from the brief window in which they were struck.⁵

The San Francisco Proof issues yield the series' most significant mintmark varieties. The 1979-S Proof was struck with two different mintmark punches: the Type 1 has a filled, indistinct S that reads more as a blob than a letter; the Type 2, from a replacement punch introduced later in 1979, carries a sharply defined, clear S. Most of the 1979-S Proofs are Type 1. The same distinction applies to 1981-S Proofs, where the Type 2 is substantially scarcer than the Type 1, representing the series' most sought-after Proof variety. For any collector assembling a comprehensive SBA set by variety the 1981-S Type 2 is the one that requires the most patience.⁶

The 1999 Revival Was Driven by Transit Systems, Not by Public Demand

The 520 million surplus coins placed in government storage in 1981 did not sit idle. Post offices used the Anthony dollar in stamp vending machines, and metropolitan transit systems in several cities adopted the coin for fare payment, using up the stockpile at a rate that depleted it by the late 1990s. When the Treasury recognized that supply was falling short of the vending and transit demand that had actually materialized for the coin, and the new golden dollar Congress had authorized in December 1997, which became the Sacagawea dollar, could not be ready before 2000, the Anthony dollar was struck again as a stopgap. In total, 41,368,000 coins dated 1999 were produced for circulation: 29,592,000 at Philadelphia and 11,776,000 at Denver. The Philadelphia Mint also struck Proof versions for individual sale to collectors. No 1999-S coins were produced. The Anthony design was retired in 2000 when Sacagawea dollar production began, and the series ended without public ceremony or collector campaign.⁷

Building the Set

A type set requires one coin. A complete variety set of all major business strike and Proof issues runs to 18 entries: the 1979-P in Narrow and Wide Rim, the 1979-D and 1979-S; the 1979-S Proof in Type 1 and Type 2; the 1980-P, 1980-D, 1980-S, and 1980-S Proof; the 1981-P, 1981-D, and 1981-S; the 1981-S Proof in Type 1 and Type 2; and the 1999-P, 1999-D, and 1999-P Proof. The 1979-P Wide Rim, 1979-S Type 2, and 1981-S Type 2 are the entries a collector will have to hunt for. The 1981 business strikes from all three mints are NIFC (not intended for circulation) issues, available in Mint Sets and worth a moderate premium in high grades. Common dates in circulated condition are worth face value; most uncirculated examples and regular Proofs retail for under $20, and many for under $10. The primary specialist reference is Bowers, Q. David, A Guide Book of Modern United States Dollar Coins (Atlanta: Whitman Publishing, 2016).⁸