Coin History – The American Innovation Dollar Coin

Normally for my Coin History column, I look back at coins of the past. For this one however, I’m going to look forward to a new coin that is truly rolling out this year. The American Innovation Dollar Coin.

The new Dollar coin came about through legislation passed in 2018 and is set to run through the year 2032. In all, there will be 57 coins released in the program with the first one released on December 14, 2018. That coin, however, was an introductory coin fundamentally to show the coin off to the public and was never released for circulation.

Life of the American Innovation Dollar Coin Program began on June 20, 2018. Legislation for the program was added to a bill in the United States Senate from a earlier House of Representatives bill. The bill was returned to the House and was approved just seven days later on June 27, 2018. It became law on July 18, 2018 when it was signed by President Donald Trump. With the legislation authorizing the coin now in place, the United States Mint went to work on designing it.

Keeping with the gold tone of the Native American Dollar and the Presidential Dollar series, the American Innovation Dollar will also have a smooth edge too. E PLURIBUS UNUM will be on the edge along with the year and mint mark.

The series was introduced on December 14, 2018 with the release of a special introductory coin. That coin featured the Statue of Liberty on the Obverse while highlighting the singing of the first American patent, signed into law by George Washington, on the Reverse.

These 2018 coins were not released into general circulation. Rather, they were made available in rolls and bags from the United States Mint. There is also a special Proof version of this coin available from the Mint. 25-coin rolls from either the Philadelphia or Denver Mint start at $32.95 while 100-coin bags are $111.95. The special proof version is $6.95. 2019 is the year that the American Innovation Dollar program gets going in earnest. Uncirculated coins will be minted in Philadelphia and Denver while Proof coins will be struck in San Francisco.

From 2019 through to 2032, four new coins will be release each year. According to the Mint, these coins will be “celebrating innovations and innovators” from each of the fifty states, the District of Columbia and five United States Territories: Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, U.S. Virgin Island, and the Northern Mariana Islands. The Obverse for all of these coins will remain the same as the 2018 coins, depicting the Statue of Liberty. The Reverse of each coin will change based on the state or territory it is released for and the innovation it is celebrating.

In many ways, it means this new Dollar program will be similar to the 50 States Quarter Program, the America The Beautiful Quarter Program, and the Native American Dollar Series with a common Obverse and unique Reverse.

This year we will see coins for Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Georgia introduced. Here is the complete breakdown of each year and state we will see, in order, in the program. I will update this table and this article as new coins are released in the program so feel free to bookmark it for reference.

Year	State	Significance	Release Date
2018	Introductory Coin	First American Patent	December 14, 2018
2019	Delaware	Classifying The Stars	September 19, 2019
2019	Pennsylvania	Polio Vaccine	October 24, 2019
2019	New Jersey	The Edison Bulb	November 21, 2019
2019	Georgia	Trustees’ Garden	December 19, 2019
2020	Connecticut	Gerber Variable Scale	September 29, 2020
2020	Massachusetts	Telephone	October 29, 2020
2020	Maryland	Hubble Telescope	November 23, 2020
2020	South Carolina	Septima Clark	January 19, 2021
2021	New Hampshire	Home Video Game System	June 15, 2021
2021	Virginia	Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel	July 27, 2021
2021	New York	Erie Canal	August 31, 2021
2021	North Carolina	First Public University	October 12, 2021
2022	Rhode Island	Reliance Yacht	February 23, 2022
2022	Vermont	Snowboarding	April 26, 2022
2022	Kentucky	Bluegrass Music	June 28, 2022
2022	Tennessee	Tennessee Valley Authority	August 23, 2022
2023	Ohio	TBA	TBA
2023	Louisiana	TBA	TBA
2023	Indiana	TBA	TBA
2023	Mississippi	TBA	TBA
2024	Illinois	TBA	TBA
2024	Alabama	TBA	TBA
2024	Maine	TBA	TBA
2024	Missouri	TBA	TBA
2025	Arkansas	TBA	TBA
2025	Michigan	TBA	TBA
2025	Florida	TBA	TBA
2025	Texas	TBA	TBA
2026	Iowa	TBA	TBA
2026	Wisconsin	TBA	TBA
2026	California	TBA	TBA
2026	Minnesota	TBA	TBA
2027	Oregon	TBA	TBA
2027	Kansas	TBA	TBA
2027	West Virginia	TBA	TBA
2027	Nevada	TBA	TBA
2028	Nebraska	TBA	TBA
2028	Colorado	TBA	TBA
2028	North Dakota	TBA	TBA
2028	South Dakota	TBA	TBA
2029	Montana	TBA	TBA
2029	Washington	TBA	TBA
2029	Idaho	TBA	TBA
2029	Wyoming	TBA	TBA
2030	Utah	TBA	TBA
2030	Oklahoma	TBA	TBA
2030	New Mexico	TBA	TBA
2030	Arizona	TBA	TBA
2031	Alaska	TBA	TBA
2031	Hawaii	TBA	TBA
2031	District of Columbia	TBA	TBA
2031	Puerto Rico	TBA	TBA
2032	Guam	TBA	TBA
2032	American Samoa	TBA	TBA
2032	United States Virgin Islands	TBA	TBA
2032	Northern Mariana Islands	TBA	TBA

If you saw the June 2019 Mint Production article, you know that none of these coins have been struck yet. That means two things as far as the program is concerned. First, at least for 2019, you can expect very low mintage figures given that four unique designs have to be produced. Simply put, the Mint won’t have time to churn out millions upon millions of them.

Second, and equally relevant for collectors, they likely will not be released into general circulation. It comes down to the lack of need for them them in circulation given we have so many Presidential Dollar and Native American Dollars out there. And keep in mind, many of those series haven’t been released to general circulation either.