Courtesy of Heritage Auctions , HA . com

By Eric Brothers

“ If at first you don ’ t succeed , try , try again .”

The above saying appears to have been a running theme of the US Mint vis-à-vis the one-dollar coin . However , no matter how hard they tried — and tried again — the dollar coin has always been an utter failure as a circulating medium , from 1794 to the present . That includes the Flowing

One of the 5,000 Sacajawea dollars that artistengraver Glenna Goodacre was paid for designing the obverse of the coin .

Hair dollar ( 1794 – 1795 ), Draped Bust dollar ( 1795 – 1803 ), Seated Liberty dollar ( 1840 – 1873 ), Morgan dollar ( 1878 – 1904 , 1921 ), Peace dollar ( 1921 – 1928 , 1934 – 1935 ), Eisenhower dollar ( 1971 – 1978 ), Susan B . Anthony dollar ( 1979 – 1981 , 1999 ) and the Sacajawea 1 dollar ( 2000 – 2001 ).

But something strange happened to one of those failed coins , something that had never happened before to an American dollar coin . It became the circulating medium of a foreign land : Ecuador .

Yet Another Dollar Coin ?

During the 1990s , the demand for dollar coins was growing . Vending machines , mass transit ticket machines and stamp vending machines continually upgraded to accept the Susan B . Anthony ( SBA ) dollars . ( See “ The ‘ Insanity ’ of the Susan B . Anthony Dollar ,” Financial History , Issue 147 , Fall 2023 .) However , as the supply of the SBA dollars was running out , in 1995 , legislation was proposed for a new design to revitalize the dollar coin . Senator Rod Grams ( R-Minnesota ) made the proposal , which also called for the elimination of the $ 1 bill . That bill was rejected .

The year 1997 saw several bills introduced in Congress that called for the resumption of striking of small dollar coins to match the vending machine demand . On July 24 , Representative

28 FINANCIAL HISTORY | Spring 2024 | www . MoAF . org