The United States Mint will open sales of the latest American Innovation Dollar later today. The New Hampshire dollar, honoring the invention of the first home video game console by Ralph Baer, will go on sale at the Mint’s website. The Mint will be offering rolls and bags of the coins to collectors.
The American Innovation $1 Coin representing New Hampshire recognizes the invention of the first home video game console by Ralph Baer.
In 1966, Ralph Baer began to investigate how to play games on a television. He and his team developed the “Brown Box,” a prototype for the first multi-player, multi-program video game system. This paved the way for all video game systems that followed. Baer is known today as “The Father of Video Games.”
United States Mint
The Mint will be selling a total of four products starting today, Here are the items, pricing, and links to each of them on the Mint’s site:
- 25-Coin Roll (Philadelphia) – $34.50
- 25-Coin Roll (Denver) – $34.50
- 100-Coin Bag (Philadelphia) – $117.50
- 100-Coin Bag (Denver) – $117.50
If you have signed up for the American Innovation Enrollment Program for bags or rolls, check your email this morning. You’ve likely already been notified that your order has been fulfilled. For those that haven’t enrolled, there is no production or mintage limit on the bags and rolls and they will be available throughout 2021.
The American Innovation 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.
You can read more about the coin and its history in this Coin History article.